My 2026 Reading Resolutions
Last year, I decided that I wanted to make 2025 a year of joyful reading. I wrote a whole post about my reading resolutions on Substack and here’s a snippet from it:
This year, I’m trying something different. Rather than aiming for quantity – which I’ve been guilty of doing in the past – I want to take the pressure off and read less, but hopefully what I do read will be of higher quality (to me, anyway!). I’m surprised I didn’t fall into a deep reading slump last year, because some of the books I picked up were truly bad or average! Instead, I want 2025 to be about joyful reading again.
And, as you’ll have seen from my recent ‘My Top Books of 2025’ post, I really think that I achieved that! I had a pretty fantastic year of reading and it made it hard for me to even select my favourite reads from the year. Each year I see noise about not trying to read loads and loads of books, but I’m somebody that just reads a lot because reading is my main hobby. I don’t watch much, if any, TV and books have always been a bit of a friend. So, this year, I will continue to set a numerical goal!
Here are some of my reading resolutions for 2026.
Read 80 books
It was pretty easy to reach 80 read books in 2025, even amidst moving house, life’s constant curveballs, and my big books challenge. So, in 2026, I want to match that number, if not read even more than that. We’ve got a trip to Bali in the summer, and I’m already envisioning all the long-haul flight and beach reads I can squeeze in!
Only purchase secondhand books, if any
I don’t think I’ll be committing to a book-buying ban like the one I managed in 2024, so this year I’ve decided that I’ll only be buying books secondhand. One of my favourite local independent bookshops is known for its secondhand selection, and I’m keen to support charity shops as well. Hopefully, this means I’ll collect some great vintage covers along the way! Of course, my end goal here is to save money on book-buying.
Enjoy the process again
Another resolution this year is to enjoy the process again. Last year I got really deep into making notes as I read, which ended up turning into university-level or at least style notes. I enjoyed getting more out of my books this way, but I found that I felt more pressure when picking books – they had to have a certain amount of depth. To be honest, I think that is just the type of book I enjoy, but I’d like to release that pressure.
Conduct an author study
It’s been a few years since I conducted an author study! 2026 will be my year, and I think I’d like to focus on Hilary Mantel and/or Ursula K. Le Guin. An author study is simply reading more or all of an author’s works, and spending time connecting the dots, reading critical analyses of their work and being more focused in general on their oeuvre. I feel that these are two authors that I already hugely admire, and can’t wait to deepen my love of their writing.
Read my currently owned physical TBR
Finally, I want to read all of my currently owned unread books. I have 46 unread books on my shelves, which is a lot for me. I used to be that girl who smugly only had one or two books as back-up, and it’s gotten out of control! I think my key issue has been balancing books I’ve bought and books that I’m kindly working on reviews for from publishers. This year, I’m finishing everything on my shelf (as of this moment).
