Happy New Year!
As 2026 gets underway, I’m taking a moment to think about my book-related goals for the year to come.
My bookish goals mainly have to do with my reading habits: What do I want to focus on more — or less? What types of books do I want to read? What challenges do I want to join or set for myself?
Many of my reading goals are similar to those from years before… but that’s okay! I’m a work in progress — and my life as a reader continues to evolve.
Below are goals (intentions) that I’ll try to keep in mind as 2026 rolls along.
READING CHALLENGES
I’ll be joining a few challenges, as well as creating a few just for me:
Goodreads:
This is one I do every year. Last year, my goal was 150 books, and I ended up reading 159. However — I want to take things a bit slower this year and give myself breathing room for longer books and/or books that take more concentration or effort. Keep in mind that my goal number includes print and audio books, and I usually also have at least a few graphic novels and children’s/middle grade books in the mix.
StoryGraph:
I love that StoryGraph lets us break out our annual goals in three ways: Total number of books, number of pages, and number of hours (for audiobooks). I think my page and hours numbers from last year are pretty doable, but once again, I’m going to lower my total book count for the year.
More StoryGraph challenges:
I’m creating several challenges for myself on StoryGraph to help me stay on track with my personal goals. I’ve set these up as public challenges, just in case anyone wants to join in… but really, my intention is to use these as motivation for myself! My challenges are:
- Non-Fiction Reading: Read at least 10 works of non-fiction — any topic will do.
- Read My Coffee Table Books: Because I have a tendency to buy these and not truly spend time enjoying them. This is the year to change that!
- Read My Shelves: My most important challenge of the year! I’m committing to reading at least 20 books that I’ve owned since 2025 or earlier.
- Getting Graphic: Making time for more graphic novels, especially those I own and haven’t read yet.
- Series Starters & Sequels Challenge: Committing to reading at least 10 books from series — either starting a new-to-me series or continuing a series I’ve already started.
- 20th Century Decades Challenge: This is a holdover from 2025 (and it’s a challenge I love). The goal was to read one book from each decade of the 20th century. I’ve made it through all but two, and decided to extend the end date so I could actually finish!
GENERAL INTENTIONS & GOALS FOR 2026:
Beyond the challenges, here are my overall goals related to reading, blogging, and my bookish life:
Read whatever I feel like, as much as I can. I say this every year… and every year it’s worth repeating! I’m always happiest when I read without a plan. It’s a wonderful feeling! Apart from ARCs and book group books, this is the approach that works for me… which is why I tend not to join big, popular reading challenges with a ton of prompts and categories to live up to.
Keep ARC requests manageable, and keep up with the ARCs I’ve committed to. I did really well with this goal in the 2nd half of 2025, but find myself starting 2026 with more ARC commitments than I’d really prefer. I’ll see them through — after all, my ARC request are all for books that I truly want to read! But beyond the ARCs I’ve already committed to, I’m going to attempt to limit my requests for the rest of the year.
Keep up with my book group books. We have our book-of-the-month picks all set for 2026, and I find I do best if I plan ahead and figure out in advance when to start each book.
Make time for my priority series for 2026, which I’ll be highlighting in a separate post this week.
Read books I already own. I know, I know… we all say this, every single year! I’m getting a little annoyed with myself for not doing a better job of reading books promptly after I add them to my shelves. I have so many books in my home and on my Kindle that I haven’t read yet — and while some no longer interest me, there are plenty more that I really do want to read. I’m going to push myself in this direction throughout the year, although it can be hard to keep the momentum going when favorite authors keep releasing new books.
Continue finding time for classics. I’ve been participating in the Classics Club spins for the past couple of years, which I love — but I have a big list of classics yet to read, and I’d like to carve out some time for at least one or two outside of the “spin cycle”.
Continue to pare down the number of physical books on my shelves, and be mindful about which I keep and which I send on their way. I’ve now had my own Little Free Library for over a year, and I’ve loved seeing the books come and go. When the LFL starts looking a little empty, I restock with a few books from my shelves that I haven’t looked at in ages. It’s a great feeling to see my “old” books get grabbed up and taken to a new home! I’m continuing to list books on Pango Books too, which helps me feel like I’m offsetting my book buying dollars a bit while also sending my gently loved books onward to someone new who’ll love them.
Do a big audiobook reread: I’ve been wanting to do an audio re-read of the Green Creek series by TJ Klune for a couple of years now. There’s also a new audiobook edition of Outlander, and well… it’s never a bad time for an Outlander re-read!
What are your bookish goals for 2026? Whatever they may be… wishing you lots of bookish delights!
Bookshelf Fantasies 