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!