My goal for 2025 was to read 32 book. According to my list I read 38, but because 11 of them were children’s picture books, it would be fairer to say that I only read 27. Sigh. It’s not as much as I’d hoped, but it’s also not nothing. And don’t get me wrong about the picture books. I love them. They’re just not what I’d intended to fill my list with.
On the plus side, here are some types of books that I clearly enjoyed filling my 2025 reading list with.
- Good mysteries: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Sad but well-written speculative fiction: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Fictional memoirs of intrepid women explorers: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
- Nonfictional memoirs and musings: Walking: One Step at a Time by Erling Kagge and Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned by Alan Alda
- Good short story collections: Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik
- Super kind and inclusive sci-fi: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
- Super kind and inclusive romance: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
- Classic children’s literature: Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary, and Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson
- Rereads: City of Sorcery and Stormqueen by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
And here are some things I encountered in 2025 that I would rather avoid in the future: books with totally unlikable characters, books with awesome premises that ultimately don’t follow their own internal logic and consequently break your heart, and books that draaaaaaag.
My other reading goals for 2025 were to read more poetry (oops!), to finish at least 16 books from the BBC’s Top 100 Children’s Books list (my total was 13–not bad!), and to give away more books (there’s a big box of donations in the trunk of my car, just waiting to be dropped off).
Overall I did pretty well with my reading goals, and I will aim for the same ones this year. The only goal I truly failed on last year–reading more poetry–is not a hard goal. I have the wish. I just need to find the will. I hope this year will finally be the year.
Wishing everyone a wonderful year of reading in 2026!