3 reading resolutions

Hi all! If you’re in the continental u.s. like I am, it isn’t *quite* 2025 yet. I’ve been thinking a lot over the last couple weeks hanging out at home, catching up on work and reading, too, about what reading goals I want to bring with me into the upcoming year. Especially given the rapid uptick in consumption-oriented content about reading/ “book ownership” as an identity in and of itself (ugh) I feel more compelled than ever to make some principled, measured reading goals that preserve my special relationship with this hobby rather than, like, giving into social media nonsense.

2024 was the first year I set my goodreads reading goal to 300 books, rather than 250 or below. I knew I could do it –– I don’t set goodreads goals I won’t make, because that would cause me an absurd amount of stress for something that doesn’t matter at all –– but even the times I fell “behind” (according to the automated challenge calculator) cause the same problems in terms of stress. I quite simply don’t have time for that. So, 250 it is.

This also leads into my first resolution, the other part of the reason why my goal is 250 this year!

Resolution 1: Read more fat books.

By “fat books,” I’m thinking a minimum page count of around 400; average page count of about 550-600. I want to take things slowly. Not focus on pushing through in one or two reading sessions. Let plots unfold as they do. Novellas are great and all, but I need to take some time back to appreciate big books for exactly what they are. The most pressing fat book I want to read this year is Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, but I also want to get to Exordia and The Mill on the Floss AND/OR (emphasis on the or?) Middlemarch.

Likewise, another “slow reading” goal, and one that includes rereads…

Resolution 2: Read more classics. Re-read more books that deserve another look.

Isn’t this always the way? You (me) encounter books young and read them and are like, that’s decent (or sometimes, “that sucks”). Then, you put it aside and kinda forget to go back to it. But books, especially classic books with long trails and a fuckton of discourse, are meant to be returned to. Multiple times, throughout the course of one’s life.

Some books I’ve read before but need to return to include Sula, The Pillow Book, Cloud Atlas, Lolita, and Absolom Absolom (which I didn’t actually understand at all when I first tried it as a senior in high school).

Some that I’d like to read for the first time, in addition to the George Eliot books, are Persuasion, a lesser-known Woolf book [I have a copy of Flush and one of Jacob’s Room], and another fat book, and The Idiot [which is perhaps what I’ll be calling myself midway through this pursuit?]. I recently purchased a copy of The Comedy of Errors, so perhaps I’ll even squeeze in a play!

Now, you may be wondering: how am I going to fit in all of those books around new books and my massive, ridiculous TBR? In comes the final resolution:

Resolution 3: Pare down my TBR. By a Lot. As much as humanly possible.

The goal I just reached was to get the TBR quantity on goodreads below the “read” tag quantity; as I write this, my “read” is approximately 2600~ books, and my TBR is approximately 2500~. Ridiculous, I know!!! I was marking a lot of books as “want to read” despite not really wanting to read them, out of anxiety that I might “miss” something. I obsessively combed through newsletters and press releases to find whatever was remotely interesting. But given how many cool books come out all the time, that’s simply not sustainable.

My next goal is to get below 2000 on my TBR, and after that, who knows. Really, I want to focus on saving the books I truly plan to read, reading books I actually like, and not being afraid to say no to and/or DNF books I’m not vibing with. Since I don’t really have “required” reading anymore, other than that which I assign myself directly or by choosing to teach, I want to prioritize books that inspire and challenge and excite me, not just books that I might theoretically kinda sorta like. What’s the point of that?

Okay, I guess that’s all for now –– I wanted to put this out into the world both to see what others thought and to hold myself accountable, in a way. Let me know what your reading resolutions are, if any –– comments are open to everyone this time around. Add Failure to Comply to your goodreads TBR / storygraph TBR…if you actually do want to read it!!! And consider subscribing/becoming a paid subscriber if you want to support my book-related writing in 2025 and beyond.

Happy new year!