2025 Bookish Goals and Things

 I'm already thinking about the new year and what I want to do in it. One of my biggest goals is to read more friggen books! I haven't done too shabby this year, but it could have been much much better! So this year I'm scouring the interwebs trying to find some fun challenges (that I know I'll do!) and thinking about my goals. 

So far I've come up with a few ideas for myself.

 So here goes:

• I will aim to read at least one book a week. (so a total of 52 books)
• I want to read at least 5 classic novels (will make a list of my TBR)
• I want to participate in one 24 hour readathon
• I want to interact with more bookish folk and chat about more books, so maybe join an online book club (got any recommendations let me know!)
• Blog-wise I want to post more and more frequently. I recognize I don't always do well with a schedule and I have severe book ADD so my "weekly TBR" posts don't always jive with what my mind wants to do. 
• I want to try new genres and explore different styles of writing. 

So far I think those are all very good goals for the year. So my goal for 2025 is 52 books. 

What  are your goals? How many books are you aiming to read? 

This Week's Reading and Happy Holidays!

 

So since my weekend reading plans kind of pooped the bed, I will do my best to plow through this week. So my plans are quite similar to the weekend reading TBR list. 

• The Dark Forest (finish)
• Xmas Break (ebook)
• To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts (want to start this one)

For the holidays, I don't have real plans until the weekend (late christmas) and since I did a crap ton of cleaning already, I now have plenty of spare time. 

What are you reading? How are you feeling about your reading this year? 

Also...

Weekend Reading Goals

 

I do have work and I do have to keep things around this place cleaned up and such, but I want to take at least 2 books off of my TBR list! 

So I am going to try to read 24 hours (not straight but I'll keep a timer) between now (cheating I know..it's only Thursday!) and Sunday at midnight. 

I want to finish up The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu and Xmas Break by JE Rowney. 

If I finish one of these before the deadline then I will add it here. I will update on Monday what I finished up! 

What are you reading this weekend? 

UPDATE: I failed! But for a nice reason. I got the fact that some family members were going to be visiting this weekend. This made Grannie very happy, since she doesn't get many visitors usually. So I had to do a lot of cleaning (she's bedridden atm). So with that plus work and then the visit, reading kind of fell to the wayside. 

I still did get some reading in but no where near 24 hours worth! 

25 Days by Per Jacobsen (Quick Review)

 

Okay so this book is about a family that takes a lil family trip up into the mountains where they have no choice but to interact with each other and spend good ole quality time together. No cell reception, no tv, no internet, etc. Sounds like torture to me, but whatever floats your boat! See they are growing distant (at least Beth and Adam are) and this time spent in nature might just do them good? Their daughters Abby and Chloe also need a healthy dose of sisterly bonding too. They have a lovely cabin with plenty of rustic amenities, a barn full of cutesy animals that they have to attend to while they are there (I'd love that!) and plenty of nature to frolic in. Oh yeah, and it's December so Christmas is just around the corner. Maybe this will help the family get closer than ever? I know one thing that will do the trick! How about a crazy person leaving fun lil secret santa type of "gifts' in a mystery stocking hung up on the barn door that appears every morning? Oh? Sounds creepy you say? Well it just might be...

Okay so the nitty gritty of this review is that I liked it. It's not without its flaws and not without it's eye roll moments but it's at least a fun read. It's quick, it's a simple concept and done relatively well. I had a good time with it.  

You are also supposed to read it like an advent calendar, you know 1 chapter per day until Christmas, but I am too impatient for that so I just plowed through it. Now for the negatives: 

It wasn't creepy (at least to me). It was described as a story that would chill you to the bone and it just wasn't. Also, I didn't really get the Christmas-y vibes from it. I know it's not exactly a Christmas book, but I mean..look at the cover! Characters were under developed in my opinion. I didn't really feel like I knew the characters well enough to always care what was going on, I think this would have been remedied by a few more pages.

So have you read the book? What did you think of it? 

I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 starts. 

What I'm Reading This Week

 

I'm sorta kinda on the ball with my reading goals this month. I wanted to get 5 books finished by the end of the month/year and I am already 2 down (cheating a lil with The Three Body Problem, but I did finish it in December!). 

So I hope to get at least 2 finished this week. My son comes to visit this weekend so I don't predict there will be too much book time involved then. I will do my best though! 

I have a review going out on Wednesday for 25 Days by Per Jacobsen, so watch out for that. I won't spoilerize my own review but it was pretty fun. 

So here's what's on my stack for this week:

Gonna finish The Dark Forest. 

Going to start this one. 

So what are you reading?