A recap of what I set out to do last year and a summary of how badly it went…
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.
Still here and still blogging. I have found a better routine for note taking for review books that seems to be working well. Just need to work on the backlog. How do people out there deal with unsolicited books? Read and review or pass on if not interested?
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.
I did manage to read 32 review books over the course of 2025. This was much less than I had been aiming for mostly because of the next category.
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!
I did manage to read 59 of my own books that had been anguishing on shelves for far too long over the course of 2025. Plus there were four that I had borrowed (from my daughter) that I read for the bookclub!
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.
I did manage to read 55 library books over the course of 2025. This was way more that I was intending to do, and was caused by a lot of reservations that then other had reserved!
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.
This kind of worked, and kind of didn’t as the need to read some other books took over! Still the same plan for this year though
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
This was based on an ide to read about a particular subject with a wider context. I did manged two books from the three that I wanted to some months and other months failed miserably! Not intending on doing it this year, but will probably do it in 2027
Female Authors
I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2025.
I made 36%, or 54 female authors this year. A little disappointed with this.
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.
I ended up reading 15 which I am really pleased about
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.
I ended up reading 14 Sci-Fi and fantasy over the year.
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.
I ended up reading 13 fiction books over the year.
Poetry
I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year again.
Succeeded in this intention!
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
I did read a few of the books that appeared on these prizes, but as ever, not as many as I hoped. Aiming to read the Stanford’s 2026 list this year as I actually had all the books!
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.
Had meant to read 12 but only read three! Three! There is this 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!
I read about ten by end of the year. But they were big chunky sci fi books so…
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!
This is ongoing. I am not trying to find some of the books that I thought that I had, but may well have been passed on. The search continues.
Totals now stand at
Total 2475
Read 812
Unread 1662
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!
This is an ongoing irritative process and I am still tweaking them as I go along.
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.
Not really got to this as yet. If we ever move this will get sorted properly (plus I need to clear another 400 books or so…)
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.
On its fourth version at the moment. I keep thinking I am going to have to change to a database at some point…
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