We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is: Goals for 2026 (Bookish or not! Share your reading goals, personal goals, etc.)
Oof, I feel like I’ve started out this year a bit of a hot mess. While I would normally have my goals, challenges, and everything else figured out before day one of the new year, this year I went on holiday. That means, my brain only really clocked that it was no longer 2025 two weeks into the new year when I started having to remember what dates and days were again, lol. 😂 All this to say, I haven’t even really thought about what I want to do/achieve this year so maybe this list will be a short one? Let’s find out!
General Reading Challenge
As I do every year, I’ll be setting a general reading goal and that’s to read 100 books. I was one book short of my reading goal of 150 books last year, which was a bit disappointing, but that’s OK. That said, I didn’t have the reading year I thought I would at the start of the year. I’m a massive mood reader, so it’s no surprise how badly my mood was affected in 2025 with all going on in the geopolitics of our world. That’s why this year, I’m setting a goal that I know I can achieve without it being a stretch. We’re taking it easy!
Buzzword 2026 Reading Challenge
Since I discovered the Buzzword Reading Challenge hosted by Kayla @BooksandLala several years ago, it has quickly become one of my yearly favourites. I admit I didn’t do too well with it last year but I still had fun and don’t feel too much pressure doing it cos it’s very low-key, so I thought why not try again this year? I already feel like I’m falling behind on January but I’ve still got a week+ to find and read a book, so hopefully, I’ll stay on track! 😂
Reading my Illumicrate Editions
Last year, I managed to make a sizable dent in my stack of Owlcrate editions thanks to a group of some of my favourite people reading the same books! 💜 While we don’t have the same thing planned for 2026, I’m hoping to make a dent in my Illumicrate editions. It’s amazing how quickly these book box books accumulate and tbh, its become a bit overwhelming for me lately, lol.
I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to make it fun for myself—either I’m going to do a TBR jar with the Illumicrate titles or maybe I’ll try using a TBR card game that I know I have around here somewhere! If anyone has any suggestions on how they do these things, I’d love to hear it! 😊
“Beat the Backlist” / Read more backlist
Beat the Backlist is another reading challenge that’s pretty low-key because you don’t have to do the bingos, you simply have to read from your backlist! But having the bingo prompts does make it more fun and less intimidating to pick from the endless backlist stacks (both digital and physical)!
Read 1 backlist ARC per month
I know I’m not alone on this ship here but I’ve got a ton of backlist arcs to read and I’m not proud of it! 🫣 It’s been years since I’ve requested an ARC and recently I’ve only accepted ones that were ‘offered’ to me via PR agencies or publishing houses, if I was interested.
This was a goal for me last year too and I didn’t do too well, although I did read some massively overdue ones and I was very proud of that, lol. Let’s hope I do better in 2026!
Go with the reading flow…
As I mentioned earlier, 2025 wasn’t the reading year I thought it would be. I read considerably less every month compared to previous years and while I was frustrated with myself initially, I got over it, lol. Now I’m just happy to read however much I read every month, whatever that number may be. It could be 10 books, 15 books, maybe on a record month 20? Either way, I just wanna go with the flow and read without self-pressure!
Keep to my blogging schedule
At the moment I post about 5-6 times per week and it’s a pretty manageable schedule for me. I partake in a lot of weekly memes, including one that I co-host (Let’s Talk Bookish, a weekly bookish discussion), and for the rest of the days I have reviews, tags, and wrap-ups that I do. Something that I’ve become good at over the years is not stressing (too hard) when I miss posting on a specific day, and with that mentality and the content schedule that I set up for myself, it has worked well for me so far. I hope to keep that up this year! 😊
Engage with more blogs!
Despite keeping up with my regular posting schedule, I admit I haven’t been quite as diligent with blog hopping and engaging with other content. I miss reading, commenting, and finding new blogs/bloggers to follow, so I really hope that this year, I manage to do more of it!
And that’s it, folks. I only managed 8 goals but I think they’re good enough for me! What goals do you have for your reading (and blogging) this year? Any personal goals? I hope the new year is treating you well so far!
dinipandareads 