So as every year, I’m here to say I don’t do resolutions. I don’t like starting off the year with the pressure of a bunch of pie-in-the-sky goals I know I’m not going to be able to complete. Basically if I set resolutions I’m planning to fail. I know they work for some people, and that’s great, but either my brain or my ADHD just don’t like when I’m supposed to do something. It’s the same with reading lists. So for this I’ve got more vague ideas of what I’d like my reading to be like this year.
- I want to let myself take time out when I need it, as I have been doing over the past few years, without guilt or shame.
- I want to mostly choose what to read next by whatever sparkles at me from my TBR at that moment.
- I’ve signed up to judge for the BookTube Prize in 2025, so I’m really hoping I am selected to be on the roster. I missed out last year because I forgot to sign up in time (I nearly did this time, too, so thanks to this post for reminding me to go and put my name in!) and I missed it horribly.
- I’d like to make sure I’m reading books about issues I care about by authors who are part of the affected community. Some examples are Black history and racism, First Nations books, LGBTQIAP+ books, books on disability and chronic illness, feminism and women’s health and so many other areas I am very interested in and sometimes neglect.
- I’d like to continue researching ADHD, both from the perspective of women, about children with ADHD, help parenting with ADHD and a kid who has ADHD, and just general information.
- I’d like to spend some time reading middle grade books as previews for what I think my kid might enjoy, and also read some of the books they’ve been reading that I haven’t yet. I’m also hoping to do some reading aloud which has dropped off since they’re able to read on their own more!
- I’d like to continue working my way through some of the books that have been languishing on my shelves for years.
- I’ve been enjoying re-reading some of my favourite books so I definitely want to keep that up.
- I love finding books that just have a calm vibe and that help me to relax when I’m in ADHD burnout, which happens a lot. They don’t have to be self-help books, sometimes they are just books that are introspective or books that are cosy or just joyful stories or stories about friendship and love. All of these are ones that help me regulate myself when I’m struggling, and I’m learning to lean into anything that offers me a calming influence.
- I am still loving audiobooks and definitely will be continuing to do the bulk of my reading in this format. I particularly love memoirs narrated by the author and books narrated by people I am familiar with and whose voices I love (Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, etc.) so I’m going to try to find more of the books I enjoy listening to.
That’s it for me, hopefully these will be good ideas to help keep myself oriented on what I was looking forward to about my 2025 reading year and to give me permission to take it slowly, break when necessary, read about topics that are important and find books that can help me.
What about you guys? How did you approach this week’s prompt? Do you do better with very specific goals, or are you more like me and prefer loose conceptual ones?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
These sound excellent! Love the idea of goals to fit your personal lifestyle. I read a lot more slowly and less often this year as I just had other things keeping me busy and I’d like to have goals that don’t make me feel pressured to get more into reading
I so hear you! I used to set hard goals, but all it did was make me stressed and set me up to fail. And after all, reading is a hobby. It’s supposed to be something we do in our spare time (not feel like we have to give up things to make time for if that’s not what we want to be doing) and that we do for fun. Why set goals that make it *less* fun? At least, that’s what I figured! So for me, that means just leaving things a little more open, a little more relaxed. Ironically, by setting less goals, I actually do seem to get more reading done in the end anyway! I hope you have a wonderful reading year and that anything that’s keeping you busy other than reading is good!
Good luck on these goals, this approach sounds very relaxed and therefore very manageable to me!
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/01/14/top-ten-tuesday-bookish-goals-for-2025/
Thank you!
I need to read more middle grade books also! My son has recently started reading a lot more and keeps asking which of my books he can read (not that many 😅), so I want to be able to recommend some awesome ones for him. Good luck with these!
It’s a tricky one because on the one hand THRILLED that they’re reading solo and so into it, but yeah I don’t have a ton of books they’ll be interested in or that are the right difficulty level and subject matter, and I can’t afford to keep up with buying all the ones they want to read! Thank goodness for the library is all I’ll say! My kid is really into dragons and graphic novels, so Dragon Kingdom and Wings of Fire are the two favourites – both also have chapter book series so hopefully there’s future more challenging material there too! Good luck to you as well!
I love reading middle-grade books even though I don’t have kids in that age group anymore. There are some really great MG reads out there. I hope you find some good ones this year 🙂
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I used to read a ton of YA when I started blogging, there’s so much that wasn’t available when I was young so I was catching up! I’m currently reading a graphic novel series about dragons that my kid loves, so I’m branching out already! IF you’ve got any recommendations I’d love to hear them – particularly if they involve dragons or other mythical creatures!
Stephen Fry has such a great voice for narration! 🙂
Check out my TTT: https://never-anyone-else.blogspot.com/2025/01/top-ten-tuesday-2025-movie-releases-im.html
He does! Particularly for the Harry Potter series – I much prefer him to the American one who always made Hermione sound whiney which irked me to an unreasonable degree!
I’d like to learn more about ADHD too
It’s definitely an area that is growing in the literary world, and I’m enjoying how much there is to choose from!
Love your goal of researching ADHD, hope it also helps you with your ADHD. Hope you achieve the things you set out to do, even if it is just something really small but very meaningful.
Happy reading
Irene @ Witchy Reads
Thank you! I think it will help, because the more I understand the better I can learn to work with my brain. I love that phrase, “even if it is just something really small but very meaningful.” What a lovely turn of phrase, and I will think of that as I’m attempting small but meaningful things throughout my year. I wish the same for you as well!
I’ve found myself reading books about Indigenous experiences by Indigenous characters. I have loved most of them and look forward to a few more on my TBR.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/goals-for-2025-book-and-blog-goals/
Oh, that’s a great area! I’ve read a few great ones as well (the obvious one being There There, but there are so many more). Which are your favourites so far? Are you more interested in fiction or non-fiction – or a mix?
My brain is like a small, excitable puppy that wants to sniff ALL THE THINGS. Some of my goals are more concrete, some are not. This is my first year to set bookish goals, so we’ll see how it works out for me!
I like your idea of reading whatever sparkles at you from the TBR.
Me too!!! No sooner have I made a list of my absolute most exciting books I can’t WAIT to read then I’ve completely forgotten about half of them and gone off the other half because I looked at a different shelf or watched a YouTube video or read a blog post about other books and now they must be read IMMEDIATELY. I used to do more concrete goals, but it got the point where I knew, even as I was writing them, that I wouldn’t do them. And it was so depressing I decided not to do that anymore! Thanks – it was the best description I could find for how it feels to choose a book from my TBR shelf! Happy reading for 2025!
I love your goal of reading more soothing calm books. Those are my favorite kinds of books to read. 😉
Thank you! I’m loving them as well – and I’m also loving that there are so many different sub-genres that have that effect!
Goal #1 is so so important, to let go of any guilt or shame when it comes to reading and blogging. Pretty much in love with all of these aims!
Aw thank you so much! That’s the hardest one for me, generally, I’m constantly looking at what others are reading and doing, and thinking I could be doing more… but I’m coming to realize that that will always be true no matter how much I do, so what’s the point in stressing about it? I hope that your 2025 reading will be a wonderful experience without any guilt or shame!
I so loved your idea of choosing what sparkles at you that I felt compelled to add it to my reading goals, with credit to you, of course.
Haha thank you – you’re welcome to it! 😉
I’ve got my fingers crossed for you that you are chosen as a judge in the contest!
And, even if not, you are reading about issues you deeply want to read about.
It looks like I’m in the judge pool, so now it’s just whether there’s space for the second round (I prefer the timing of that one as the first round is right at the end of winter and straddles spring break, so it’s harder for me to manage my energy as well!). I’m excited for the possibility! Thank you – that is a beautiful bookish wish! I hope the same for you!
Read the books that have been languishing on my shelves… that’s definitely one I can identify with!
I suspect that many – if not most – of us are in the same over-burdened boat! Ah well, I’d rather have many books I never read on my shelves than nothing to read!
I like the way you frame your sentences here. I want to…
I rarely join in challenges which require reading books on a set schedule or type. I may join a challenge fore summer or November but I a time limit.
Here are my goals and challenges: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/p/2025-reading-goals-and-challenges.html
Thank you! I’m trying to learn how to work with my brain instead of trying to force it to work like I think it should, and having goals that are more general helps me feel more excited by them an less pressured! Plus it’s hard to fail at them when it’s like “I want to take breaks if I need them”! Lol! Yeah, the only time I really do challenges (other then judging the prize, but that’s 6 books that I already know are going to be good and there’s a couple of months to read them, so not super hard) is if it’s read for x number of hours or read x number of books for the year. Those are more achievable for me as they still leave room for me to figure out what I am going to read on a whim!