Hello!

Setting goals is probably my favourite part of the New Year and this year I’ve got more reading goals than I’ve ever set before.

2025 has been an absolute banger of a reading year for me – I’ve read the most books I’ve ever read (at least since I started tracking it all), I’ve managed to finish my monthly TBRs on all but three months (assuming I finish the last couple on my December list), and I’ve got into a really good rhythm with making progress on the series I’m in the middle of, so I’m really excited to make more progress on my physical TBR in 2026.

Did I still buy more books than I read? Yes, but the difference was less dramatic than previous years! Less than double, which sounds like a horrendous thing to be proud of but y’know what, I’ll take it! A lot of them were second hand or hardback editions of books I love, but many of them were not.

I actually have seven goals for the New Year, which is a few more than what I had this year, and they feel much more focused. I’m excited to start ticking them off!

1) Reading goal: 72 books

I know it seems like a random number but I started making my reading goals with 12 books and I continued with multiples of 12s because it’s easy to assign how many books I need to read each month. I’ve slowly been working my way up from 12 and I’m up to 72, which I think will be a bit more challenging than previous years! By the end of 2025 I reckon I’ll have read 85 or 86 so it’s quite close! It’s the equivalent of 6 books a month and my monthly TBRs this year have been 6 books so I think it should work out!

2) Don’t buy more than I read

This is a goal I’ve been failing ever since I’ve been setting reading goals but in the back end of this year I’ve been doing really well at not buying books purely because I’m so intimidated by my physical TBR and I’m hoping to use that to make progress in 2026.

I do already have plans to do a Waterstones shopping trip because I’ve got £40 on my Waterstones card and I got a voucher and some cash for Christmas but I’m already considering that I might not spend it all, which is very bold for me!

3) Get my physical TBR under 400 books

According to the stats I’ve been tracking throughout the year I’ve got approximately 430 books on my physical TBR, according to the shelf I made on Fable it’s 457…

From 2026 I’m exclusively going on Fable numbers cos tracking it myself is too tricky, but reading 57 books without buying any that add to my TBR is even trickier! I might have to unhaul a few, but I really want to cut down this TBR!

4) Read 4 non-fiction books (not including Horrible Histories)

My goal for 2025 was to read 5 non-fiction books and I managed 3, so I thought to push myself a little bit without having unrealistic expectations! 5 was a bit of a push in the first place so we’re managing what’s realistic!

However I’m doing another challenge with the Wedding Library (when my husband and I got married we asked our guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book, we call it the Wedding Library) – we bought a box set of Horrible Histories books to use as table centre pieces and I’m planning to read one a month next year to make a dent in the collection!

5) Finish or get up to date on 5 series

Now that I have my ‘Book Queue’ for reading sequels and continuing series I’ve been making great progress on not reading one in a series and leaving it forever!

I’ve decided in my book journal for 2026 I’m going to pick a bunch of series I’d like to aim to finish rather than listing every series I own and I want to focus on series I’ve only got one book left to read – a quick win would be a great way to start the year!

6) read my 26 in 2026 chosen from my TBR jar

I used my physical TBR jar to choose 26 titles to make this TBR and riding the high of the success of my 25 in 2025, I’m really excited to at least get through the 26 books from my TBR out of the 57 I’m aiming for!

My monthly TBR categories might be getting a bit out of hand, which might not help with actually getting all these books read but we’ll see where the year takes us!

7) Alphabet TBR – read through the alphabet, a new letter every two weeks

I realised several years ago the 2026 should be the Alphabet Year and, conveniently, 26 letters/books is the equivalent of one every two weeks so I made a fun poster. This might cross over with my 26 in 2026, but if I can manage to read an additional 26 books from my TBR I’ll be doing well on cutting it down! There are a few letters I don’t own books for, but I’m going to try and borrow some from my library or listen to audiobooks rather than add new physical books to my TBR!

And that’s what I’m aiming for in 2026! Nothing too outlandish I don’t think, but all things that really focus on cutting down my physical TBR so it’s significantly less intimidating!

2025 has been a fantastic reading year and I am looking forward to starting again and seeing what 2026 brings.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx