With 2024 out the door and those goals completed (or not), it’s now time to make a new set of bookish goals in 2025. Most of these are the same as last year, but it’s a good way to hold myself accountable. I don’t really do reading challenges anymore, so there’s none of that here. Rather, my goals focus more on tracking reading and spending and motivating myself to read my physical backlog.
Read 52 Books
This is the same reading goal I set for the past three years. Again, I don’t want to stress myself out by setting a higher goal. Fifty-two books is one book per week, which I think is very respectable for myself. If I read more, then great!
Read Throne of Glass
Throne of Glass is is the only SJM series I haven’t read. It’s finally time.
Read Arthurian Books
I have a relatively large backlog of Arthurian books that I want to read but never make time for. In an effort to change that, I want to start with one of the classics, perhaps THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. So I’ll start small and try for 30 minutes per week.
Track My Reading
I tracked my reading for the last two years and I intend to continue this in 2025. I use Reader Voracious’s Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet Template. (But I upgraded to the Elite version in 2024.) It was a great tool to keep track of so many different things. If you’re comfortable tweaking the spreadsheet code to better suit your preferences, you can even do that, too (I did).
Track My Spending
Reader Voracious’s spreadsheet also allows one to also track spending. I stuck with it last year through about September. It is a little annoying to remember to input that information. But, at the same time, it helped me realize that I spend a lot on books, yet my reading pace can’t keep up with it.
Spend Less
On a similar note, I want to spend less on books. I really don’t have much reason to buy new books when I scarcely read them as soon as I buy them. Currently, I’m subscribed to three book subscriptions, which quickly adds up (if I don’t use my skips). Moreover, with vendors on Pangobooks and eBay, why spend full price (or so I tell myself)? Plus there’s always my local library.
#BeatTheBacklog
Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog in 2022 to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. I use this as a way to motivate myself to read my physical books. While I still didn’t do great in 2024, I did better than in 2023. I used keep track of my backlog reads here, but it’s very much out of date. The underlying goal is this will hopefully help me cull any books that I likely won’t reread.
Series Completion Challenge
I started this last year to motivate myself to finish series I’d started. I made pretty good progress in 2024. You can check out the Series Completion Challenge here, though I need to update it for 2025.
Request Less ARCs
Last year was the year I really made myself cut back on requesting ARCs willy nilly. And I plan to continue this in 2025. In fact, I want to be even more picky because I have so many of my own books to read. So here’s to trying to be strong and instead resist the temptation to hit that “Request” button!
Increase Blog Followers
Once again, this is the hardest goal for me. I reached my 2024 goal of 200 followers. This year I hope to get 275 followers.
Update SEO for Old Posts
During the last three months of 2024 I started to update older posts for SEO. I’m not sure it’s made much of a difference yet, but in the long run I hope it will. So to improve my odds I want to do the same for my older book reviews, specifically. I’m not sure how many I have to update for SEO, but if I can average 2-5 updates per month, I bet I could knock them all out.
What are your bookish goals in 2025?
I’m with you on goals versus challenges, I just want to actually read the books I own rather than finding books to fit specific prompts! These all look really manageable (except for request less ARCs, I have no self control there). Good luck!!
Glad I’m not the only one! I find challenges to be a bit stressful…it makes me feel boxed in to reading specific things, as you said. The only time I do one is when Trope-ical Readathon comes along…I have such a big physical book backlog that I can usually find something to satisfy each prompt.
“Request less ARCs” is always a goal of mine too. This year I’m being very careful, or at least I think I am, lol. These are great goals, good luck!
Haha I thought I was careful in 2024, though I realized I still received 30 ARCs!! I’m sure at times I felt overwhelmed, but it was much easier to manage because I didn’t let myself go wild with requesting (like I did the first year on NG, oops!).
I managed to request less ARCs for most of last year. November got a bit crowded but generally I’ve become a lot fussier about requesting books. I’m a real skinflint when it comes to buying books. I’ve always got so many of my books from the library that it almost feels wrong to go out and buy them, especially hardbacks. I probably spent more money on books in 2024 than I ever have before 😳😳
Good Luck with your goals.
Yay, good for you! It is so nice not to feel too overwhelmed with ARCs and to have room for mood reading. I should be more choosy about buying books…I feel like I am, but still preordered a lot. I’m going to try harder to just sit tight and, if I really want it, to wait for it to pop up on a resale sight (like Pangbooks here in the U.S.).
These are some great goals, best of luck!
Thanks!
These are some amazing goals, I’m also hoping to read 52 books this year and want to focus on reading more of the books I already own
Thanks! Wishing you good luck on your goals! I think 52 books is a good goal.
I should’ve went with 52 books but I challenged myself to 72. Well sure how it works out. I took a peek at the spreadsheet and it’s great. If I hadn’t already spent a lot of time modifying the Book Riot one, I’d switch.
Great goals!
It might work out just fine for you, never know until you try! 🙂
Good luck on your goals!
I think tracking spending will help you to spend less. It’s certainly worked for me regarding my spending on books. Seeing the big figure at the end of the year is eye-opening.
Thank you! Yea, I kept track in 2024 up until December. Aside from my book subscriptions, I’m really going to try to pull back on other spending. I should read what I have!
Good luck with your goals this year! Here’s to making a dent in your backlist 😁
Thank you! I hope I can make a decent dent!
This is a great list of goals for 2025! I’m hoping to read more from my backlist this year as well and like you said, even though I didn’t do amazing in 2024, I did better than 2023! Let’s hope 2025 will see some progress on that too 🙂 I’ve been planning to do a re-read of the ToG series this year as I never finished the series (I couldn’t remember anything when the last book came out, lol) but I’m keen to do it. I hope it’ll be as enjoyable as I remember! Happy reading 😃
Thank you! Yes, reading from our backlist is so hard sometimes…there are so many shiny, new books to try and hide from, lol! Have fun with your TOG reread. Once I finish reading them all I’ll be really glad to not have to avoid spoilers all the time…even in conversation with my book clubs friends!
It’s amazing how our reading goals look complex, yet it feels “easy” by the end of the year.
I try to keep mine pretty simple, which is why I don’t do any challenges. A lot of this stuff is stuff I want to do anyway and writing it down is a way to keep myself accountable.
Good luck with your goals this year! I hope you enjoy The Once and Future King; it’s one of my favorites.
Thank you! I don’t think I’ll get to start THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING this month, but hopefully in February!
Good luck with all of your goals, they look like very sensible and well thought out ones. 52 books is a great goal and the reasoning behind it is sound. There’s no point setting it too high and then getting stressed and rushed reading. You want to enjoy books 🥰 I hope you enjoy the Throne Of Glass series as well as Once & Future King. I’ll look out for your thoughts on both. Like you I need to try and focus on my owned books more and I don’t think you’re alone in regards to series either. It’s a sentiment I see echoed a lot. Good luck with the blog followers too. You deserve them ❤️