Year in Books

Goodreads says that I read 190 books in 2025. The shortest one is 28 pages (Grandma’s House by Amy Tackett, one star, yuck), and the longest is 693 pages (The Miracle at St. Bruno’s by Philippa Carr, two stars, meh). The average page count is 284, and my average star rating is 3.1. Included in this count are many short stories and novellas ~ unless they’re in a collection, GR counts them as one book.

This is too many books, and unlike everyone else in my book club, my goal for 2026 is to read fewer books. Not only did I slog through a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t even enjoy, but also I read way too fast to retain much of anything. I have been tossing loads of books into the DNF pile, and I need to double down on that. Unless it’s a discussion book for one of my clubs, there is no reason to continue on with something I dislike. And so what if it’s just a “mood” and I might enjoy it later? One chance per book. There are simply too many others out there to try. 

Last year I began a 100-book challenge, and although I read way over 100 books, I failed at the challenge. It’s just too annoying to spend time hunting down books to meet the arbitrary criteria of these challenges. That said, I am participating in a genre hop challenge next year because I really to want to get out of the psycho thriller and Regency romance rut. Of course, I will gobble up plenty of books in each of those genres, but once a month (minimum) I will also add in something else. I’m really looking forward to it!

I previously mentioned that I would start reviewing my books read in 2026 on GR, and I’ve already begun to do that this month to get in the habit. I also said I would add a DNR tag to my GR shelf, but I changed my mind on that because it’s a hassle. If I get all fuzzy-brained and start a book I previously marked DNF, who cares? Most likely I will still hate it on the second try, but if not, then cool.