Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
One. Read at least one Agatha Christie a month
I should be able to manage this one since I am in a Christie reading challenge for 2026. I tried it last year and failed but I think I’ll do better this year.
I read The Secret of Chimneys for January and already have the book for February — Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
I will be reading An Autobiography by Agatha Christie for the challenge as well, which will actually cross off another of my goals down below.
Two. Read at least three classic books this year
I want to read at least two classics this year, and I hope one of them will be The Count of Monte Cristo.
I will be reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien as well.
Other classic book goals for me this year are to read at least one book by a Bronte sister, finish Mansfield Park (despite the gag factor I have with it), and a re-read of Tom Sawyer, which I haven’t read since I was maybe 11.
To get through these classics I will be using advice that a booktuber I just found gave on his channel and that I mention more in detail below. Keep reading if you want to find out what that advice is.
Three. Read at least two autobiographies
I already have a couple I want to read — Maureen O’Hara, Myrna Loy, and Paul Newman’s, but then I heard that James Cagney’s is very good, so I am looking for that one on Thriftbooks.
Four. Read at least two non-fiction books
I hope to read at least one C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity, and as for another non-fiction, I’m not sure yet. Feel free to recommend a good one in my comments.
Five. Read more Christian Fiction books
I did not read a ton of Christian Fiction books in 2025. Not for any bad reason. I just didn’t seem to find a ton that interested me last year. I was also more interested in mysteries. I have a few lined up for this year, though, including:
Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davison Politano, Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner, A Desperate Hope by Elizabeth Camden, and Long Way Gone by Charles Martin.
A lot of Christian Fiction is very intense.
Do any of my blog readers know of Christian Fiction that is less intense? Rom-coms, I know, but those are hit or miss for me.
Mystery and thriller books in Christian Fiction seem to be all overdramatic and formulaic and not a simple, fun mystery like Agatha Christie or the Golden Age crime writers, which is why I don’t often read Christian Mystery.
Six. Weed out books I’m not reading or probably won’t to straighten shelves
My shelves are overflowing with books I grabbed at used book sales and will probably never read. I need to weed them out and make more room on our bookshelves. As the vlogger I watched this morning said, we buy new books because we get an endorphin hit at the idea of what the story will hold but then when that endorphin hit wears off, we just end up leaving the books piling up and not reading them.
Seven. Find another place in the house for another bookcase
This brings me to seven — we need more bookcases, even if I weed some of the books out. I really want another one for our bedroom since we are currently using an old coffee table and piling them up there. A bookcase would look better there, and it would be easier to find the books we want to read if we had a bookcase. Right now, most of those books are The Husbands, but to find one, he has to shift through the stacks. I’m not sure how we would get a bookcase up the stairs, but I suppose we could get one that can be assembled after we buy it.
And a few writing goals:
Eight. Finishing Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School and start a planned Christmas cozy mystery
I watched a video this morning from a booktuber who was sharing about how to read more books instead of buying them and never reading them. One thing he said was to set aside a certain time for reading, and while reading, don’t think about all the other things you need to do. Instead, tell yourself, “I am reading for one hour, and I can do those other things later,” and then immerse yourself in the story. Focus on the words and the use of them and the play of them. Don’t think about the end goal of finishing the book, but instead think about the words as you read them and really be mindful of what you are reading.
While I want that goal in reading, I also want it in writing this year.
I want to set aside an hour or two a day and just write and enjoy the act of writing instead of constantly being focused on the need to finish this book and add it to the series. I think that’s what has been holding me up. I haven’t been having fun with writing — I have been looking at the end and how far I am from it instead of taking one step at a time and focusing on the path in front of me. I’ve been so focused on the thought, “I need to get this done” that it has become a chore rather than a joy.
So, I will be enjoying creating scenes and scenarios for Gladwynn and her friends more and looking at how far I am behind in word count etc. less.
At least books one, two, and three are out there for the world to read.
Nine. Figure out a way to finish my small town contemporary romance series, The Spencer Valley Chronicles
I am very behind on this one. I released my last Spencer Valley Chronicles book, Shores of Mercy, in 2022. I really need to wrap up the series and how I want to do that is to write a final book with Alex Stone, Molly Tanner’s love interest, as the main character. He has some demons he needs to tackle, mainly from his broken relationship with his verbally and emotionally abusive father.
The one problem is that I don’t write contemporary romance or any romance anymore. I would have to rewrite a lot of the series because I don’t really enjoy looking back at it and seeing my writing at that time.
Ten. Figure out how to advertise my books (without breaking the bank) and sell more of them
This one will be an ongoing process. Right now, my free ways of advertising my books are here on my blog and various social media accounts. It gets tedious to plug the books all the time, though, and I prefer to have fun posting bookish memes and reels and talking about old movies or books.
I’m horrible at self-promoting. Even doing it in this post is making me feel icky.
Still, I write the stories so I should have people read them, and it’s fun when they do and let me know they like them.
I don’t have deep pockets for paid advertising, but I hope to find a few ways to do that this year.
So…..these are some of my bookish and writing goals for 2026. What are some of yours?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
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Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
