Reading Goals 2025

Today, I am sharing my reading goals for 2025. I am not big on New Year’s resolutions but like setting basic reading goals each year.

I have found that I like to reevaluate at the end of each year to see what I want to change in the months ahead. I like a plan but don’t like to be boxed in with my goals, so I keep my goals relatively basic and broad.

Past Reading Goals

When it comes to reading, I set some goals for some years, and some years I don’t.

In 2017, I challenged myself to read one hundred books. I had not read that many books in years, so I was thrilled when I hit that goal.

In 2018 and 2019, I challenged myself to read a nonfiction book for every state in the U.S. This challenge was fun. It took me two years to complete, but I learned so much about the people and culture of the U.S.

In 2020, I did not have any reading goals, which ended up being a good thing.

In 2021, I challenged myself to read only backlist books. I kept getting distracted by all the new books being promoted in the social media world, so I only read older releases. This challenge helped me find many great books I knew nothing about.

In 2022, I did not set any specific goals when it comes to reading.

In 2023, I made a list of fiction and nonfiction books I wanted to read. I got easily distracted with other books in 2023, and I failed at this reading goal. I read a lot of books in 2023 but did not come close to finishing the list of books I wanted to. However, regarding the number of books I read, 2023 was my best reading year ever, so it was still a good year.

In 2024, I challenged myself to read mainly the books I own and the backlist books of authors I love. This challenge was very loose. I would say that I kind of accomplished it. I did read quite a few books that I already owned, but I also bought and read quite a few new books. I also didn’t read as many of the backlist books of authors I have loved as I had hoped.

2025 Reading Goals

As I mentioned in my favorite books of the year post, I have mixed thoughts on my 2024 reading. It was an okay year, but not a great year.

I read one hundred and nine books, a significant number of books, but I had very few five-star reads.

I also read a lot of light and easy books. Some of this was due to health issues. I had times when I didn’t feel well, and my mind had trouble focusing on reading books, which took a lot of thought. But I also just picked up a lot more light and easy reads in 2024.

For 2025, I want to find a better balance of nonfiction and fiction. I want also to find a better balance of light and fun reads and more thought provoking books that teach me something.

I hope focusing on this will help me find more books that I love and can’t stop thinking about.

Overall, I want to focus on quality, not quantity. To do that, I decided to give myself more of a theme than a goal for 2025.

I want to read to learn, so I am calling my 2025 reading a year of learning through books.

Reading is always a way to learn, but I want to read with more of a focus on learning than usual.

I want to read nonfiction and fiction that takes me to places I will never go and teach me parts of history I did not know.

I want to read books that challenge me to think and explore.

I love historical fiction, so that fits right into my goal of learning through reading.

I have always loved nonfiction but have read much less of it over the last two or three years. This year, I want to read more nonfiction.

As I think about my all-time favorite books, I find they are almost all nonfiction. The books that have impacted me over the years are nonfiction.

They are almost all biography, memoir, or historical event-type books, so those are the nonfiction books I want to focus on this year. Since those categories are pretty broad, I think this will be fairly easy to do.

I have also realized that I keep putting off reading many memoirs, biographies, true crime, historical books, and Christian books in my to-be-read stack. I skip over them not because I don’t want to read them but because many are 500-plus page books.

I tend to choose shorter books if my goal is a certain number of books. So, in 2025, I want to ignore the page count and read what I want and will enjoy. I want to focus on the quality of books, not the number of books I read.

I do have a couple of goals outside of just learning through books this year.

Since I want to read more nonfiction, I will try to read one memoir, one biography or historical book, and one Christian book each month. I might not get it done each month, but if I can even come close to accomplishing that, I will increase my nonfiction reading this year.

I can’t wait to share the books I read for my year of learning through books in 2025.

I can’t wait to see what my 2025 reading holds!

I would love to hear your reading goals for 2025. Do you have any?