Over the past few years, I’ve always kicked off the new reading year with one enormous post packed full of statistics, graphs and numbers about my reading habits from the year before. That single monster post combined everything at once: a review of my reading goals, an in-depth analysis of my stats, and the setting of new goals for the year ahead.

Fun? Absolutely.
Intense? Also yes.

Both to write and to read, it became a pretty overwhelming chunk every single year.

So this year, I decided to do things differently. All the nerdy statistics and graphs are still coming, but I’ve split everything up into multiple separate posts. That makes it more manageable for me to write, and hopefully easier for you to read just the parts you’re most interested in (or to skip the bits you’re less in the mood for).

In this first instalment, I’m specifically looking back at my reading goals for 2025. At the start of the year, I set myself five concrete goals, based on my 2024 reading statistics and my hopes for 2025. I already shared a mid-year check-in back in July, but now it’s time for the final verdict.

Time to see how I *really* did with my reading goals for 2025.

Reading Goal 1: Read 100 books

Since 2020, I’ve given myself the same reading goal every single year: read 100 books. It’s one of the very first reading goals I ever set, even before I started tracking my reading habits in such a data-driven way. Back then, I simply had a Goodreads account, which asks you to set a reading challenge at the start of the year and that was that. Since then, this goal has become a constant, and so far I’ve managed to reach it every year, albeit with a clearly downward trend.

For 2025, Goodreads shows that I reached my goal of 100 books, with two books to spare. That number does need some nuance, though: on Goodreads, I also track my DNF books, while in my own Excel file I register those separately. So when I look at my own numbers, the outcome is slightly different.

Indeed, the downward trend continues, and for the first time in five years I didn’t reach my goal of 100 finished books. I still ended up with a very respectable 95 completed books, supplemented by 7 books that I decided not to finish after giving them a fair chance (DNFs).

Concretely, that means I read seven fewer books than in 2024, and no fewer than 25 books fewer than in my absolute peak year, 2020. In fact, I’d even argue that in terms of finished books, I’m back at roughly my pre-peak level: in 2019, I finished 93 books, which is very close to my 2025 numbers.

That said, the absolute number of books read isn’t the most important metric for me personally. It’s simply the easiest one to track, and therefore also the most visible. What matters much more to me is that I read, and especially that I read with enjoyment.

Still, let’s return to the hard numbers for a moment, because there’s something interesting there too. Although I finished fewer books in 2025 than in 2024, I actually read more pages overall, about 2% more, to be precise. That suggests my average book length increased again slightly, which is likely connected to one of my other reading goals this year.

Reading Goal 2: Read 40% of books purchased before 2025

Of all the reading goals I set for myself, this may well be one of the most important. Not the sheer number of books read, but actually reading the books I physically buy, carries much more weight for me.

Anyone who’s been following along for a while will know that reading isn’t my only book-related hobby. I get at least as much enjoyment out of buying and collecting books – perhaps even too much enjoyment, judging by my bookcases. Historically, however, I haven’t always been particularly good at actually reading those purchased books in a timely manner.

Part of that has to do with how easily I get distracted by something new. An enthusiastic recommendation from someone around me, a glowing online review, or simply the feeling that “everyone is reading this right now” is often enough to shift my attention. At the same time, I’ve also experienced more than once that hugely hyped books tend to lead to disappointment for me personally. And somehow, the idea of “this is a book I’m definitely going to love one day” can be more appealing than actually reading it and discovering that it might not quite be my thing after all. In that sense, postponing can sometimes be a way of preserving a promise, however irrational that may sound.

To give you an idea of just how far that postponement can go: the oldest unread book on my shelves that I still genuinely want to read has been sitting there since 2015. Yep. That fact alone is enough motivation to occasionally force myself to turn towards my own bookcases instead of letting myself be tempted by yet another new release.

For 2025, I therefore set myself the concrete goal of having 40% of my reads consist of physical bookshelf books that I bought before 2025. According to my Excel checklist, I just about reached that goal: 41%, or 42 books from my older shelves.

In the list above, you can see a total of 65 bookshelf books that I read in 2025. The yellow books are titles I bought in 2025 and also read that same year (23 in total, which is actually just a fraction of all the books I bought, but let’s gloss over that detail for now, hehe).

The pink books deserve a bit of extra attention, though. These are rereads, and strictly speaking, they don’t really count towards this goal. When I exclude rereads, the picture becomes slightly less rosy: in 2025, I started 99 new books in total (out of 102 books read overall), and only 39 of those had already been on my shelves before 2025. That brings the percentage down to 39%, just one percent short of being able to call this goal unconditionally “achieved”.

Still, however strict I want to be with myself, the bigger picture remains positive. In 2025, I clearly prioritised books from my own collection, whether they were bought before or during 2025. All in all, 64% of everything I read came from my own shelves, which is a solid increase compared to previous years.

Reading Goal 3: Read (or start) 6 books of over 600 pages

Since 2021, I’ve set myself a yearly reading goal focused on tackling longer books. That’s no coincidence: genres like fantasy — my favourite and by far most-read genre — often come in rather hefty volumes. As much as I want to read them, these books can be intimidating. They demand more commitment, a longer attention span, and often some extra time to fully sink into them. And precisely because of that, I sometimes put them off in favour of “easier” reads.

Which is a shame, really, because those chunky books tend to end up on my favourites lists remarkably often. So a little extra push to start them clearly doesn’t hurt.

For 2025, I set myself the goal of reading 6 books of over 600 pages (or at least starting them). I had already comfortably reached that goal by mid-year, when my count stood at 8 books. In the second half of the year, I didn’t really need to take this goal into account anymore, and yet I still read two more chunky tomes. In the end, I finished the year with no fewer than 10 books of over 600 pages, nearly double my original target.

Of those, 5 books were over 650 pages long, and 3 books even exceeded the 700-page mark. Intimidating on paper, but clearly not an insurmountable barrier in practice.

But what about my suspicion that I tend to rate these longer books more highly?

Well, purely based on the numbers, that theory seems to hold up completely. My average rating across all finished books in 2025 came to 3.2 stars. For books of over 600 pages, however, that average jumped to an impressive 4.1 stars.

Even more striking: of the 7 books I awarded a full 5 stars in 2025, no fewer than 4 fall into this “chunky book” category. That’s a remarkably high proportion, especially considering how small a slice of my total reading list these books represent numerically.

All in all, it’s certainly not my main aim to read only long books. But this reading goal continues to serve as a nice reminder not to be put off by a book purely because of its length. On the contrary: those extra pages often seem to pay off in a deeper, richer and simply fantastic reading experience.

Reading Goal 4: Complete, drop, or catch up on at least 14 ongoing series

These days, series feel almost unavoidable. It seems as though every new book that’s released leaves the door ajar for a sequel. As a reader, it’s very easy to end up tangled in a web of ongoing series: half-read trilogies, unfinished sagas, and “I’ll definitely continue this one day” series that quietly pile up before you even realise it.

I started 2025 with no fewer than 49 ongoing series. That is… a lot. Too many, really. Which is why I set myself the goal of continuing with at least 14 of those series in 2025 — either by finishing them completely, or by consciously deciding to stop and drop them for good.

In the end, I continued with 17 already-started series, and all 17 of them will disappear from my series list for 2026. Goal more than achieved.

Out of those 17 series:

I completed 10 series. In a few cases it’s not 100% certain whether another instalment will ever be published, but as long as nothing concrete is announced, I consider these series finished for myself.
For 4 series (marked in pink), I made the conscious decision to stop.

That last category is still a tricky one for me. I’m naturally someone who likes to finish things, and that applies to books and series as well. But there’s no real benefit in forcing myself through sequels just because I once enjoyed the first book. If the motivation is gone, I need to be able to acknowledge that and let go. In 2025, I did exactly that with four series, and the more I think about it, the more I realise that this kind of letting go actually brings a lot of mental relief. Fewer loose ends, less “I still have to read this” pressure, and more space to read what I genuinely feel like reading in the moment.

For the remaining 3 series (marked in blue), I’ve read all books that have been published so far. I’m fully up to date there, and genuinely looking forward to any future instalments.

From a numbers perspective, this meant I managed to reduce my backlist series from 49 at the start of 2025 to 35 by the end of the year. A solid reduction.

Of course, I also started new series in 2025, which is practically inevitable. In total, I began 25 new series. What stands out here is that for no fewer than 15 of those 25 series, I decided not to continue after just one book (or even after a DNF). That high number of DNFs among new series doesn’t feel like failure to me, but rather like a sign that I’m becoming quicker and more deliberate in my choices. I no longer automatically let new series turn into long-term commitments; instead, I decide fairly quickly whether something truly works for me.

Out of those 25 new series:

I completed 5 series,
decided to stop after 15 series,
and ultimately ended up with 5 new series I genuinely want to continue.

All things considered, I’m starting 2026 with 40 backlist series — that’s 8 fewer than at the beginning of 2025. Of those 40 series, 25 still have unread books on my TBR; for the remaining 15, I’m completely up to date and simply waiting for the next release.

What I find perhaps most valuable here is the effect this has had on my reading habits beyond the statistics. By approaching series more consciously and deciding more quickly whether or not I want to continue, I’ve also noticed a reduction in FOMO-driven purchases. I no longer buy sequels automatically “because I’m already reading the series”, but increasingly make that decision based on how I actually experienced the previous book.

Reading Goal 5: Read 25 subscription box books (DNFs count)

Subscription box books have been a constant presence in my reading life for years now. In 2024, I read 18 books from one subscription box or another (or 20 if I include rereads), while receiving no fewer than 46 new subscription books that same year. For 2025, the expectation was similar: if I didn’t skip any months, another 48 new books would be coming in.

With that kind of steady influx, it felt like the right time to deal with these books more intentionally. That’s why, for the first time, I set a specific reading goal focused on subscription books. I chose 25 books: a nice, round number. Slightly more than half of what I expected to receive, exactly 25% of my overall reading goal, and fitting neatly with the year 2025.

As you can see in my overview, I reached this goal with three books to spare: in total, I read 28 subscription box books in 2025. By mid-year, the count already stood at 14, meaning I read an equal number of subscription books in both halves of the year. Something that happened entirely unintentionally, but still fun to notice.

If I were to include rereads (marked in light green), that total would even rise to 30 subscription books read. Still, I chose not to count those rereads towards this goal, as they don’t reduce my unread TBR. What I did count were the DNFs (hatched), of which there were 6 in total. That means just over 20% of the subscription books I picked up were not finished.

That may sound like a lot, but to me it feels like a natural consequence of more mindful reading. Subscription books aren’t titles I choose myself, so it’s only logical that some of them won’t quite work for me. By allowing myself to stop sooner, I avoid continuing to buy or keep sequels “just because it’s a series”, which ties in nicely with my series-related reading goal.

I also tried to see whether there was a clear pattern in how I rated these subscription books. Did older titles on my TBR—often YA—score lower than more recent ones? Were there certain boxes that consistently performed better or worse? The answer turned out to be fairly simple: not really. Even books I had high expectations for sometimes disappointed me, while others pleasantly surprised me. In the end, the average rating for a subscription book read in 2025 landed at a perfectly average 3.0 stars.

Looking at the numbers across the years, one thing stands out in particular: although I’ve received an enormous number of subscription books since 2015 (209 in total), I’ve clearly become much better at actually reading them in recent years. Up until 2022, the pile of unread subscription books steadily grew, but from 2023 onwards, a clear shift becomes visible. In both 2023 and 2024, I read a relatively large number of box books, and in 2025 that number even rose to 31 (rereads included).

That said, the reality is that by the end of 2025, the total pile of unread subscription books still stood at 101. That sounds daunting, but at the same time, the graph also shows that this pile is no longer growing exponentially. Thanks to this reading goal, I’m now consistently reading more subscription books than I used to and that feels like a sustainable change in my reading habits, not a temporary clear-out.

For me, this reading goal has therefore been successful on multiple levels: I’m reading more books I already own, making more conscious decisions about sequels, experiencing less FOMO around special editions, and preventing subscription books from automatically sinking to the bottom of my TBR. No miracle cure, but a very clear step forward.

The next step will mainly be to become even more consistent about skipping subscription boxes when I’m unsure, because sometimes, not receiving a box at all is simply the best form of TBR management. Alongside that, I also want to be more honest with myself about older books. For some titles, I may not even need to try reading them anymore. I’ve simply outgrown certain books, and I need to be able to acknowledge that. I can let go of books without ever having read them. Since I’ve also started selling books more actively, I’ve noticed that this letting go has become easier. It feels less like waste when I can pass them on to people who are genuinely excited to read them.

Overall balance

Read at least 100 books – ❌ 95 books
Read at least 40% older bookshelf books – ❌ 39%
Read at least 6 books of over 600 pages – ✅ 10 books
Catch up on at least 14 ongoing series – ✅ 17 series
Read at least 25 subscription books – ✅ 28 books

When I look at all my 2025 reading goals together, this reading year feels less like a year of “reading a lot” and more like a year of awareness and recalibration.

I didn’t just read a lot, I made active choices: reaching for my own shelves more often, finishing or letting go of series, not letting subscription books linger indefinitely, and not being intimidated by chunky tomes.

What stands out is that goals centred around choices and focus (series, long books, subscription books) were easier to achieve than those that were purely numerical. That tells me enough. The absolute number of books matters less to my reading enjoyment than how consciously and intentionally I read.

Even the goals I narrowly missed therefore don’t feel like failures. On the contrary, they highlight where nuance is needed and where my priorities have shifted. Less “should”, more “want” and that might just be the biggest win of this reading year.

What I’m taking with me when setting my 2026 reading goals

Looking ahead to 2026, I mainly want to build further on what clearly worked in 2025, rather than turning everything upside down again.

My focus on my own shelves remains important, with particular attention to subscription books: reading them more intentionally, but also being more critical about actually receiving them in the first place. Saying yes less automatically, and daring to skip more quickly when I’m unsure.

The reading goal around long books has proven its value over several years now, even if it doesn’t need to become a main focus. It mainly serves as a gentle reminder that length often pays off in reading enjoyment.

I also want to keep prioritising completion over accumulation: finishing series, dropping them when necessary, and being more mindful about sequels and new series. The high DNF numbers among new series show that I’m becoming more selective and that’s a habit I very much want to hold on to.

Finally, I’m taking away that reading goals work best for me when they provide direction without adding pressure. Goals that help me choose, rather than force me. If that means becoming even more selective in 2026 – when it comes to purchases, subscriptions or series – that doesn’t feel like reading less, but like reading better.

And that’s it: my extensive reflection on my reading goals for 2025. It’s turned into quite a hefty piece once again, which only confirms that splitting up this annual review was definitely not a luxury.

In my next post, I’ll dive deeper into all the other statistics: from genres and ratings to authors, formats and trends across the years. Even more numbers, but hopefully with just as much context and nuance.

Thanks for looking back with me, and see you in the next instalment.

Cheers,
Charlotte