Top Ten Tuesday

#TopTenTuesday: 2025 Bookish Goals!

Dini @ dinipandareads60 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is Bookish Goals for 2025 (How many books do you want to read this year? Are you hoping to read outside your comfort zone? Are there books you meant to read last year but never got to? Are there new-to-you authors you’re hoping to read?)

I set goals at the beginning of each year, however, just like with TBRs and other to-do lists, I’m great at making them but not so great at checking in or following through. 🤭 While keeping it simple works best for me, it seems I’ve gone a little wild this year with the challenges*! Many of these feed into the same goal so there’ll be plenty of overlap, which should keep the stress levels to the bare minimum!

*By this time of the year, I usually would’ve posted a few individual challenge posts with prompts + book possibilities but it’s coming in the week ahead!

Goodreads Reading Challenge

I love the Goodreads Reading Challenge and I set a goal every year. My goal this year is to read 150 books!

Buzzword (Title) Challenge

I did the Buzzword Reading Challenge for the first time in 2024 and had so much fun! Despite hitting some major road bumps along the way, I happily completed it by the end of the year, which is why I’ve decided to do it again in 2025! 😍

Popsugar Reading Challenge

I’ve only attempted the Popsugar Challenge once and failed so miserably that I said I’d never do it again, yet here we are giving it one more go in 2025. 🫣 I don’t know why but I’m feeling good about it so let’s see where the year takes me!

Owlcrate Monthly Challenge

I used to subscribe to Owlcrate back in the day and have accumulated too many books that I still haven’t read. 🤣 A few other bloggers and I will have decided to work our way through the backlist together starting this month with Sweet & Bitter Magic!

Reading my owned Illumicrate books

Similar to the Owlcrate situation, I’ve got tons of unread Illumicrate books sitting on my shelf that I need (and want) to read. I plan on writing down all the titles and tossing them into a TBR jar so I can pick one each month. I’m just trying to keep it as fuss free as possible!

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge

I’ve got so many unread books sitting on my shelf it should be criminal. To make my way through my backlist this year, I thought I’d officially join the Beat the Backlist Challenge, which also has some fun prompts to help readers!

Get my NetGalley ratio to 80%

This is a goal that I’ve yet to achieve in the years I’ve been using NetGalley. I don’t want to achieve this goal because I believe it’ll help me access more titles because as an international reviewer, I’ve given up that dream ages ago. I think now I just want to achieve it to say that I’ve done it! 🤣 But I mean… That also means I’ll make a dent my ARC backlist and that’s my other goal…

Read at least 1 backlist ARCs per month

I’ve got… an unfortunate number of backlist ARCs on my NetGalley shelf and while I made some progress getting through them last year, there are still plenty that I have an interest in reading (eventually). I also DNF a few titles and I want to properly DNF them so I can move on from having them on my list!

Listen to more audiobooks

Despite not listening to a lot of audiobooks, I own a lot of them thanks to my Audible subscription and the one credit I earn each month. The thing with audiobooks is that they always take more concentration for me than reading a physical/digital book. When I listen to audios I prefer to have an immersive experience so I pair them with books I already own!

DNF more books

This is a simple goal that’s always the most difficult for me to achieve. My brain lives in a state of FOMO while reading, even if I’m not always enjoying it, and I somehow always manage to convince myself that I might miss out on the book getting better if I stop reading now. It rarely does and yet… 🤭

That’s it for my bookish goals for 2025! Do we have any similar goals? Are you also trying to work your way through your backlist and ARC list?

60 thoughts on “#TopTenTuesday: 2025 Bookish Goals!”

    • Ooh, maybe if we have some overlapping Illumicrate books we can do buddy reads for them (if you’re up to tackling those sub box books)! Let me know 😃 Those books are always so freaking easy to accumulate. I had to put a stop to my IC sub so that I can at least try to make it through some of them before deciding whether I want to rejoin or not, haha

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  3. We have a lot of similar goals! I also went with 150 because I felt like it was doable. I need to get caught up on arcs too! I basically quit reading them since October, haha. Hopefully we can hit our goals this year!

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    • It seems like you’ve had a lot going on and having been through that burn out phase, I totally get how hard it is to get back to doing anything! I hope you find the reading mojo again this year, Joanna! I hope you enjoy achieving your goals and happy reading 😊

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  4. I love the challenges you joined, lots of variety. I’m also going to give priority to my Backlist, about audiobooks. I love them, but I can’t listen any book. They have to be 10/12 hours maximum and I prefer contemporary, young adult, romance or middle grade. It’s easier for me to focus than if it’s historical, classic or fantasy.

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    • YAY for giving priority to your backlist! I’ve seen so many people say the same and I hope we all get to make decent dents in our lists 🙂 Despite loving romance, that’s one genre of audiobooks that I can’t do. I find the different voices to be so different to what I imagine in my head, especially when it’s dual perspective. It takes me out of the read! But I do want to give more of them a go this year. I’ve got some YA and contemporaries lined up and I can’t wait to try them!

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  5. DNF’ing more books should have really been on my list of goals too, I’m horrible at that! (Last year, I read a 700+ page book all the way through despite not liking it but I just couldn’t DNF because I thought it might get better… it didn’t).

    I love the challenges you joined! I think challenges are so fun, but I suck at completing them – maybe I could start slowly with like one though…

    Good luck with all your goals this year!

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    • That’s really my biggest problem with DNFing—my brain keeps tricking me into believing there’s hope that things COULD get better and it usually never does. I’m sorry you suffered through those 700 pages (omg, that’s so chonky)! I hope you manage to DNF more this year 🙂 I also suck at completing challenges but I think I’m riding the high from finally completing two last year (for the first time since attempting yearly challenges), ahah. I hope the high and hope lasts! 🫣 Good luck to you as well and happy reading!

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  6. These are great goals and reaching 86 was also my goal for Netgalley until life happened and I gave up on it
    Good luck with your goals and I’ll be reading your thoughts on each book too

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  8. Wooohoo!! I love all the challenges and we are in several together! I love the PopSugar graphic! I am so excited about our sub box reads. Those have really stacked up! DNF… yes!! I have DNF’d my first book yesterday!! I listened to about 34% and it was boring and I can’t do it. So… bye!! haha. It felt really good, actually! I hope you manage all your goals. I also went crazy with the challenges, but I have a lot of overlap and hope that helps! Good luck with everything!! ❤

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    • PS always has such awesome graphics, it’s honestly what tempts me 99% of the time to at least check it out! 🤣 I’m excited to start our sub box read as well! I hope we enjoy all the books we’ve got planned! And YAY for DNFing your first book yesterday 🎉 but also, gimme the tea!! What was it? Haha, you can DM me if you want! 🤭 Yeah, I’m feeling hopeful about the challenges this year cos I’ve noticed quite a bit of overlap. Good luck to you as well, Leslie! We got this!!!

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  11. I’m also doing Popsugar and Beat the Backlist. I can’t do those monthly book subscriptions because they just pile up. I need to read more of what’s on my shelf. Good luck with your reading goals!

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    • Yeah, I had to push myself to unsubscribe cos the piles were getting too unwieldy and I felt so guilty with them sitting untouched for so long! Good luck with the Popsugar and Backlist! Hope you have fun and enjoy your reads 🙂

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    • I was so close to not completing the challenge but I powered through big time in December 🤭 She has a cover edition for the Buzzword challenge if that’d be more your thing! It looks fun too. And you’re so right about coming back to a book you “DNF” today. I have done that several times actually (DNF for now) and it worked out better in the end!

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    • Thanks! I thought it’d try to make reading the backlist as exciting as possible to keep the motivation up! It’s so easy for me to get distracted by the new shiny books, lol. I love the special editions but I’m also glad I unsubscribed from the box as I need to tackle what I have already. 🤣

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      • LOL, and so far I’ve picked up mostly new-to-me books, so they don’t count since they weren’t on my backlist. 🤣 (I don’t remember if all of my backlist challenges have that as a criteria, but it’s easier for me to apply it to all of them instead of trying to remember which ones.)

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  16. I’m excited about these upcoming posts! I wanted to do a couple as well but we’ll see.

    I have joined the Buzzword readathon for the first time this year, and I am attempting both challenges, I am struggling with some months, because while I do have options, they’re not books I wanted to prioritize.

    Popsugar looks so intimidating. In fact, all these similar ones do, since there are so many prompts and a lot of them are quite specific. I was super close to joining the Beath the Backlist one, I might do it in the end, since it is a bit less intimidating, but again, there are some difficult prompts…

    What a great idea about the OwlCrate challenge. It’s nice that you’re paying attention to your subscription boxes as well.

    Your ARC challenges sound fantastic! I get what you mean with the percentage. Who knows, maybe you’ll get some great titles this year, despite being an international reader, wishes do happen. If I were brave or had more options, I’d do something similar to what you mention about the ARC Jar.

    I have been loving audiobooks recently, but like you, I cannot just listen to it, so I always do it while having a copy in front of me and it helps a lot. Hopefully it helps you too and you get more into it.

    Good luck with all of these, since your reading goal is at 150 books I do think you’ll have plenty of options for all these challenges! Not sure if you have some books that you really want to read by the end of the year, but I believe you’ll have some flexibility.

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    • Yay for joining the Buzzword challenge! I had a fun time with it last year so I’m excited to do it again this year. I’ve just posted my possibility pile for it and if you see anything on there that’s also on your TBR and would like to buddy read it, let me know! It’d be fun to do something 🙂

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      • I’ll have that in mind! I think I saw your post, not sure whether I commented or not, I saved a lot of posts these past few days that I need to comment, but I am sure we’ll find something in common.
        Cannot wait to see your progress with these challenges.

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  19. That darn 80% is so elusive! I had it and then lost it and it feels like the type of thing I’m forever gonna be chasing in a game of cat and mouse 😆! I love all of your goals and I think that DNFing more books is great, it’ll let you focus on the ones you love the most!
    Good luck, you’ve got this! 🙂
    My TTT.

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  20. I’ve been listening to Becoming by Michelle Obama since 2022 LOL I do hope you get through it and get to other audiobooks!
    Netgalley ratio is a great goal too 🙂

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  22. I take on the PopSugar challenge every year, but I think I’ve only actually completed it once. Sometimes, the prompts are really, REALLY tough. This year, they seem to be a lot easier, so hopefully, I’ll do better this go ’round. Good luck to both of us!

    Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!

    Susan

    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

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    • Yes! I think it’s not only that the prompts are really tough but some are just really not appealing to me 🤣 But I guess that’s why people read out of their comfort zone etc., right? I do like a lot more of the prompts this year than the one time I attempted this and I hope that I can make a decent dent in the challenge this time. Good luck with the Popsugar this year—happy reading!

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  23. I support you on DNFing. You need to do this for your sanity. I find reading old ARCs tough. I guess it depends on how old, but I know I am not going to read ones from 5 – 10 years ago. I am just letting them go. Good luck with all your challenges!

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  24. It seems like a lot of us are trying to improve our NetGalley ratios this year! It’s a solid goal and I think we can do it. I really need to work on my physical TBR as well. Good luck with these!

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    • I feel like the NG ratio and the backlist are always on many people’s lists. I think it’s a solid goal too and I hope that we can do it! I love your motivation 😃 I hope you enjoy reaching those targets and enjoy your reads!

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  30. Happy to see you’re giving Popsugar another try, Dini! I think the prompts this year are the best they’ve been in a long time. I’m considering the Backlist Challenge…. I have soooo many books on my tbr. My Netgalley ratio has been above 90 for several years. It took me going through and removing the books that had been sitting for years. I just selected the “I won’t be giving feedback for this book” option. I think you can always go back and review them, if you decide to read them?? I’m not sure. But it definitely hasn’t helped me get any more ARCs. Haha!

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  31. It seems most of us are trying to read books we already own. I am also trying to read more of the ARCS that are backlist books on my shelf. Good luck with all of these goals, Dini.

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