My 2025 Reading Intentions

I like doing these as it gives me time to reflect on what I have and haven’t achieved over the past twelve months, what is working and what isn’t. It is often why certain things stay the same and there are tweaks to certain intentions. This is why I call them intentions too, they are not hard and fast rules to stick by, the main intention is to read and enjoy it rather than obsessively trying to reach targets. I have reduced the number of books I read last year and will be sticking to the same target of 150 (ish). This I can cope with, given everything that has gone on this year and still isn’t over, reading 150 books over a year is much less stressful than 190 unsurprisingly…

My rule of thumb is to read whatever takes your interest, don’t be told what to read. If you have been recommended something and don’t like it, then stop. Make your own reading journey. Not everyone can like the same book and as strange as it sounds, everyone reads a slightly different book!

I have been thinking about supporting a charity that is aiming to get books into people’s hands who for whatever reason do not have the opportunity to get them. I like the sound of what Bookbanks, are doing and will see if I can support them in a small way next year.

 

Blogging

As I said last year, I have always tended to think of myself as a reader who blogs rather than just a book blogger. I have never had a huge following on social media, there are some out there who have 100K followers which is just staggering. I tend to have a niche reading interest, which may reflect my much lower following too. It has changed since I started, even what I thought were popular bloggers seems to have slipped from the limelight. Probably because everyone seems to be chasing the latest trends. I have never been that fashionable so I will keep doing what I am doing.

 

Books

Review Books

I am forever grateful for every single review copy that I receive. I am making a concerted plan to work through all of the review books that I have been sent and much reducing the number that I request still further. That said, I would be delighted to receive some of the books that were on my anticipated list… However, it is not a deal breaker, books that I really want to read I can get from the library or buy if necessary. I am hoping to read and review at least 60 books next year from that list.

 

My Own Books

I have been cataloguing the books that I have in the past few months, and have found numerous duplicates. Some I am keeping for one reason or another and I have passed on quite a lot so far. There are a few more to go, so keep an eye on my social media channels. The plan is to buy fewer books (HA!!) and I have been keeping a tally of book that came in and left the house for good. I can share those figures in my 2024 review, they are quite scary!

 

Library Books

I have got further down on the number of library books that I have out on both cars and have just under one shelf now. There is going to be a bit of a bump as the books I have reserved a while back finally turn up but I am aiming to get it to around 30 fairly soon.

 

Reading Plans

I am fairly happy with the mix of books that I am reading at the moment. I feel that I got the balance right between travel writing and natural history books last year, but as these make up the bulk of my collection, then I want to read more of them. I also want to read more science fiction and fiction, because, hey, why not? I also have some other intentions detailed below, that whilst not set in stone, I would like to achieve.

 

Themed Reads

This was an idea that I had a little while back, to pick a theme each month and read three or four books on that chosen subject from my gargantuan TBR. So next year I am going to do it. Here are the themes that I have picked for 2025.

Architecture

Art

Business / Economics

Environment

Food & Drink

History

Language

London

Maths

Memoir

Venice

Walking

 

Female Authors

I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2025.

 

Ethnic Minority Authors

I had my target set to 12 last year and I am going to set the same again for 2024. Slowly more ethnic minority authors are being commissioned in the genres that I like reading, but it is sadly too few still.

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Aiming again to average at least one a month for this. Science fiction is good for expanding the mind and as Terry Pratchett says: Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.

 

Fiction

I don’t read or buy a huge amount of fiction, but I do have a lot around that I have acquired or been sent. This year I am going to make an effort to read at least one fiction book a month. I probably won’t review them, but it depends on the book.

 

Poetry

I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year again.

 

Literary Awards

Last year I was a bit better at reading some of the shortlisted books from my favourite prizes (as usual). I did manage to read some from the minor prizes too, but still have a long list of books that I haven’t quite got to read yet… The same list of prizes from last year:

Wainwright

Stanford

Royal Society

Baillie Gifford

Arthur C Clarke

I would like to read some of the winners from other prizes too, including:

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize

Rathbones Folio Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Jhalak Prize

The Portico Prize

 

Challenges

I have concluded that challenges are great but they can distract me from reading the backlog that I have. I am going to stick to the 20 books of summer as I use that to clear a particular genre. I read fiction in 2024 and I am aiming to read science fiction for 2025.

 

The World From My Armchair Challenge

My ongoing challenge is to read a travel book set in or that passes through every country, sea and ocean in the world. I did slightly better at this in 2024 as I read four books for the challenge. I have twelve lined up for this and there will be an update on a blog post sometime in the first part of the year.

 

20 Books of Summer

This is run by the blogger, Cathy of 746 books. I normally sign up to read 20 books and will do so again this summer. I did manage to read all 20 books this year too, but finished the last well into autumn!

 

Other Bookish Stuff

Cataloguing Books

I am still cataloguing books! I have completed all nine that were in the original post, and have added in two more with another about to be filled soon. I have 2610 according to my spreadsheet and 312 of those are signed. According to the list I have read 882 and not read 1727! I thought I had read more of them than that!!! The spreadsheet is set up with a shelf number so I can find books when I need them!

 

Spreadsheets

I wrote about this back in 2023 here. I have now made further refinements and will write another post about these changes early next year. (It was going to be this year, and  I have the notes to type up, but not done it yet). My main master sheet works so much better than before!

 

Bookshelves

I wrote a blog post showing all my shelves here. I have drawn up a plan for what genre of books that I want on what shelf and still have not sorted it out! There are gaps on the shelves that I need to start shuffling around based on the plan. Let me know if you want to see more of my bookshelves in a blog post.

 

Planning Matrix

To try and get a grip on what books I want to read and when I have started to do things on what I call a Planning Matrix. Yes, it’s another spreadsheet and it is based on the set-up that I have developed, but uses a grid to collate what categories a particular book fits. I am finding it quite useful so far. If you want to hear more about it, let me know and I will include it in the spreadsheet post next year.

 

What aims or intentions do you have for next year? Let me know in the comments below or post a link to your post on your blog.