Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookish Goals for 2025

/ Lisa R. Howeler

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

Today’s prompt: Bookish Goals for 2025 (How many books do you want to read this year? Are you hoping to read outside your comfort zone? Are there books you meant to read last year but never got to? Are there new-to-you authors you’re hoping to read?)

I haven’t set bookish goals in the past, but I do have some bookish goals this year, including reading whatever I want to read – not what I feel like I should read. Here are some of my other book or reading related goals this year.

  1. I hope to read at least 30 books. I originally planned to write down 50 since last year I had a goal of 30 and read 68 but I decided to keep the number in the conservative range and then be excited if I read more.

2. I hope to try out some new authors this year, but also some “old” authors — as in classic authors. I want to try books by Terry Pratchett and other fantasy writers, for one, and I really want to try to get through one Jane Austen book all the way through and not only on Audible. Other authors I want to try are Alan Bradley, Matt Haig, Beth Bower, T.I. Low, John Connell, Maya Angelou, and Wendell Berry

3. Reading outside my comfort zone will be on the list year too because I want to try more fantasy. I won’t be trying erotica or horror, however. Just fantasy and maybe a couple more thrillers. I read mysteries but not always “thrillers”.

4. I hope to read more Christian fiction and non-fiction this year. I have a physical stack of C.S. Lewis books I want to read, non-fiction and fiction. I also want to read Charles Martin, Coleen Coble, Joel C. Rosenberg, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Tessa Ashfar, and Francine Rivers.

5. I mentioned above I want to read more classic authors and I do. Some of the books I want to read this year include The Count of Monte Cristo, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Middlemarch, A Tale of Two Cities (because I bailed on it before), and Wuthering Heights. Will I get to them? Probably not but … I can try.

6. Plan to read more Nancy Drews. I’ve already read a handful of the early Nancy Drews and hope to read more of them and some of the later ones this year.

7. I want to read more of whatever I want to read and not what I think I need to read for book tours or book reviews or to return favors to other authors. I know that sounds horrible but last year I ended up reading books I would not have normally read and it turned out not to be a great idea. There were other times I read books I wouldn’t have normally read and it was a good idea so I don’t want to say I won’t try books that I would normally not read, but I will say that I won’t feel guilty anymore if I turn a book down because there is another book I want to read more. Reading should be fun, not a chore.

8. I hope to read more overall. Sometimes I get so distracted with writing my own books, or blog posts or making social media posts or just goofing off on social media that I don’t read. Reading is such a nice escape and I want to choose it over watching TV or doom scrolling much more this year.

9. I really hope I can read more books that are already on my TBR/bookshelf instead of adding new ones, but I know that I’ll still be buying some to add to that list because buying books is better than buying drugs.

10. I want to read a couple biographies this year because that is a genre I rarely read. I am reading one about Anthony Bourdain right now. If you have any suggestions of other biographies I can read, let me know. I tend to steer clear of political figures on any “side” so I don’t really need those kind of suggestions.

So what are your bookish goals this year, if you have any? Let me know in the comments.

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30 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookish Goals for 2025”

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  3. That sounds like a great year of reading! For Christian fiction, I also recommend Lisa Bergren, who writes time travel fiction set in medieval Italy.

    I’m doing a historical fiction reading challenge this year, 20 books with different prompts. But my Goodreads number this year is 30 books which gives me some room for some others too!

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  6. Actually Kim and I “made a pact” last night, a quid pro quo between us, related to A Tale of Two Cities. We shook on it. I pledged to read A Tale of Two Cities before the end of the year; she, to read Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen , which I got as part of a book gift exchange, I believe in 2017 – also by the end of the year. I partially got because Kim is a lifelong Springsteen fan and have been trying to get her to read ever since.

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  8. I read the Scarlet Pimpernel last year (or tried, I enjoyed it so much more when I listened to it on audio). I have a book from Charles Martin from the library because he is an author I have been meaning to try as well. Yes, books are SO much better than drugs, LOL! My husband and I always joked books were our drug of choice. Good luck with all your goals!

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    • Thank you! You too! And I might end up listening to it too. For The Fellowship of the Ring I listened to part and read part and ended up reading it toward the end because it’s like I caught on to the language more.

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  9. I read whatever strikes my fancy not the most popular by today’s standards. Of course, the classics are always worth reading and I find I must take my time reading them because authors wrote much more intelligently back then than now. I’ve read a number of biographies, but none of them are standing out in my recall right now. For fiction, I highly recommend Charles Martin. You might also try Davis Bunn books is you want to try something different.

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    • Oh Davis Bunn! I’ve wanted to read him too! I always liked Bode and Brock Thoene and would like to read more of theirs. I read some popular modern books but find I struggle with them too. I am really drawn to the vintage or more classic. And has … their way with words was so much better than most authors today. I read two Charles Martin books and love his writing but also hate it because it rips me apart sometimes!!

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  10. If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, Lauren Graham’s Talking as Fast as I Can was a fun read 🙂 And I absolutely loved Julia Child’s My Life in France ❤

    Jane Austen ❤ I’m doing a deep dive into her this year – and hopefully I’ll manage to actually finish reading Mansfield Park this go-around …

    I’m also hoping to read Wuthering Heights this year, after finishing The Favorites.

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  11. I have been better about turning down authors even if I do want to read their books just because of lack of time. And I only sign up for tours of books I genuinely want to read. The timeline does put a little pressure on but I think I may have found a rhythm that works for me.

    I admire your desire to read outside of your normal reading patterns – like fantasy. Reading outside of my comfort zone is not an area I’m willing to do. At least not this year.

    And, yes, buying books is better than buying drugs. So buy however many you need.

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  12. I read Middlemarch but I think I read it too quickly. I’d like to read it in a leisurely way, the way I read Moby Dick, over a long period of time, reading helpful books that take on the themes and the author and more.

    I’d also like to read A Tale of Two Cities. I’ve started and stopped reading it several times for Paris in July. Maybe this year it will take.

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  13. Oooh, oooh Wuthering Heights is honestly my favorite book ever (closely followed by The Inferno). For my birthday one year, Mike had my favorite quote printed and framed. He didn’t realize how big it was going to be so it ended up costing him quite a bit money. I think I have read every book in my house since we downsized so much. I had held onto so many of the books I used when I taught. It was hard to let go of them…I honestly sobbed as I packed them up. Luckily, my DIL is a school psych and was able to give them to a friend who had switched grade levels…from 6th to 1st! I do set a Goodreads goal, but I don’t get upset if I don’t meet it. I read what I like when I like. I think I already said I took several British Literature electives in college so I’ve read many of the classics as well as several of the Greek tragedies.

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    • Well now I will have to read Wuthering Heights! We rotate our books from our shelves to the attic and back again. We’ve given books to little libraries or just libraries in the past and then somehow we keep collecting them!

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  17. I am rather impressed you managed to come up with 10! I was thinking I didn’t have many myself but I did find myself nodding along with quite a few of yours. I want to read more non-fictions this year and add in some classics too (I often pass them by but do usually enjoy the ones I tackle). I do have 2 book challenges going too that I hope to complete.

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