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!  

 

 

2026 Bookish In's and outs!

   We all know it's a New Year! 

We have a new 2026 Color from Pantone - frankly speaking, I hope Cloud Dancer has a pit of a purple or blue tinge, but no, the name is much nicer than the varied shade of white color. 

Here's  to a bland off white new year that we are going to pretend is amazing, right then....

What are some things that are IN for me for 2026? 

In terms of my reading? 

 Things that I'm going to continue to do  or try to incorporate into my reading. 

1. I'm going to continue to read diversely. Across genres. I'm going to continue to read Indie authors, and authors that don't look like me, or love like me, or live like me. I'm also going to pick up some books written by folks who do look, live, and love like me, because balance is important. 

2. I'm going to continue to read socially.  I'm going to continue my book clubs and buddy reads. I'm going to continue to post about and chat about books! 

3. Read on themes.  Using the themes in past years has really led me to discover new books and ideas, so of course I want to continue that. 

4. DNF  whenever I feel the need.  I do not understand slogging through a bad book when there are so many good ones out there. 

Vachon, J., photographer. (1938) Newspaper reading room of public library. Omaha, Nebraska. Nebraska Douglas County United States Omaha, 1938. Nov. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017762724/.

Things I'm going to try NOT to do in 2026:

1. Overconsumption of ARCs on NetGalley.  I get offered a lot of ARCs. Initially this was so flattering I took all of them!  Now I try to be more selective, but still occasionally find myself basically "adding to cart:" on ARCs, making it hard to get them all reviewed in a timely manner.  I sometimes also do this with the library taking home 8 books- instead of the two I will probably finish in the loan period. I am especially going to limit my Non Audio arcs, because my eye issues make me a slower reader than a listener.

2. Avoid Social Media Hot Takes.  When a creator is in need of content, It's a pretty common thing to see them throw up a post about "AUDIO-books are reading" which then almost always garners a bunch of others jumping in the comments to discuss, and other creators then posting the same "hot take" hoping for similar views.  I'm going to not participate.  I won't post these true lukewarm takes, and I won't be reposting, commenting or discussing them. I'm hoping to promote more unique content this way.  We shall see. I love a good HOT TAKE, but "audiobooks are reading" is about the coldest Hot take there is out there. 

What are your plans for 2026 for reading?