Before I set goals for next year, I wanted to reflect a bit on the goals I set for this year.

I set some pretty high reading goals in 2025. I wanted to read every day; focus on ARCs, series, my 1000 Books Project, and diverse reads; raise my feedback ratio on Net Galley; further diversify my reads; and track my reading. I did fairly well on most of these. I did not read every day, in fact there were a couple of weeks in September that I didn’t read at all. I did focus most of my reading on ARCs, series and diverse reads, though I did not focus as much as I had wanted on my 1000 Book Project. I did raise my feedback ratio, though not as high as I would have liked (because I keep getting more ARCs lol). I was able to further diversify my reading by consciously seeking out more neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled representation, but I can still do better, especially with South American and Indigenous reads. And I did great tracking my reading with my spreadsheets. I stopped using my paper tracker about midway through the year.

So, now for my 2026 reading goals.

Join New Readathons

I generally participate in all 3 of the Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon events held each year (April, Summer, October), but I’d like to find some new readathons to participate in this year as well. I do prefer readathons where I can pick my own books and not have to follow a lot of strict rules about my TBR, but I am open to some prompts. I joined a Readathon group on Discord, so will hopefully find a few more events I can participate in this year.

Continued Focus on ARCs, Series & 1000 Books Project

I’ve updated my rolling TBR to reflect my continued focus in these areas. Last year I made some good strides on clearing out some of my older ARCS, while also focusing on 2025 releases, but I still have a long way to go. I’d like to make even bigger strides this year, especially with the older stuff.

The same goes for series. I have so many series in various states of completion, so I really want to focus on completing as many of them as I can this year. I mean there’s some that only have 1 book left to be read, and I just haven’t done it. Many of these are part of my 1000 Book Project as well, but I’ve also put a bigger focus on the stand-alones on this list too.

Launch Banned Books Project

I started putting this project together about midway through 2025 and I’m only about halfway through compiling the list of banned books I want to read (or re-read). I want to finish compiling this list and then start working my way through them and share my journey.

Continue to Diversify

I’ve been heavily promoting diverse books for the last 4-ish years, and I want to continue to expand on this. In 2025, I’ve been averaging about 50% diverse books. I think my numbers would be higher if I didn’t have so many unread books on my shelves going back to the 1990’s. I don’t have a set number or percentage in mind for this year (though I would like to improve on this %), but I do want to continue to find new authors. I find I am most lacking in Indigenous authors and authors from Central and South American countries.

Join or Start a Virtual Book Club

I have always wanted to be part of a book club and have tried to join a few over the years, but I have a hard time with a lot of traditional book clubs. Many times they choose books that don’t really interest me, or they choose books that are hard for me to find. I know that there are book clubs where you read whatever you want, and also clubs that read books more in my wheelhouse. If I can’t find one that works for me, I’ll try to start one myself this year.