I went back and forth about my reading goals for 2026. Should I attempt it again, should I write down specific goals. Because lets be honest last year I only managed to check of eleven things of the list I drew up. BUT I always tell me and everyone who is listening if you only manage to cross of one thing or realized its no longer a priority it is working towards your goals. And so here I am again, making a reading goals list because it helps me along my way to reading diverse books, learn about things, stay curious about cultures and people and just be an open minded human being.
But before I dive in a quick check in to last year. I had put down 35 books I was planning on reading. I read 11 of the books. That is 31%. Which is well, not great.
This is why I am shifting my reading goals a little bit this year.
Tackling my Physical and Digital TBR List
This was a goal last year and I had defined 10 books I wanted to read. I am a mood reader at the end of the day and things that seem exciting to me at the beginning of a year just don’t hold any appeal a few months in.
However I still want to tackle this physical TBR list of 91 books and my plan is to read 12 books of my physical TBR in 2026. I will however make it random and fun and will pick a number between 1-92 (decreasing hopefully) each month. I have the option to put the book back in the drawing pot twice each month. If a book as been put back three times I will HAVE TO donate it to the free little library as I will most likely never feel like reading it.
Here are the books I have picked:
- January: The Lantern of lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
As of today I have a ton (to be precise 648) unread ebooks on my kindle. My goal is to go through this list and delete every book that has a rating below 3 on Goodreads/Storygraph/Amazon. I will hopefully come in under 500 books after that. Additionally I will try to read 12 ebooks I already own this year.
- January: none – all from the library
Reading Through The Seasons
I have created a storygraph challenge and if you need any inspiration on reading and prompts I invite you to join me. The prompts are:
- A book with WINTER in its title.
- A book with RAIN/SNOW in its title.
- A book with SPRING in its title.
- A book with SUMMER in its title.
- A book with SUN in its title.
- A book with FALL/AUTUMN in its title.
- A book with CHRISTMAS in its title.
More books I want to read
- I will continue reading my Read Around the World list. I am hoping to come in with 10 books for new countries. I have selected 5 books and leave 5 to be decided as I feel like
- Colombia – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- Iran – Martyr by Kaveh Akbar – on my kindle TBR, already bought, a DNF in 2025, new try in 2026
- Latvia – Wellen by Eduard van Keyserling – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- China – Leaving Mother Lake by Yang Erche Namu – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- United Arab Emirates – Femina by Janina Ramirez – available through my library app
- Russia – Hier sind Löwen by Katerina Poladjan – available through my library app
- Reading three books with CURIOUS or CURIOSITY in the title. Here are a few book titles I find intriguing: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers | Der Neugier Code | Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex | Curious Tides | Evie the Curious Drop | Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away | A Curious History of Sex | A Year of living Curiously
- Read four 500+ page books. Preferably from either my digital or physical TBR.
Some additional reading goals for 2026
- My goal is to read more fantasy (if possible stay clear of romantasy).
- My top genre in 2026 is not going to be romance.
- I will read four books by ethnicities I know nothing or little about.
- I will read one book that won a Nobel Prize.
- I will do a book inventory and catalogue all books I own and use my book stamp.
- I will return three of the borrowed books to my parents.
- I will no longer track my reading on Goodreads and make the complete switch to Storygraph however I will check for reviews and see what friends read
- I will read 18,250 pages in 2026 – 50 pages per day.
- I will read 80 books in 2026.
- I will listen to 200 hours of audiobooks in 2026.
- My book budget will be 25€ : 10€ library fee + 15€ just because + all the money I can make by selling books from my shelf. This is majorly tight since I have my eye on two books I am itching to buy each 10€. Additional gift vouchers are welcome. Ha!
- My goal is to only purchase books that I need for the Book Clubs.
Alright, the reading year is again packed like crazy and a bit overwhelming but here we are shooting for the moon and landing among stars.
Do you have reading plans? is there a book I should add because you think I can’t enjoy 2026 without it? Will you read a book from other countries? Do you have a genre you want to read more of in 2026? Are we friends on Goodreads and/or Storygraph?
15 comments
I am always so impressed with your Read Around the World challenge and I think I am going to do it and then I don’t. LOL. Maybe this year will be the year? (Probably not.)
This is A LOT of reading goals. I wish you all the luck, friend!
I KNOW. From not sure I do a reading goal to this list is crazy. What am I thinking. Nothing really. I guess I just like making plans and not follow through.
Wow, that’s a lot of goals and very specific goals too. Me? I decided this year if I read more than one book I’ll have achieved more than I did last year.
Good luck.
That’s a clear goal, you can do it.
I believe I was still delusional from being sick because those reading goals are impossible
You never know what you might achieve this year. Better to aim high than not to aim for anything at all.
I love to read, but I tend to stick to the same thing over and over again. I admit that I read a lot of trash. Mainly because I use it as an escape and don’t have to think. But I am finding those books to be so unfulfilling. Last year I had a modest goal of trying to read 2-5 books that are out of my usual comfort zone. I read exactly ZERO. I do want to try and make that my goal for this year again.
I do love your idea of reading through the seasons. That really caught my attention and intrigued me. I do read a lot, but most of it is not even worth mentioning or commenting on. Sad, I know.
Those are some very ambitious goals you have and I hope you can get at least 50% done this year. I also am gobsmacked over the number of unread books you have in your Kindle. Yikes! You would have to read 12 hours a day, every day, for a good long while in order to whittle down that pile. I wish you luck in whittling down that pile.
Maybe my hobby is collecting books that cost nothing and I don’t read. I don’t know. It’s just stupid but when I see a freebie I download it. Often they later have a pricetag bit also ratings and then I see if I made a bargain or should just delete it. But I also found really great books from unknown authors. It’s like a treasure hunt.
I hope I can make 50% of that goal.
I have had years and years of reading trash. It brought me back to reading so I still enjoyed it and now I try to venture out.
Maybe you can join me on the season challenge and find a fitting book.
I love this post! I love to set reading goals because they are my favorite to accomplish (and I’m pretty good at doing them, too). This year, my big reading goal is to just carve out more TIME for reading in my day. I’m starting each morning by making a cup of coffee and then reading until I’ve finished my coffee, reading during my lunch break (rather than scrolling Reddit), and ending each day with 30 minutes – 1 hour of reading time.
I also made myself an Unread Shelf challenge for 2026, so that will be fun to accomplish throughout the year!
Good luck on your reading goals. I really want to do a Read Around the World challenge – I just need to start a list!
Tour morning routine sounds great. I used to be so good in reading non fiction in the morning but now with exercising and all I am not doing that. Maybe one day I will get back into that routine.
I feel like my entire shelf is an Unread shelf. Sigh. So many books. Not enough time or mental capacity.
Here is to 2026 being a great reading year.
Great post and all the best with your reading goals!
I didn’t update my Goodreads challenge last year but I know I didn’t read as much as I thought I would.
This year one of my book goals is to do more book reviews on my website.
I feel I wrote this post in a delirium. It is maybe a little too ambitious. But than Peter something to strive towards than not knowing where to go.
Looking forward to your book reviews.
These are really cool and creative goals for this year! One of my most important goals this year is to DNF without shame. My TBR is also really long and I don’t want to waste precious time hate-reading (although fun), knowing I could move on to a better read. A genre I’d like to get more into is fiction, especially if it has some secret family drama and messy tea. :P
Welcome. I love your goal of DNFing books without shame. I had to put that on the goal list a few years back. Still hard bit it gets better. There are so many great books out there and I will never (unfortunately) read everything on my TBR so it is better to move on.
what an impressive goal list! I am a spontaneous reader and read what I need at the moment. I also have a lot of uread/read/samples In kindle that I am procrastinating to deal with. do you have any good system to organize them?
I am I. The end a mood reader myself so I rarely stick to the goals I set in the beginning. However it sometimes helps me to reread and realize I wanted to dive deeper into certain genres or topics.
As for ebook I actually did write a blogpost back in the day how I organize my ebooks. You can read it here https://www.craftaliciousme.com/ebook-organization-helpful-tips-and-tricks/
It’s overall still accurate only that I made the switch from goodreads to StoryGraph this year.