My Bookish Goals For 2025 – A Winter Check-in

One month to go to complete the ten goals I set myself. Time then to check whether or not I’m on track…

1. Achieve my Goodreads goal of reading 104 books – I’ve read 91 books so far this year meaning I’m 5 books behind schedule.
2. Read more of the books I already own, including:
   • At least 20 books that have been in my TBR pile for longer than two years, i.e. January 2023 or prior – I’ve read 15 so far and quite pleased with that.
   • The 5 remaining books on my Backlist Burrow list, a challenge I started in 2023 but have made little progress with – No progress, sadly and unlikely to be in the time remaining
3. Attend Henley Literary Festival and at least one other literary event – I went to several events at Henley Literary Festival and attended the Borders Book Festival in Melrose for the first time.
4. Complete two historical fiction reading challenges:
   • When Are You Reading? Challenge (see my updated post here) – I’ve matched 10 of the 12 time periods and have books identified for the final two.
   • Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – By my calculation I’ve already surpassed my target of 50 books.
5. Complete the What’s in a Name Challenge (see my updated post here) – Annoyingly, I’m just missing that last one…
6. Read all the books on The Walter Scott Prize 2025 longlist before the shortlist is announced – I didn’t manage this but I did read all the shortlisted book before the winner was announced. And I was there at the Borders Book Festival when it was!
7. Reach the point where I’m read and reviewing every book on my NetGalley shelf in advance of publication – I nearly managed it! Just one book left on my shelf that’s a 2025 publication, the rest are 2026. My feedback ratio is now 99%. I know, showing off…
8. Take part in a reading challenge I haven’t done before (see my updated post here) – I took part in the Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Shellyrae at Book’d Out and read three, which was my target.
9. Finally bite the bullet and update my blog’s theme – Pretty obvious I haven’t got around to this yet again.
10. Embrace audiobooks and aim to listen to one per month – It hasn’t been strictly one per month but I’ve listened to 12 with one more I hope to finish before the end of the year.

I think I’m going to give myself 7/10. If you set yourself any bookish goals this year, how are you getting on?