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.

First of all, I’m pleased to say that I’ve finished my Classics Club list at last! It’s my second list and seemed to take me a lot longer to complete than the first – I had almost given up hope! I’ll be posting my 50th and final review soon, along with a roundup post, then I’ll be ready to share my new list with you. I’m excited about being able to take part in the Classics Club Spins again after missing the last few due to not having enough books left.

The Read Christie challenge is back again for 2026 and the theme is ‘Biggest, Best, Beloved’. I’ve looked at the books of the month and alternative options for the year ahead and have already read a lot of them, but will probably join in for five or six of the months. Although I’ve read most of Christie’s novels now, I still have some of her short story collections and Mary Westmacott books to read and also need to finish the Tommy and Tuppence series. If you would like to take part, you can sign up for the Agatha Christie newsletter here and will receive an email with a postcard to complete and the full list of titles for the year.

As I mentioned last week, I’ll also be taking part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge again (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! I was disappointed to find that I only read one historical novel in translation last year, so I would like to improve on that, as well as expanding my range of time periods and geographical settings.

I read more non-fiction than usual in 2025 – eight books, which may not seem a lot to some people but is good for me! I want to continue reading non-fiction in 2026 and have several books on the TBR including The Story of Tudor Art by Christina J. Faraday, Eleanor by Alice Loxton and Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. First, though, I need to finish Helen Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart, which I’ve had on the go for several months already.

Every year I say I’m going to do some re-reading, but never seem to actually get round to it. The list of books I would like to re-read is getting longer and longer and I’m determined to find time for at least a few of them in 2025. Finally, I want to catch up with my Reading the Walter Scott Prize project. The aim is to read all of the shortlisted titles since the prize began in 2010, but I still have a lot of them to get through. I’m currently reading the 2025 winner, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, and will be looking out for the announcement of the 2026 longlist in February and shortlist in April.

I’m sure I’ll be joining in with some of the reading events hosted by other bloggers throughout the year, hopefully beginning with Dolce Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge this month. My ultimate resolution for 2026, though, is to choose my books carefully so that every book I read could be a potential book of the year! Wouldn’t that be nice?

~

What about you? Do you have any reading resolutions or plans for 2026? I hope your new year gets off to a great start!

Just a quick post today to mark the 15th anniversary of She Reads Novels! I never imagined when I published my first post back in October 2009 that my blog would still be here in 2024. I’ve seen a lot of changes in the book blogging community during that time and sadly many of the blogs I remember from when I first started are no longer around, but I’m still happy doing what I do here and am not planning to go anywhere!

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented or engaged in any way with my blog over the last 15 years – and let’s look forward to the next 15!

Just a quick post to wish a very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it – and for those who don’t, I hope you have a lovely day anyway!

Thank you to everyone who has read, liked or commented on my reviews throughout the year. It’s very much appreciated! Have a great Christmas and I’ll be back soon with one or two more posts before the end of the month.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone’s 2020 reading is getting off to a good start. My first read of the year is Big Sky by Kate Atkinson, which I’m enjoying so far. What’s yours?

When I posted my ‘favourite books of 2019’ list a few days ago, I mentioned that although I had read a lot of good books in 2019, there were very few that I can honestly say I loved. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but I think one of the reasons is that, particularly in the final months of the year, I was concentrating mainly on new releases and getting through my backlog of NetGalley review copies, and reading fewer of the older books that usually turn out to be my favourites. I want 2020 to be a more enjoyable reading year so, without being too specific in terms of targets and numbers, I have put together a short list of resolutions:

* Read more of the books that are already on my own shelves, some of which have been waiting for years for the ‘right time to read them’ to arrive.

* Re-read some old favourites – and don’t feel guilty for taking the time to do so.

* Make more progress with my Classics Club list and my personal projects such as Reading the Walter Scott Prize, both of which have been the source of some great discoveries in the past.

* Find a better balance between trying new authors and reading books by authors I already know and love.

* Continue with some of the series and trilogies I started years ago and inexplicably abandoned after one or two books, despite loving those one or two books!

* Be more ruthless about giving up on books that I’m not enjoying, rather than persevering to the end.

I’m hoping that by trying to follow these resolutions throughout 2020 I can make every book I pick up a potential book of the year!

Do you have any reading resolutions or plans for 2020?

On Christmas Eve, Heilige Abend, Anna’s household watched curiously as she set up a little fir tree in the hall, and decorated it with apples, nuts and some paper flowers she had made.

‘Martin Luther may be a heretic,’ she told them, fixing candles to the branches, ‘but he started a delightful custom that we in Kleve like to observe. One night, he was walking through a forest when he looked up and saw thousands of stars twinkling through the branches of the trees. It inspired him to set up a fir tree in his house, lit with candles, to remind his children of the starry heavens whence our Saviour came.’

From one of my current reads, Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir.

~

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it!