2025 Goals Recap: Stats and Updates

2025 was a frustrating one for me as a book blogger, if I’m honest. Like, I read some amazing books. That was great. But I also faced some health challenges that left me feeling way behind schedule for most of the year. Not so great.

By the time I hit September/October, I was months behind, struggling to get caught up reading the books I’d promised publishers that I’d get to by release dates that had long since swept past me. I finally caught up in mid-December and finished the year reading a few 2026 titles. Better late than never, I guess!

I set my overall reading goal for 2025 at 200 books, which is very achievable for me, and I exceeded it by almost 50 books. So, overall, I think it was still a good year, reading-wise.

And, my family finished the year with everyone doing okay health-wise, which is also a huge win! I’ve enjoyed the look back at the past year. It has helped me understand some ways I need to pivot in 2026 so that I feel a little less pressure and a little more joy in my reading life.

Last year, I posted a recap with charts, which was kind of fun. I’ll post them here again. I thought about doing some side-by-side comparisons from this year to last year, but it got weird because I didn’t name the charts consistently, so I decided not to do that. I’ll still note some comparisons for my fellow chart/trend people.

Books I Read by Age Group

Perhaps predictably, my 2025 reading by age group is very similar to my 2024 numbers. Essentially, I read the exact same percentage of YA this past year and slightly more middle grade/slightly fewer adult books.

The bulk of my reading is still young adult literature. I feel pretty good about my selection process with young adult books, but I’d like to get better at finding and selecting middle grade titles. I still sort of stumble over those rather than deliberately campaign for review copies of certain titles. A better process might help me balance my reading between the two age groups.

Types of Books I Read in 2025

Most of what I read are full-length novels (167 books). I read a LOT more anthologies this year (21) compared to last year (1), which was interesting. I’m finding that I really enjoy that format and the chance to read short stories by new authors. I also read a few anthologies this year where the authors connected the stories in interesting ways. That was a lot of fun.

I still read a lot of nonfiction (45 books), which is great. Years ago, I set a goal to read at least one nonfiction title per month, so it’s really cool to see that number at almost 4 per month on average.

Some of the poetry books were part of my reading a poem a day goal, but some are novels in verse. Graphic novels are still a bit of a new thing for me. I found some illustrators that I love, and my daughter started reading middle grade graphic novels, so both of those bumped up my reading this year.

Frontlist vs. Backlist

This year, like last year, I read a lot more backlist titles than I thought. Some of this happens because one of the groups I review for runs a little behind, so I end up reading some 2024 releases in 2025. But most of this is me fitting in books from my TBR and catching up on titles I missed for whatever reason. This year, I read some incredible backlist titles, so I hope to share those in a separate “Best of 2025” list, since I don’t get to talk about those all that often.

I also surprised myself by reading five whole 2026 titles before the end of 2025. It felt great to catch up on the books I agreed to review for 2025 and move forward into 2026 before the year’s end.

Format Breakdown

My format choices for 2025 are very similar to 2024. Nearly half of my reading is ebooks or eARCs (pre-release copies from publishers). A fair number of the hardbacks are from publishers as well. A few send me finished copies, which is so cool.

A little more than a quarter of my total books read come from audiobooks, which I mostly listen to in the car. Most of those come from the library.

Genre Breakdown

This breakdown kind of surprises me. I didn’t realize how much fantasy as a genre dominates my reading. If you asked me what percentage of my reading is contemporary versus fantasy, I would have guessed it’s about 50/50. Ha! Not even close.

I’m also surprised that I read so few romances. I think this is in part because if a book had a romance subplot, I didn’t consider it a romance. Some of those are labeled fantasy or contemporary. So there are quite a few titles that had romance in them but aren’t categorized as romance.

I read more mystery/suspense/thriller books than I thought, and fewer horror novels. Horror is a relatively new interest for me, too, but it seems to be something I enjoy, especially if it is thoughtful and not too gory.

Goals Recap

I’m a little discouraged about my reading challenge results this year. Not because I expected to read more backlist titles, but because I kind of filled out the prompts in reverse (trying to find a prompt that fit a backlist title I’d read rather than choosing a title based on a prompt). It’s fine– the reading challenge police are not on their way or anything. It simply wasn’t a very satisfying way for me to tackle my backlist reading this year.

Read Harder 2025 Challenge

This year, I completed 20 out of 24 reading prompts for Book Riot’s Read Harder 2025 challenge. One of the reasons I like this challenge, alongside the Beat the Backlist Challenge, is that it allows you to count books that release in 2025. The whole point is to challenge yourself to read more inclusively. The challenge has helped me recognize some holes in my reading choices. That’s a direction I intend to continue, whether or not I continue the challenge.

Beat the Backlist 2025 Challenge

I managed to satisfy 46 out of 52 reading prompts this year for Austine Decker’s Beat the Backlist challenge. A few of those prompts never had a chance. One was for reading a book that was over 600 pages. I am just not a person who can read long books like that. I start to sweat when we get over 350 pages. Needless to say, I skipped right over that one!

I’m not unhappy with 46 completed prompts, though. I liked reading through the list of prompts and thinking of books from my TBR that would satisfy a particular prompt, even if I didn’t end up reading that book for the challenge.

Poetry and Classics

One of my goals this year was to read one poem per day. This came from a suggestion in Why We Read by Shannon Reed. She struggled to read poetry and felt bad about it, but discovered that one poem per day was a really sustainable pace for her. I tried this method this year, and though I took a bit of a break this fall, it was very successful for me. This year, I managed to read several poetry anthologies, and I found some poets that I really enjoy.

On the classics front, my experience was less satisfying. I wanted to read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, but picked it up at the wrong time. Between the news and the intensity of some of the scenes in the book, I had to put it down. I want to give it a try again once I’m in a better headspace, though. I reread The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi and finished Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume for the first time. I also reread Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

Community Goals

I continued meeting up with KidLit Bloggers this year and sharing middle grade reviews on Mondays with the crew at Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays. Both of those things have been a lot of fun. A few of the KidLit bloggers and I now do a quarterly book club. Right now, we’re reading Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout for discussion in January.

In 2025, I only posted two Top Ten Tuesday lists, which is so sad. I love doing those lists, but I struggle to do them when I’m behind on posting reviews. It always feels like I should catch up on those reviews before working on other things, but I’m not sure how true that is. I want to revamp my process for next year to allow me some space to prioritize lists. They’re such a great way to draw attention to underhyped books, and they’re a lot of fun to put together. Lists are also a great way to feature books that I want to read, but realistically may not get to before that publication date.

Process Goals

My goal this year was to take more breaks and feel less guilty. This was very challenging in 2025 because I was far behind my predicted calendar schedule. The good news is that once I realized that catching up was a long-term strategy, not something I could do in a week or two, I was able to let go of some of the guilt and move forward the best I could.

I do not feel satisfied with the amount of space I left myself for mood reading or taking breaks. This is still very much a work in progress for me. I’ve got some ideas for how to change this up in 2026 that I’m excited about.

Did you meet your reading goals for 2025?

Did you start the year with any reading goals? How do you think you did at meeting them? Whether or not you set any goals, leave a comment and let me know about your reading experience this year. I hope you have a safe, happy New Year, and a 2026 filled with wonderful literary adventures!