Top Ten Tuesday

#TopTenTuesday: Goals for 2026

Dini @ dinipandareads47 Comments

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!

47 thoughts on “#TopTenTuesday: Goals for 2026”

  1. I’m proud of you, Dini. Reading 149 books in a year is incredible.

    My reading suffered in part to the geopolitics of last year as well. You are so not alone there.

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    • I love this comment! Thanks so much, Lydia! 🥰 Despite falling short by one book I have to admit that I’m quite proud of myself too—especially with how my reading went overall last year, lol.

      With how things have been globally in 2026, I’m not sure how great it’s going to be for our mental health; however, I’m hoping that we’ll all have great success in reading books that bring us as much joy as we need!

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  4. I’m with you on going with the reading flow! I used to stress when I didn’t read as much as I wanted, and I’m continuously learning to be okay with just following my mood reader ways 🙂 Good luck with all of your goals this year, Dini!

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  5. Oohh I’ve also joined the Buzzword reading challenges, they are so fun! Especially the cover one. There’s always that one prompt that drives me mad and I have to go through my whole TBR to find that one specific book for it 😂

    “Engage with more blogs” is on my TTT as well 😅 I absolutely love reading other blogs, it’s what relaxes me after work, but commenting is something different. I want to write something meaningful or at least something marginally coherent, but my mind just blanks 😂😂

    Also, your blogging schedule is my dream…actually, it could only happen IN my dreams 😂

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    • I’m so glad that I discovered the Buzzword Reading Challenge cos it’s lowkey enough to not stress me out and I always wind up having fun trying to find (and decide) which books I’m going to read for it! I love that even though there are prompts that trip me up, Kayla’s “rules” are pretty lax and it’s all about the fun of reading!

      I used to find it so easy to engage with so many blogs when I first started blogging and now it’s just so hard to find the time and energy… 🫣 I hope that we both succeed with this one in 2026. And if I do say, you’re doing great so far, hehe!

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  6. I desperately need to read more Illumicrate editions, books from my backlist, and overdue NetGalley ARCs. So, I’m really loving this list, Dini. It makes me feel less alone. lol. I hope you have a great 2026 and manage to reach all of your goals.

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    • It’s not like there’s not enough pressure from everywhere else, right? 😂 I need to get smarter about reading and treating myself more kindly, haha. Good luck with the backlist this year if you’re doing it again!

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    • I wish I could say that I didn’t have a huge backlist of them but… I do 😭 It’s horrible. But I’m going to attempt to read at least … 10 of them this year, lol. Good luck if you do plan to catch up with your IC list! happy reading 🙂

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  17. There have been times since I’ve started blogging, that I feel as though I’ve lost the joy I used to get from reading. Mainly because I have a set list of books I “have” to read. I have seriously cut back on the number of ARCs I request, or accept. I think so far this year I have a like 15. I’ve also cut way back on the time I spend on Netgalley. When I leave my review for an ARC, I give myself 10-15 minutes to see if anything of interest is available. That way I can also have time to read books I want to read.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!

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    • I know I have a lot less access to ARCs compared to most people (due to regional restrictions) but I remember when I first started cutting down on requesting the ones I could, it felt so freeing, haha. 😂 That’s when I knew I made the right decision! I hope you manage to find more time to read the books you want this year and that you find the ones that spark that reading joy too, Pam!

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  19. 149 books over the year is an amazing achievement! I’m also aiming to knock some books off my backlist this year, I did really well with it in 2025 so hoping to be able to carry that on. I don’t think I could over go cold turkey on requesting arc’s, I have too little willpower for that lol, but since last year I have made an effort to be really picky with the one’s I am requesting which has made such a difference! I still have a backlog but it’s slowly being whittled down. Good luck with all of these, Dini 🙂

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    • Y’know, despite being one short of my goal, 149 is a freaking amazing achievement, haha. I can’t recall the last time I read that much in a year! I did surprisingly well with the backlist in 2025 too, so here’s hoping that trend continues for both of us this year 😃 I think if I had as much as access as you do to ARCs, then it’d be much harder for me to resist requesting them. While a tiny part of me still moans over the fact that I don’t, I do consider it lucky seeing as how I’m terrible at actually reading them on time, haha. Good luck with your goals as well, Becky!

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    • It seems like reading with the flow is something a lot of people are trying to do this year, so it’s nice to know that I’m not alone on that! I hope you manage to find a blogging schedule that works for you and that you enjoy visiting more blogs this year! Thanks for stopping by here 🙂

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  22. These are all great goals! I want to read my Illumicrate books too. I do skip a lot of months, so I don’t have A TON. If you want to buddy read ones that we have on our TBR’s want to do it?!?!

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  23. Having a schedule where posting 5-6 times a week is doable is AWESOME, Dini! I did not realize you were blogging that much even though I always see new posts from you in my Feedly haha. It’s hope you’re able to hit all of your goals this year!

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  25. These are some great blogs! I struggle balancing blogging with other things – I either spend too much time blogging or not enough time. Hopefully I can find a better balance as the year goes on! I wish you the best of luck with all your goals this year!

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