2025 Reading Recap + 2026 Reading Goal
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! It’s finally time to start wrapping up 2025 and start thinking about 2026 goals. For me next year is going to look a lot different, so let’s get into it!
This year, my goal was to read 125 books. My biggest goal yet, and I was able to read a total of 130. I’m super proud of exceeding this goal because of how many life changes I went through. I planned a wedding and got a new job. It’s truly been a whirlwind of a year, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Out of the 130 books I read 21 were five star reads. I felt like I was either on a roll with books. Like it would be one banger after another, or the complete opposite where it felt like dud after dud. I’m not surprised by the low number of 5s. I felt like a lot of books fell short for me this year.
I found two new authors who I’ve become obsessed with – Stephen King and Taylor Jenkins Reid. After reading Atmosphere, Reid is now an auto-buy author for me. There’s nothing this woman could put out that I wouldn’t want to read. I still need to catch up on her backlog, but my god, Malibu Raising, Carrie Soto is Back, Daisy Jones and the Six were SO good.
Atmosphere truly changed everything for me. I think about this book daily. I knew as soon as I heard the book title that TJR was going to deliver, and she absolutely did. I cannot recommend it enough.
*Side note: I highly recommend reading Daisy Jones and the Six and then watching the limited series on Amazon Prime right after. Truly a transcendent experience. I still think about it months later.
For Stephen King – this was always an author I wanted to explore. A co-worker recommended Pet Semetary, and then I was never the same again. It was such a good book to start out with; one of King’s best.
Then I went on to read The Outsider and The Mist which were both good too. I want to explore more of his work, especially the more well-known novels like The Shinning, Carrie, It, Fairytale, etc.
Next year, I want to be more book oriented than goal oriented, and what I mean by that is, I want to focus more on a short list of specific books that I’ve always been wanting to read. Right now, I have list of about 8-10 books. I’m thinking of making my list a total of 12 books and reading at least one of those a month.
This may sound bad, but I don’t want to push myself to a higher reading goal than 125. I feel like the next level up would be 150. I would love to be able to read 150 books a year, but I’ve found myself enjoying the books less and less the closer I got to my goal. It became more about completing the goal than enjoying the actual book. I don’t want that to become my reading habit. I don’t want to read just to hit a goal; I want to remember and enjoy the book I’m reading.
I was worried that maybe I would fall out of love with reading; I was worried that maybe reading wouldn’t be my thing anymore, and honestly without reading I don’t know what to do. It’s such a big part of who I am. I’ve now come to the realization that I don’t think that’s going to happen. I will always love reading and will always have a book nearby. Will I continue to read as much? Probably not. I don’t think it’s a realistic goal to maintain.
My goal books for 2026 are:
• It by Stephen King
• Fairytale by Stephen King
- If You Like it Darker by Stephen King
- The Shining by Stephen King
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Beartown by Frederick Backman
• Wedding People by Alison Espach
• Paradiso by Dante
• Broken Country by Clase Leslie Hall
- One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Possible Additions:
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Duke and I by Julia Quinn • Carrie by Stephen King
Overall, I would like to really focus on my book selections going forward and make it my main focus in 2026. I have a never ending TBR that makes this perfect.
Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next Wednesday for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)