Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the last several years I did a 52 book challenge I found online. I liked the task of finding books for all the prompts. I think my only goal for 2025 will be to read the books I already own. My bookshelves are overflowing!

I feel like a book a week will stop me from reading a longer book and I’ll pick up more shorter books. I’ll probably do about 40 book goal so it’s pretty much the same.

I wrote above that I am going to do an hours goal and that’s exactly why- I don’t want to get focused on hitting an arbitrary number because I might pass up great long books to hit that goal.

Anonymous wrote:For the last several years I did a 52 book challenge I found online. I liked the task of finding books for all the prompts. I think my only goal for 2025 will be to read the books I already own. My bookshelves are overflowing!

I feel like a book a week will stop me from reading a longer book and I’ll pick up more shorter books. I’ll probably do about 40 book goal so it’s pretty much the same.

I let the theme reveal itself along the way. One year I started the year by reading a novel about women in orthodox Jewish communities. Then I read everything by that author and still wanted more of that part of the universe, so I spent 3 months reading novels by or about orthodox Jewish women.

Another year I was watching the Australian Open and happened to see a recommendation for a novel about tennis players. I wanted to bottle up that summery tennis tournament feeling through a dark, nasty winter, and was chasing down out of print novels about tennis by the end of that jag (there are not a lot of readily available tennis novels!).

I also try to read one “missed classic” per year. It started when I finally picked up Sister Carrie, which I had because I’d bought it for a Victorian novel class I dropped and never read it.

Anonymous wrote:For the last several years I did a 52 book challenge I found online. I liked the task of finding books for all the prompts. I think my only goal for 2025 will be to read the books I already own. My bookshelves are overflowing!

Yes! Mine is also to read what I own.

I like to start the year with good intentions but not a structured plan. And what usually happens is I voraciously get through about 10-15 books very quickly and then run into road blocks in the next 1-3 books which remain unfinished and that always derails the pace.

These were my goal for 2024:
-Read at least 24 books
-read one classic
-read a long book
-read a book I own that I haven’t read yet
-read a book that has been on my To Read list for a LONG time
-Read at least 1 non fiction book
-Read at least 1 book published in 2024

I might remove one of those goals for 2025 and add in read a NYT best books of the 21st century.

This year I’m tempted to set an hours goal rather than a # of books. Although there are a ton of books I want to read, I don’t set goals using titles.

200 goal
reading women authors
at least a few BIPOC authors each month

I set that goal during the pandemic and have done it every year since. It works for me!

For the last several years I did a 52 book challenge I found online. I liked the task of finding books for all the prompts. I think my only goal for 2025 will be to read the books I already own. My bookshelves are overflowing!

Anonymous wrote:I set a number goal on the Good Reads challenge. Both audio and books count for me. I usually read by whim or what is available at the library.

+1 exact same

I have made the following list from the NYT Notable Books of 2024 list:

James
The Book of Love
Headshot
The Mighty Red
Rakesfall
Rejection
Shred Sisters
Whale Fall
The Women
The Black Utopians
Madness
No One Gets to Fall Apart
The Message

I also set a Goodreads goal. I don't always meet my goal, but I still leave it as is. I do adjust up and down depending on how much I have going on.

This year was 36. I've read 36, and I'm in the middle of 3.

I don't plan genre. I read for pleasure and whatever I pull from my shelf or when my holds come in on Libby.

I set a number goal - 52 books for a book a week. I don't always meet my goal but this year I did. I will try again for 2025 too.

I set a number goal on the Good Reads challenge. Both audio and books count for me. I usually read by whim or what is available at the library.

Does anyone set goals at the beginning of the year for their reading? I always like thinking about these.

Do you set a number goal? Pick a theme (like authors from a specific country, an era, a genre to explore)? Pick a "project book" (like a long classic)?

Or do you simply go with your whims?