Bookish goals for 2025 are out and now it’s time for my bookish goals in 2026. Although, to be perfectly honest, my bookish goals for 2026 are very similar with some goal posts just moved up a bit. I removed a couple, though, mainly because I don’t feel like doing them regularly, which is a good enough reason for me!
Read 52 Books
This is the same goal I’ve set now for the last four years running. I feel like one book per week on average is pretty attainable for me. Since reading is supposed to be fun, I don’t want to stress myself out by setting a higher number to reach.
Finish Reading Throne of Glass
My goal last year was to read the TOG series. While I didn’t finish it, I did read the first four books (including the novellas). So I think I can read the last half of the series in one year.
Read Arthurian Books
I failed abysmally with this goal last year. So this is a reminder that I need to do better when it comes to reading all the Arthurian-related books I’ve collected over the years.
Track My Reading
I continued to track my reading in 2025 using Reader Voracious’s Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet Template. (But I upgraded to the Elite version in 2024.) Now that I have it up and running and modified (by me), it’s easy to just set it up for a new year and hit go. I will also try to preorder less books, especially considering my monthly book subscriptions tend to have books I’m interested in.
Spend Less
I did better with this goal last year than in 2024. But I still need to do even better. I have a massive amount of unread books in my house that I really should read first. I’m also considering canceling my Fairyloot Romantasy subscription because that’s the one I usually use all my skips on. The special editions aren’t that much more than a regular hardback, but with taxes and shipping, it adds up.
#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. I did pretty well with this in 2025. And it’s a nice way to assess my monthly reading and be happy when I cross off a couple of backlog books from my TBR.
Request Less ARCs
I started this in 2024 and have felt so much relief from not having so many ARCs looming over my head. I definitely plan to keep doing this. Lately, I’ve found myself even pickier, especially considering my own physical book backlog I bought with my own money.
Increase Blog Followers
Last year my goal was to reach 275 followers, which I didn’t hit. But I’m close enough to it that I think I’ll set my goal to 300 anyway.
Find A Way to Block AI From Crawling My Blog
I’m vaguely aware that there is some mechanism to do this. But I need to make the time to look into it. I don’t get a lot of hits from Perplexity or ChatGPT, but it is several a month. And, frankly, I hate AI, or at least what it’s commonly used for. So if I can give it the middle finger, I will. I staunchly believe it’s not appropriate in the creative space. And it also eats up a lot of energy that doesn’t need to be used in that way. As someone who lives in a state with hundreds of data centers, and drives by them every day, I think I can say that when my electricity prices are being threatened because of AI. Anyway, off my soap box now.
Be More Active On Bookstagram
I started this the last couple of months of 2025 and it seems to be helping my reach. Like book blogging, it helps engagement and viewership a lot to actually go to others’ platforms and interact with more than just a like. I guess I didn’t realize this with bookstagram because I thought the algorithm decided everything. And I guess it still does, but interacting helps to show that you’re around. And of course bookstagrammers are appreciative of when you share their reviews. I started to do this partly because I feel a little disillusioned by Bluesky. It just doesn’t have the level of interaction I want nor can I find a lot of book bloggers who consistently post things.
What are your bookish goals in 2026?
It has been awhillle since I opened this app. Great post + goals! I miss seeing you on Instagram but i don’t miss using it 😅 I started using Fable in 2025 and it’s pretty decent 👌 It’s similar to Instagram but the only content is books 👏
I miss you on IG too! I haven’t seen much about Fable…tbh I don’t have it in me to try another social media. Do you like Fable? Are there lots of folks on there?
Fable is decent, and solely a book app. It’s way more simplistic than the bigger apps but I’ve found a few friends from Instagram + Goodreads there. It got an influx of new users over New Years as well. I just love that it’s books only with an option to be social as well.
Yes! Bluesky has been so disappointing! I feel like it’s mostly radical leftists and they all follow me, lol. I don’t know why. I seriously miss the Twitter book community, it hasn’t been duplicated yet that I’m aware of. Instagram just takes massive amounts of time to create a visible feed and I’d rather spend time on my blog.
And I also hate AI and would love to know how you block it if you figure it out!
I have the same issue on Bluesky!!! I don’t know why they keep following me because I don’t post about politics at all! I’ve been blocking them but it’s overwhelming and I’ve recently given up. In fact I’m on a hiatus from there because I’m so sick of Bluesky. I can’t get interaction there whereas I can on IG. I see IG as just another social outlet…but yes, it’s hard to grow as a faceless user on there.
If I find a way to keep ChatGPT away I’ll let you know.
I must have been exceptionally bad at Instagram because it never helped our blog and at all, and everyone else says it’s helpful! XD
Well, my goal is specific to IG in that I want to continue my growth on there. I highly doubt it’ll bring much traffic to my blog because I think those are just too separate of user bases. When I try to post links to my blog on IG stories I kind of get throttled bc Meta is a b*tch. BUT I find interacting there more fulfilling than on Bluesky.
Good Luck with all of these resolutions
I’m sure that there’s a box that you can tick somewhere to opt out of AI using your material.
I hope that Instagram works for you. I tried spending time on it a while back but it didn’t have any impact on my blog and it was just too time consuming. I do miss BookTwitter as nothing seems to have replaced that community
Thanks! Unfortunately there’s no box for my to check to opt out of AI, at least not one I’m aware of. My site is self hosted, so I think I have to do more lifting for changes like that compared to whatever the free WordPress might offer (& I don’t know what free WordPress offers).
Yea, I see bookstagram as a separate entity. I’m not trying to use it to bring a lot of traffic to my blog. But I find interacting there is more rewarding than on Bluesky, which I’m grumpy with at the moment. I miss twitter, too…seems like a cesspool now for violating AI & lots of other gross stuff.
I realised after I had posted the reply that you had your own site😳 There still ought to be some way of protecting your work but it does seem as if the AI bots get to do whatever the big companies want☹️
I’m hoping there’s some sort of plugin I can use…that would be more simple than having to learn some coding! 😬
You would think that there ought to be. It’s the sort of thing that a lot of people will want surely.
Good luck with all of these! I have kind of felt like my Bookstagram and Blog are separate things. One doesn’t really help the other, but I love how the outlets are different. I love the creativity of Bookstagram and I’ve gained quite the community. My blog is a lot harder to get traction on. I do use it for some of my publishers that prefer blogging.
Thanks! Yea my goal is specifically about bookstagram and trying to get more reach on there. Like you, I see it as a separate entity from my blog. I highly doubt it’ll bring a ton of traffic to my blog. The reason I want to keep devoting time to IG is because I’ve become disillusioned by bsky. As far as social media goes, I get more interaction on IG than Bluesky.
I have gone full Insta after I left Twitter. I tried BlueSky but it’s just not the same. Especially, since I can’t access messages and other things since I will not send them my ID or SS. I have loved the community on booksta and all the chats and people! It’s been so much fun and very creative. I’m glad to see you there more often!! <3
Good luck with your goals. And if you do find a way to block the AI, please share.
Thank you! If I manage to find a way, I’ll share it.
Good luck with your 2026 goals! I like “read more Arthurian books”. I don’t think I’ve ever read one but I would like to someday. I’ll have to see which ones you enjoy. 🙂
Re blocking AI crawlers – I followed some instructions to block them by updating robots.txt a couple months ago. I’m not sure how effective it is but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
Thanks! I’m so behind on my Arthurian books reading list. I also need to update my blog post about it because there are a couple I read that I want to add to it.
Do you selfhost your blog on wordpress dot org? If so, and the instructions worked for you, would you mind passing along the website to those instructions?
Yes I do! If this isn’t the exact guide I followed, it’s pretty close: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
Basically I just disallowed a number of user agents via robots.txt file 🙂
Thank you!
Good luck with your goals! Mine for 2026 are 5 that’s on your list, too! I’m hoping that a year of productivity will pay off.
Thanks! I hope you have a productive 2026!
These all sound like great goals!
Sign me up as another person who wants to hear the secret if you figure out how to effectively block AI spiders/scrapers. (I don’t even really post the kind of popular book content that really attracts them TBH, I just have a big old bee in my bonnet about the ethics of that sort of thing.)
Hoping you have a lovely year ahead 🙂
If I manage to figure out how to block AI scrapers/visitors, I’ll certainly make a post about it. I also have a bee in my bonnet about it, too, so you’re in good company.
I’m hoping to request less ARCs this year, too, and finally clear the backlog off of my NetGalley shelf. The real problem for me is all the widgets. I don’t request a ton of stuff anymore, but my inbox gets tons of widgets, which makes me get too click happy in accepting them. lol.
I feel you on the AI stuff. I’d really rather that it couldn’t use my stuff, but I’m not sure what to do about it.
I’m so excited to see what you think of the rest of Throne of Glass! Things really pick up in the latter half of the series, and it really is just such an incredible story of epic scope. I hope you love it.
Good luck on all of your goals, and I hope you have a great 2026!
I’ve gotten a lot of widgets lately, too! I’ve declined about half of them. I’d say they’re how I get ARCs the majority of the time now, too, lol.
Good luck with your goals for this year 🥰 I think 52 books is a great number to aim for and I cant wait to hear what you think of the rest of the Throne Of Glass series. I hope you get to some Arthurian books this year and totally relate to wanting to make a dent in your backlist of owned booked. I have so many books I’m majorly excited for just sitting on my shelves 🙈 good luck with Bookstagram too. I find balancing both tricky but I’m hoping to really get the hang of it this year 🤞