My goal this coming year is to read 300 books. I hit 283 (and I might finish another before the end of the year) so I think I can actually do this if I actively try. But I’m setting my goal for 270 since that’s what my reading journal has space for lol
Cross Posting reviews!: I say I’m going to do this every year. And I mess up every time. But this year I HAVE to because I realized yesterday I realized that ALL my links on my reviews by titles were wrong since I’ve moved to WordPress now. And Lordt I have to fix a lot of broken links lol And also because I have been reading more indies lately and I need to make sure they get their reviews as well so more people can know and hear about them!
Read my ARCs earlier: I’ve been doing good since so many of them are audios now, but I also want to try to like read physical and e-book ones too. Netgalley has made this 10x’s easier because I can use the Read Aloud feature and get some reading done while I’m washing dishes, etc.
Clean Up my Netgalley Average: My review finger is fast, but my request finger is faster lmao I have so many outstanding ones I don’t think I’m ever going to make it to the “good” average side. But the good thing is I’m still working on it. Hopefully I’ll get through them all one day and get my average to 80% like I want.
Keep track of each individual identity in my reading spreadsheet: I want to make sure that I have an accurate count of everything (because Nikki loves numbers only when it comes to her reading lol) so that I know what to focus on in 2026 when it’s time to work on my next goals. And since I’m more of a words person than a number person, I think it would be a lot easier for me to read them and put them on the spreadsheet and get the numbers generated instead of me trying to figure it out. (Because 9 out of 10 times it would be wrong lol)
In that same vein, I want to help people realize that the key to reading diversely is being intentional about your reading. Seeking out diverse stories is KEY! You have to do the work! (So please stop with the excuse (I don’t look at the author, I just read what sounds good. It’s like you’re implying that BIPOC authors or marginalized authors can’t be good too.)
DISCLAIMER
I am still a YA librarian at heart, so I cater all my content towards those teens. Though I might not be in the branches, I still am buying books for and making graphics for all those librarians who depend on me to know what I’m talking about. So I read mostly YA and MG and my suggestions and the books I read for these challenges are YA coded. Even when i was at the branches I did an exercise with my teens where we would see how many we could get on some of these challenges (because there’s not one specifically for them) with only reading YA books. And it kind of stuck with me. I like to read them to give them some kind of recommendations if they don’t feel they’re ready for Adult yet.
Ok so challenge wise I’m doing some well known challenges, but also some personal ones! So here we go:
PERSONAL
Read more of what I order: If you know me or you’ve followed along with my blog ever, you know I am doing A-OK with reading YA. But I also need to read more MG and more YA non-fiction. Why? I order from there and last year I don’t think I even read 5 of each. And I hate that. I will do better next year.
As usual I want to do the Read Around the USA challenge like I do every year. And of course I will still be doing the bonus reads from around the world.
Read more genres: Last year I legit feel like I ONLY read romance and some thrillers. Not AT ALL how I usually am. I normally read ALL the things as long as there’s some romance in it. In 2024 I want to get back to that.
Youth Media Award Winners Challenge: This one is a really personal one. I’m trying to read more award winners because I want to make some changes in my career. I want to see more of what they might be looking for in these books. And because of that, I want to challenge myself to read the winners. And if I can achieve this, I will also read the honorable mentions.
READ MORE: Intersectionality: This one is because I want to shine the light on the fact that people seem to break up identities and forget that sometimes they can be all in one person. So I want to read about and acknowledge those that have more than one identity. I’d like to focus on them as a single character who has all these traits that make them one vs they have this, and this, and this. If that makes any sense.
Monthly Check-In on my Challenges: I want to make sure I stay on top of them. I tend to look at them like 3 times over the year, but next year I’m going to really try hard to complete at least one lol
Getting my Name Out There: I say this all the time, but I am so shy and don’t talk to too many, but this year I’m going for more opportunities. The first thing I’m trying for is a spot on an ALA reading list. (TLA won’t take me 🙁 So here’s to hoping they will!)
Well Known
A-Z Challenge: I’ve added a number option as well. And for an extra added layer of chaos, I’m doing both author’s last name AND titles.
PopSugar Reading Challenge: I fail this every year lmao But it’s because by half the year I’m sick of going by a prompt and just want to read my own thing.
Decolonize Your Bookshelf: Another challenge that I found last year!
Novelist’s Monthly Challenge: It gives you a month a challenge, but I don’t want to do it by the month. I’m just going to do it as I go on. But it had some good prompts and I really want to have some fun with this one.
52 Book Club Challenge: This is another one where I thought the prompts were cool and I wanted in on the fun lol
A lot of these are the same from last year, but they’re still a little different. I’ve tailored them to what I’m looking to read more of in 2025.
Have you made your goals? Do you have any challenges? Let me know in the comments!