2024 was hard. Extremely hard. I don’t want another year like that, and I know I need to be proactive so 2025 is better. I’ve learned that life can be extremely unpredictable and unforgiving, and I’m looking back over this year to fortify myself for what’s to come. One thing that’s clear is that I can’t lose sight of myself and I can’t fail to maintain my boundaries and prioritize my health. I need to center what brings me joy, and I can’t allow my healthy routines to fall apart.
I spent the first half of 2024 in survival mode, and when things changed for the better and the stress I was under lifted, it was as though I had forgotten how to be. I tried to get back on track, but I kept getting derailed. Some of it had to do with politics and the state of the world, but some of it was because I was taking on too much and not giving myself space to breathe.
In terms of my reading goals, I lost sight of what had been bringing me joy. I had to laugh when I looked back at my goal for 2024:
“In general, my goal for 2024 is to do what I want, so I’ll be focusing on reading what I want. Obviously, I bought all these books because I wanted to read them, so I will make what’s on my shelves my top priority. I also want to write more, so I plan to read more critically and deliberately if it’s a book I want to review. I have no desire to push myself to read more books in 2024. I just want to read well.”
This is not where I ended up. My shelf project only lasted through July, and I started to care more about the reading challenges and meeting my 200 book goal than focusing on what I really wanted to read. I started reading short books and listening to audiobooks, so it’s not surprising that my page count is the lowest it has been in five years. I was consuming rather than enjoying. The only thing I stuck to was writing more reviews.
I vow that in 2025, anything that gets in the way of my healthy routines and anything that turns something I love into a chore, has to go. Here’s what this means for my reading life.
- I started using different apps to see which would best fit my needs, and I’ve realized that I do not like tracking daily reading. I just want to log when I start and finish a book. No more logging every minute or page I read because I don’t care about my daily stats. I’ll make exceptions for challenges with clear incentives (like the ones through my library), but I’m not doing it all the time. It’s a chore.
- I don’t like the social aspect of some apps. I’ll share the books that are worth sharing, but I don’t need to broadcast every book I read. For this (among other reasons), I’m abandoning Goodreads in favor of StoryGraph where I can keep my profile private. Plus, StoryGraph has come so far over the past year and is better in every way (and not owned by a billionaire).
- I need to stop thinking of current reading goals as a competition with my past self. As long as I’m enjoying my reading journey, who cares if I read more than last year? I need to focus on quality and joy. I’m setting my goal at 100 books to take the pressure off.
- I don’t need to complete every reading challenge. My plan is to read and then go through the challenge prompts to see where the book fits and use the prompts for writing and reflection. I’m not going to plan my reading to fulfill challenges, because then it feels like a chore.
- I’m resuming my bookshelf challenge. It was fun and I miss doing it.
- To encourage myself to read slowly and deliberately, I’ve selected some intimidating texts and I’m going to read a chapter a day. (I’ll write a separate post about this later.)
- Keep requesting ARCs and writing reviews. I’ve been getting some pretty exciting books to review, and it brings me so much joy.
Ultimately, I enjoy reading most when I’m being intellectually challenged and don’t feel a lot of pressure. In 2025 I’m going to treat reading as a private journey through nerd land, and if I find something that really excites me, I’ll be sure to tell everyone about it.
Yes, 2024 was chaotic, but I read some amazing books. Here are my favorites.
