2025 Reading Wrap Up

 I had an AMAZING reading year in 2025. 

The rest of the year was, not at all amazing, but I am very glad I landed a new job in this very tough market. It was Fate, Kismet or Providence, I suppose. 

 As far reading. 

My Final Total number of Books Read is a whopping 207

This is unprecedented for me, and I feel I need to add in a caveat that a few of these were really more "short stories" that were packaged as books. 

That said, I still traversed multiple worlds through books and I had a great time doing it.  I enjoyed book clubs and book buddies and meeting readers of all sorts all year long! 

My 2026 Theme was Water.  I read books about the way water changed history, the way our climate is affecting water, oceans, rivers and storms. I've read books which had little to do with water, but had water in the title, and some having everything to do with water that did not initially even hint at it. 

Total Water Books:  39  or 18%

I have to admit, I had a lot of DNF's I am not sure that in the end, I loved my water theme, but I definitely read several books in translation that had water titles and that broadened my perspectives. 

Total Books with Diverse authors and themes: 

Diverse Author/Theme: 65  or 34%  

So, next year, I'm going to try to up that a bit.  I have to admit I'm not starting off too strong in that realm, so feel free to fire off some suggestions. 

Books in Translation: 14  Just 7% 

Soooo, will be looking for more books in translation. I've started on one already but I know I really have to keep on that metric if I want to include more. 

Overall, I feel like this was a fairly successful year. I am hopeful that next years reading theme of Outer Space will find me reading a lot on the topic, and the fact that there are loads of Space based romance will help.  While there is water based romance, I am not really one for people in love hanging out by the pool books, so it didn't seem to bump up the numbers. 

Next year I think I will also track what I complete on Audiobook and which reads are advanced copies from publishers!   I have a load of them over at Net Galley so lets see how that goes! 

 I've stayed at that 33% of reads being diverse reads, so for 2026, I'm going to modestly aim for 40%

As for Books in translation - whew.  Maybe 20% 

What are your reading goals? Do you seek out a certain type of author or book?  How do you choose!