The 2025 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[CAFlanny]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Has anyone given much thought to next year's challenges?

I really enjoyed doing my alphabet challenge, so I'm going to do it again, but I think I'll go backwards next year, Z-A. The limiting factor of X means I probably can't keep doing it, but I did have at least one other good option.

I failed quite badly on reading books bought in 2025, so I might add an extra challenge to make up ground, but is that just going to make it worse?

It has partly been Kindle Unlimited causing the trouble this year: I don't want to read purchased books when I'm on KU, and I will have had 5 months on KU this year. I don't think it's good value at full price, but that mean's I don't hang around when I get a good offer. My current spell is going to put me behind on my reddit Fantasy Bingo Card, too, and that will cause problems for my other challenges as I try to catch up in January.

I totally failed to keep up with Storygraph, so this is still my main place for tracking my challenges, even though it seems to have got quieter in recent years.

I canceled Kindle Unlimited for this reason. My sub runs out at the end of January. Between KU and Kobo Plus, I was never getting around to reading the books I own. One of my goals for 2026 is to have 75% of books read come from my owned TBR.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Has anyone given much thought to next year's challenges?

Other than my page count goal I haven't had a secondary goal for a few years (2019). Although, my commute changed again this year, so I have more reading time and I might expand my goals again.

I keep thinking about doing something like what HomeInMyShoes used to do - a country challenge where the goal is to read books from as many different countries as possible.

That said, I really haven't decided on anything yet.

[issybird]

I've been thinking about 2026 and I'm coming close to setting my challenges, but I'm not quite there.

As for 2025, my doorstop challenge has been an abysmal failure. And I knew last spring that committing to reading a Victorian novel for a book group at the same time I needed to get another doorstop read was a guaranteed fail, but I persisted. I never did get back on track.

Reading all my 2025 purchases was never a formal challenge, but it was on my mind. I was doing great though July; since then I've bought five books and read only one and the other four aren't going to be read by year's end. Right now, I'm trying to hold the thought that I never get substantive reading done during the holidays and with Thanksgiving this week, I need to focus on finishing what I've started and not starting anything major until next year. I hope that typing that here bolsters my resolve!

[astrangerhere]

Is anyone interested in me setting up the storygraph challenge again?

[CAFlanny]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Is anyone interested in me setting up the storygraph challenge again?

Yes, please. I do it every year.

[pdurrant]

The 2026 list thread is up: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=370912

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Is anyone interested in me setting up the storygraph challenge again?

Yes. Thank you.

[pdurrant]

In November I bought 18 and got two freebies. I read 10.

It looks like I'll increase my TBR this year by around 40 or so.

This is really driven by buying far too many books in February (37), March (27) and July (38). My average for the 8 months excluding those is 11.5. And my average books read per month this year so far is 13.5.

So if I can avoid the large purchase splurges, I might be able to reduce my TBR again next year like I did last year.

My current TBR is 718. Perhaps I can end 2025 with it under 710.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by CAFlanny

Yes, please. I do it every year.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes. Thank you.

I'll get it up by the end of the week!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I'll get it up by the end of the week!

Do you know how that sounds?

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you know how that sounds?

I'm a gay woman so it is as far from any usable insinuation to me as it can be.

For those asking, the 2026 Mobile Read Users TBR Challenge is live on StoryGraph!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I'm a gay woman so it is as far from any usable insinuation to me as it can be.

For those asking, the 2026 Mobile Read Users TBR Challenge is live on StoryGraph!

Thank you. I've started adding books to the challenge.

[Tarana]

Little late posting for November. I'm struggling. Family health issues have whomped concentration, so I'm not getting through books at my usual speed. I still think I can make this year's goal but it will be cutting it close. As far as stopping the inflow, I just came off the Audible member sale and it's pretty hard to resist audiobooks at $2-3 each. Only 3 ebook additions though. No new authors or series.

2025 Goals

60 books: 55
20,000 pages: 19,252
4 books over 600 pages: 2

[sakura-panda]

I read more books this year than in each of the three years before, so I feel this has been a pretty successful year. I'm going to go backwards next year and read fewer books; I feel like I gave up a few things in my effort to make reading a habit again. I would be happy with a 2-3 books a month pace for next year .

[Waylander]

On my Goodreads, my 2025 Challenge is showing one book less than on my 2025 shelf: 180 on the challenge count, 181 on the shelf. Does anyone have an idea why this is? I'd like to sort it, because the discrepancy is annoying me.