Review of my 2025 reading goals and any themes or thoughts from my reading.

2025 Specific Goals

Continue Ascendance of a bookworm light novels series – Finished in April 2025.

Read 12 books by Irish authors – This was a struggle and I fell behind due to my midyear slump. 12 books from one small country was not that easy. I achieved it by October, but it was not as fun so I would not do 12 again.

Reading Glasses Challenge 2025 – This was not difficult and I liked the reading the oldest book on my TBR.

The StoryGraph Genre Challenge 2025 – This was more difficult particularly finding books about video games and queer horror. I completed and I do like how this puts me outside of my comfort zone.

GoodReads Challenges – GR has a list of seasonal challenges which are usually books that are newer and more popular. However, I did read a couple of books from minority authors which I would not have done if I had not tried these challenges.

Ongoing Annual Challenges

Read 80 books – 200 in 2025. As mentioned in last year’s review, I am keeping my yearly goal to 80-100 so I can have a life. If I did not have to work, 150-200 would be easy but I have to work and I have many responsibilities and a couple of other hobbies to cultivate.

Read more books from my shelves – Read 28 out of 200 which is 14%. This much lower than the 17% in 2024 and 23% of 2023. The increase in audio and fantasy meant I was not reading a lot of print in general. I created a new challenge in 2026 which will hopefully address this.

Read three classics from Boxall list: Achieved 6. I liked most of them too.

Read one poetry book – According The Storygraph, four books counted as poetry and all of them were children or YA books. I realized that I like novels in verse too.

Read one French book – I read one children’s book and listened to French language audiobooks. I am going to make a new challenge for this in 2026 as I want to do better.

Read one Shakespeare play – Failed in 2024 and 2025. Already ahead in 2026.

Keep physical library books at less than 10 books at any time – Well that was a problem midyear when I found it difficult to read in general and had stacks of books from library and elsewhere.

Read more from previously started series: I may take this off since I do not care that much about it.

Read more classics: This is an ongoing alongside the Boxall challenge. Going well as I did more modern, twentieth century classics as well.

Read more ebooks and audiobooks: Goal was to increase to one third digital both audio and e-text. Print: 33%. Audio: 38%. Digital: 30%. I listened to a lot more audiobooks in 2025 particularly in the stressful summer period when we sold my father’s house and then assisted his move to his new place. I found it really difficult to read from May to almost November. Concentrating or enjoying texts were a lot harder. I really like audiobooks and they are are really convenient for my walks. I would like to returning to read more print and text. I am pausing this for 2026.

Average Rating

From The Storygraph, my Average Rating for the year of 200 books is 3.99. A few years ago, I changed how I rated books. Generally, I will give most things 3.5-4 now so I am pleased with this result. I also grade children and middle grade books on a bell curve and tend to give them 4-5.

Overall, the average rating meant I enjoyed most of the books I read this year.

Best Books of 2025 by Month

As noted above, I hit a reading slump from around May into the autumn. Jan-April were outstanding though.

JANUARY
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

FEBRUARY
Ascendance of a Bookworm (Light Novel), Part 2 Volume 4 by Miya Kazuki, Y? Shiina (Illustrator), Quof (Translator)
Crossing the Line by Kareem Rosser

MARCH
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Ascendance of a Bookworm series

APRIL
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5 Volume 12 by Miya Kazuki
Murderbot series by Martha Wells

MAY
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

JUNE
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

JULY
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

AUGUST
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom

SEPTEMBER
Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’Farrell

OCTOBER
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

NOVEMBER
Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang
Kristy’s Great Idea – The Baby-sitters Club Graphic Novel Series #1 by Ann M. Martin with Raina Telgemeier (Illustrator)

DECEMBER
The Secret History by Donna Tartt