Oh hello there 2025 . Will you be filled with great books? Let’s hope so since reading is one of my hobbies I spent most my time with. As you know I love to read all genres and type of stories and therefore always putting more books on my TBR than I will ever manage to read. It is a dilemma and I am rather certain there won’t be a solution in my lifetime. So here I am setting a reading goal for 2025 in order to chip away at this never ending To-Be-Read list.
But before I dive in a quick check in to last year. I had put down 31 books I was planning on reading. I read 25 of the books. That is 80%. Which is so much better than I thought because it felt like I didn’t read much from the list. I will most likely not make 100% on my readings goals in 2025 but that doesn’t stop me to put some down.
Tackling my Physical TBR List
I have shared recently that my physical TBR holds 93 books. That means 93 books take up space in my shelves and I don’t even know if I like them. I may get rid of them. So high time t ship away. Also my goal is to be by no more than 20 unread books by May 24, 2025 – do I hear you laugh? I sure do.
- Oldest book on my shelf – need to figure out which one that is but could be there for 20 years
- The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah – on my shelf since 2020
- Der Jude mit dem Hakenkreuz: Meine deutsche Familie by Lorenz S. Beckhardt – on my shelf since July 20, 2020
- And the Mountains Echoed | Der Traumsammler by Khaled Hosseini– on my shelf since April 13, 2021
- Kranichland by Anja Baumheier – on my shelf since September 27, 2022
- Tulpenliebe by Femke Roobol – on my shelf since September 22, 2023
- The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams – on my shelf since Christmas 2023
- A Room of One’s Own | Ein Zimmer für sich allein by Virginia Wolfe – on my shelf since Christmas 2023
- Nachts ist es leise in Teheran by Shida Bazyar – on my shelf since April 2024
- Skipping Christmas | Das Fest by John Grisham – on my shelf since Christmas 2024
Tackling my Digital TBR List
I have a ton (to be precise 627) unread ebooks on my kindle. Time to make a dent and get some marked as read.
- Ungeduld des Herzens by Stefan Zweig – on my kindle TBR since February 18, 2019
- Die Wikingerskalvin by Sabine Wassermann – on my kindle TBR since April 13, 2019
- Beschützerin des Hauses by Marlene Klaus – on my kindle TBR since May 11, 2020
- Until after the Rain by Javier Ramiréz – on my kindle TBR since September 13, 2020
- Maame by Jessica George – on my kindle TBR since July 19, 2023
- The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten – on my kindle TBR since April 7, 2024
- Armor of Light by Ken Follet – on my kindle TBR since October 2, 2024
- Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – on my kindle TBR since November 13, 2024
- The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown – on my kindle TBR since January 2, 2025
- TBA some fantasy book
More books I want to read
- A book a month for my Read Around the World list. And make it ten new countries too.
- Colombia – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- Ethiopia – King of Kings: The Triumph and tragedy of the emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia by Asfa-Wossen Assert – from my Dad’s book shelf
- Iran – Martyr by Kaveh Akbar – on my kindle TBR, already bought
- Latvia – Wellen by Eduard van Keyserling – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- Poland – historic fiction set in Gdansk
- South Sudan – Nomadenkind by Alek Wek – physical TBR, sitting on my shelf
- Tunesien – Die Despoten vor Europas Haustür by Sihem Bensedrine – from my Dad’s book shelf
- Haiti – Stone of Hope by Jim St. Germain – ebook freebie on my kindle
- Argentina – Fever Dreams by Samanta Schweblin – available through my library app
- United Arab Emirates – Femina by Janina Ramirez – available through my library app
- Russia – Hier sind Löwen by Katerina Poladjan – available through my library app
- TBA
- Reading three books with ELEVATE or ELEVATION in the title
- ✔ The Mr. Thank you Project: A journey to elevate the level of gratitude on the planet…one card at a time by John Israel
- Elevation by Stephan King – this would be my first King novel and I am scared. I don’t read horror but here I am elevating my reading genres.
- Heart of a Coyboy (Higher Elevation Series) by Jodi Payne, BA Tortuga – a gay cowboy romance… intriguing
- Read four 500+ page books. Some of the above are eligible.
Some additional reading goals for 2025
- I will finish my struggle book of 2024 your absence is darkness. Bonus it will count as book for the RatW challenge and is my joker because it is not listed above. Sneaky me.
- My book budget will be 35€ – 10€ library fee + 15€ gift voucher from San +10 € just because + all the money I can make by selling books from my shelf.
- My goal ist to only purchase books that I want to read for my Read Around the World Challenge or need for the Book Club. (Already failed with the book I purchased Jan 2nd. But since this wasn’t published it is not counting, right?)
- My goal ist to read more historical fiction.
- My top genre in 2025 is not going to be romance.
- I have joined the storygraph rainbow challenge because it is fun. It looks possible to achieve that. Also joined the read around the world challenge but that is more to sort books for my challenge.
- I will go through my accumulated ebooks and delete the ones I am no longer interested in.
- I will read 20,000 pages in 2025.
- I will read 80 books in 2025.
- I will listen to 200 hours of audiobooks in 2025.
Alright, the reading year will be exciting. I am so looking forward to it.
Do you have reading plans? is there a book I should add because you think I can’t enjoy 20205 without it? Will you read a book from other countries? Do you have a genre you want to read more of in 2025? Are we friends on Goodreads and/or Storygraph?
12 comments
I loved The Nightingale, you should definitely make sure you read this. I don’t have any new reading goals except that I would like to reread Sharon Penman’s Welsh Trilogy before we go to Wales in April (or at least the first book). They are probably one of the reasons I’m keen to go to Wales and see Edward’s Castles.
I love reading books that are taking place in locations I am visiting or going to visit. Hope you manage to read your book. I have never heard of it but one day I want to see the old castles in Britannia. Scotland has been a long time dream but Wales seems so great too.
I only heard good things of Kristen Hannahs books but with everything going on globally I didnt feel I could stomach war novels in 2024. I hope to read some this year though.
I read The Nightingale and liked it, but I read it right after reading a very similar book, about women in occupied France in WWII. I think I would have liked it more if I had read it first, but they were too similar.
I don’t have any plans other than to read the books that have been given to me, or that I have borrowed from the library. No real theme at this point, or number of books I hope to read, none of that. I do enjoy seeing what others read and their challenges, though, so I will follow along.
I am on Goodreads, but I am the most boring friend ever there. I set up my account years ago, put in all of the books I could think of, at least until I got bored with it, and haven’t touched it since. So it has nothing to do with current me’s reading. Or even 10 year ago me’s reading, I don’t think.
Haha that is fun how you do your Goodreads account. I have one like that for traveling places. Put all in and then never looked at it again.
My reading goals are more of a guideline for me. I am a mood reader so in the end I read what I want to read in that moment. But in the case I don’t know forward I can consult the list. It also helps me look at all my unread books and get an overview. Like doing inventory.
The WWII books are all very similar or at least it feels like it. I may start with The Nightingale on the historic fiction journey this year. And take it from there.
Your read around the world list sounds interesting. I don’t have reading goals, but I do have a wish list in my Audible account. It’s out of control with so many titles on it!
I feel you. My wishlist and TBR is anything but healthy. There are just so so many books I am interested. I sad I will never be able to read them all.
Well, if we ever break our legs and end up in the hospital in traction, the silver lining will be we can read all the books on our TBRs! I also have so many books I want to read- I fantasize about having a huge chunk of time with nothing to do but read.
My goal for 2025 is 60 books. One of the books I got for Christmas is Jostein Gaarder’s The Solitaire Mystery, which I heard about from your blog! I can’t wait to read it, but I have two lengthy sci fi books to make my way through first.
Here’s to a great year of reading for both of us!
We will definitely not run out of new titles to read. Not sure I would want broken legs though haha.
Enjoy you sci-fi novels and k am looking forward to hearing what you thought.
I stopped with a digital list long ago, it was almost 700+ books. It became silly.
Now I keep a little brown notebook with names of books I’d like to read, plus ones to get out from the library (if I see them).
And a separate short list (20 titles) of books I would really loved to read next. But I only get to buy another book if I have read one off my TBR pile on the coffee table. Which I thought was a good way to make me finish the books I have before I buy more.
Not putting pressure on myself. I want to read 30 books this year. That way I hope I will actually read more.
That’s probably a good idea to not have a digital list…
I rarely buy book ms so that part is eliminated yet there are still new ones on my shelves faster than I can read so the von one in one out doesn’t work either.
Hope you have a good reading year.
Your Read Around the World challenge is what spurred me on to add a column to my spreadsheet of where the author was born. It turns out that I’m not doing a good job of being geographically diverse. I don’t know if that will change this year, but sometimes just thinking about it can encourage me to pick a new-to-me author. Thanks for the inspiration!
You are very welcome and I hope you find some interesting new novels. I mean derange was international and you loved that one. I am sure other gems are for you to find.