Happy New Year! As I do every January, I am listing below some reading resolutions for the year ahead. I prefer not to set numerical targets and goals or anything that restricts my reading choices too much, so these are just some loose plans and projects to help shape my year of reading.
Read Christie 2025
I will be taking part in the Read Christie challenge again and this year’s theme is Characters and Careers. I doubt I’ll join in every month as that’s just too much for me and I’m also starting to run out of new Christie books to read. The prompt for January is characters who are artists and I’ve already read all of the suggested titles so maybe I’ll just wait until February. Last year I managed eight out of the twelve monthly books and will be quite happy to achieve the same this year, but as I said above, I don’t want to worry about numbers.
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
I’ll also be taking part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see my sign-up post here). This is never a very ‘challenging’ challenge for me, but I still like to join in and be part of the historical fiction community! In 2025 I would like to read more historical fiction in translation and/or set in countries I don’t often read about, particularly those in Africa, Asia or South America. Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome.
Classics Club list
I’ve been neglecting my Classics Club list recently, but there are only five books left on it now and I would like to read them soon so I can think about posting a new list. None of them are very long books, so I should be able to achieve that in the first few months of the year.
Re-reads
Every year I say I’m going to do some re-reading, but usually never actually get round to it. The list of books I would like to re-read is now very long and I’m determined to find time for at least a few of them in 2025. I’m tempted to join in with some of the Classics Club’s Jane Austen sync reads, which would all be re-reads for me!
Non-fiction
I never read much non-fiction, but read less than ever in 2024! Thanks to last year’s Nonfiction November and also the HWA Crown Awards longlist I’m not short of ideas and inspiration, so I’m hoping to read more in 2025. To get off to a good start, I’ve already picked up Britain’s Greatest Private Detective by Nell Darby, which is very interesting so far!
Reading the Walter Scott Prize
Reading the shortlists for the Walter Scott Prize is a personal project of mine. I’ve managed to read all of the books on the 2024 shortlist apart from one, The New Life by Tom Crewe, which I have on my TBR and am hoping to get to soon. There are still lots of books I haven’t read from the previous years’ lists, so I would like to catch up with some of them as well.
I’m sure I’ll be joining in with some of the reading events hosted by other bloggers throughout the year, but otherwise I just want 2025 to be a year of reading whatever I want to read, whenever I want to read it – and hopefully getting through more of the books that are already on my shelves or my Kindle rather than acquiring more. My ultimate resolution, as always, is to make every book I read a potential book of the year!
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What about you? Do you have any reading resolutions or plans for 2025?
She Reads Novels 
Reading whatever you want to read, whenever you want to read it sounds like a great goal to me.
It’s one of my goals every year, but I never really seem to achieve it – I get too tempted by NetGalley and reading challenges and events!
I think that I’m definitely getting fussier about NetGalley reads although in a way that’s a shame as I might be missing on great new authors
Happy New Year! I am sticking to my plan of buying fewer unread books, which worked pretty well last year. But I’m sure I’ll be tempted by recommendations and reviews!
Ditto!
Happy New Year! I don’t buy as many new books as I used to, but there are still lots of temptations!
Some interesting resolutions there, and I wish you luck with them. I have of course made plans and notes events/challenges myself but whether I stick to them is a different matter!!
Yes, sticking to plans is the difficult bit, but it’s fun to make them anyway!
Love it! I want 2025 to be a year of reading whatever I want whenever I want, too. Wishing you all the best this year. 😀
Thank you, Lark! I do have some plans for the year, but I’m hoping there’ll be plenty of time for random reading too.
You’ve done great on this year’s Walter Scott prize reading! I haven’t done so well, although I’ve read but not posted my review yet for A New Life. I must have missed your review of the Rose Tremain novel, or maybe I just forgot it was on the list, so I’ll link to your review of that.
Oh, I see you haven’t posted it yet. That makes me feel better.
I’ll probably be posting my Rose Tremain review next week or the week after. I just read it at the end of December.
OK, I’ll watch for it.
I think it might be the only one I haven’t read yet.
I’m still tidying up odds and ends from 2024 so I haven’t formally set my goals for this year quite yet, but one goal we have in common is to make more space for rereading. Something that’s always proven rewarding and worthwhile but which continues to fall into the background when new books are so tempting. Hopefully we can both hold that idea in mind to please ourselves with this year’s reading. Either way, enjoy what’s ahead of you in 2025!
I used to do a lot of rereading, but very little since I started blogging. I think blogging (or more specifically, reading other people’s blogs!) has made my TBR grow so much that there always seems to be something else I need to read first. I’m determined to make time for at least a few old favourites this year, but I’m not setting any targets!
#ReadRandomly is my personal resolution, though I also have to square that with challenges and prompts that catch my eye and which I pursue on an ad hoc basis. But looking at your resolutions and knowing your past reading habits I have little doubt that you’ll mostly be sticking to and achieving them! Good luck anyway, and have an enjoyable bookish New Year. 🙂
Thank you, Chris – you too! Although I have put a few loose plans and projects in place for the year, I’m hoping to #ReadRandomly as well. I find that random reads picked up on a whim are often the ones you enjoy the most.
I’m going to be totally relaxed about my reading this year, no challenges. My only plan is to read some of the books I’ve owned for years but haven’t got around to reading – despite being really thrilled when I originally got them. Happy New Year!
A relaxed approach to reading sounds good to me! Happy New Year to you too.
Sounds like a good set of resolutions, and I’m all for being relaxed about goals! Hope you find loads of great books (and don’t add them all to my wishlist… 😉 )!
Thank you. Being too strict about goals doesn’t work for me – I get easily distracted by other books!
I always start my reading year with a reread. This year I’m doing Agnes Grey. Austen is always a good reread. My goals are to chip away at the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, I only read one last year!
I’ve only read Agnes Grey once, years ago. It’s a book I would like to reread one day too. Good luck with the 1001 Books list!
I love the sound of the Classic Club List and I think I will take part this year as I love reading classics! 😊📚
I love classics too. The Classics Club is great because you can read at your own pace and take as long as you need to finish the books on your list.
I am very excited to take part! I am having so much fun creating my list of 50 books, but there are so many different ones that I have to choose between some of them. 😣😂