Each year, I take the books that I didn’t have time to read and roll them over onto my to-be-read list for the next year. This results in a constantly growing list of books for each successive year, so some judicious trimming is always needed. I also set myself a number of books to read for the year and note that in my Goodreads Challenge.
For 2025, I had to pare down my initial list of books to read (no surprise, there). I decided to aim to read two books a week which is eight a month, multiplied out for the year equals 96 books. While I might be able to maintain that pace for one month, I know that it isn’t a realistic goal for the year. Several factors contribute to my reading speed, mainly the length of some of the fantasy books that I like. I try to space these epics out, but when I’m trying to finish something like The Wheel of Time series, I have to keep going back to these long works frequently.
After cutting several dozen out, here is my current list of 94 books I plan to read in 2025:
I know that this list will change as the year goes on. I was able to account for some upcoming releases I’m already aware of, and some book club picks, but I can’t know all of those yet. I intentionally cut out new series as much as I could manage, trying instead to focus on reading those I’ve already started.
Looking back at this same post from 2024, I had 113 books on that list and read 24 of those (and 36 books total), so I generally stick with my initial to-be-read list for 2/3 of what I read throughout the year.
I want to make sure I read a couple of “classics” this year, so I’ve included Frankenstein and The Lord of the Flies. My graphic also fails to include a few books that I already finished this year pictured below:
How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!
Salvage – a flash fiction science fiction story with a winter holiday theme
Jan 17, 2025 @ 18:32:24
94 books? I applaud you! Have read a few of these. I really liked The Poppy War. Children of Time was a bit of a slog, but really well done. The Dispossessed is brilliant. Translation State was very good. The two Butler novels are great. Great ideas in The Ministry of Time, but the writer’s prose was pretty bad (“a grey toothache of a day”–ugh!). Orbital, Children of Ruin, Children of Memory, and Kaiju Preservation Society are also on my list.
Jan 18, 2025 @ 03:31:01
Yeah, I’ll be shocked if I manage to read that many! I definitely want to start The Poppy War series, not sure if I’ll get to Children of Time this year (it’s been on my list for a few years now). I did not terribly enjoy Ancillary Justice so I’m less eager for Translation State now. Will have to see how the year goes!