It’s January, so book communities are full of reading-resolutions articles and challenges. This is something I have traditionally ignored.
I’m hugely proud of anyone who sets a goal amount of books for the year, because life is very demanding and carving out the time is an accomplishment in itself, but I’ve never been a numbers person when it comes to reading. I’ve also never managed to make a resolution that involved a specific celebrity’s or club’s reading list without immediately rebelling against it and finding literally anything else more interesting. As soon as it becomes a To Do list, I’m unable to even.
That said, this past year I fell into a rut. When you read and edit in the same genres day in and day out (even when they are your absolute favorites), your brain sometimes refuses to turn off the editor switch. It’s high time to shake the mental snow globe and challenge myself, and I need to make it more playful.
Here’s what I came up with so far:
Exploration
This year, I want to try at least 3 new/long-ignored genres. Trying something new and discovering you love it is one of the best feelings reading has to offer.
I know for some of you the This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me release in March will mark the first foray into isekai/portal fantasy, so the BDH will be with me on this path. For the Horde!
Controversy
I’m deleting my TBR lists.
Ok, take a moment. This is still a safe space. I don’t mean my unread purchased books; sequels and auto-buy authors are also safe.
But the endless Goodreads shelves, bookmarks, and lists that have been accumulating for almost two decades have started to feel less like possibility and more like a pressure that weighs down on my shoulders. I’m a very different person than I was when I started them, they’re chaotically spread all over the place, and I’m realistically never going to catch up. If a book is meant to find me again, it will.
Consider it the reading equivalent of that decluttering trick of turning your hangers around in the closet as you wear the clothes, and donating whatever is left unturned at the end of two years.
Spontaneity
I want to do at least one trust-fall post where I ask for recommendations based on a trope or vibe and then try to read every single book that gets suggested, without being too controlling and selective.
I still love you best of all, but this will probably not happen on the blog. The BDH shows up with thousands of recommendations as soon as Gondor calls for reading aid, and we would still be here next century.
Letting Go of Guilt
At the same time, I want to teach my brain that to DNF is not a sin. Life is too short to finish books you don’t like.
I will give books a fair try, and I will give myself permission to skim, because I know I will still crave closure. But I will no longer force myself to finish because anything else feels illegal.
If you’re a ruthless DNFer, please teach us your ways!
Nostalgic Rereads
As a teenager, I devoured books by South American authors, particularly the Latin American Boom and that distinctive magical realism strain that will forever linger in my brain. García Márquez. Borges. Cortázar. Vargas Llosa. Sabato. I want to reread them with (allegedly) adult eyes and see if the spell still holds and manages to stimulate my reading appetite out of monotony.
Now it’s your turn! The Horde reads a lot and it reads well.
Have you done any of these and how did they go? Will I regret my TBR purge? Is there any reading resolution you’ve made in the past that went particularly well for you? Please brag so we can try it too!
DNF my way
I view buying books as a way to support an author.
This is a “good deed”.
Even though no good deed ever goes unpunished, I do not need to do the punishing myself by forcing myself to finish a book I don’t enjoy.
I have multiple reading journals started and never completed. I have had libraries of physical books that I then ruthlessly purged. I have bought hundreds of ebooks that I also ruthlessly purged. I hate clutter when it comes to my reading. I am getting to where if I don’t think i will read it multiple times what’s the point? That is one of the reasons I love ku and that there are libraries with audio subscriptions now.
I do regret getting rid of my physical books without making sure I had ebooks to replace them. But I literally had boxes of books and got tired of moving them from place to place.
I’ve done the number of books challenge for several years running, I set it at a number that would be reasonable for me to achieve even if life gets in the way. But I have become fairly ruthless about DNFing books. Life is too short to read something I don’t enjoy. However I am a mood reader, so sometimes those DNF books get read eventually, usually in a different format than I was reading originally. I learned to DNF because I kept having issues with going into reading slumps because I wasn’t enjoying the book I was reading. Once I put 2 and 2 together, I started DNFing books to read something I enjoy. Some I just put as paused (I use Storygraph to track my reading and that is a newish feature I really like.) but sometimes I go through the paused books and DNF them later because I know I don’t/won’t care how the story ends, I’m getting better with the ambiguity of not knowing how things end.
But my newest resolution is to do a 1 page or 1 minute a day challenge. I tried it last year and started out well last year then fell off. But I started back up around May or so and I’m trying to keep that streak alive (232 days at the moment). I like that it gives me a reason to listen to a book or read a page or two here and there, and encourages me to read while I’m waiting instead of doom scrolling social media or playing games on my phone. And those pages and minutes add up over the course of a year and helps me with achieving my # of books read challenge as well.
I was very fortunate to have a very high-volume reading year in 2025. However, it often felt like I was just a hamster in a wheel, chasing my own arbitrary goalpost – so I’ve decided to be more intentional in my reading while incorporating a couple of personal goals. These include:
(1) Finishing series that I’m in the middle of (that are completed – I’m giving myself a pass for series that are still on-going)
(2) Read at least 1 classic, at least 50 years old, per month (following the whole, use-it-or-lose-it mentality to keep my brain sharp to linguistic patterns that aren’t modern)
(3) Read at least 1 volume or collection of poetry a month (I don’t read enough poetry, and when I do, I always enjoy the experience)
(4) Read at least 2 non-fiction books a quarter (they can be biographies, memoirs, histories, etc. but no other stipulations).
It seems daunting, but I have to keep reminding myself not to focus on chasing numbers, but to actually absorb and enjoy a varied amount of material.
Happy New Year!
Yep, I have had the same feelings and done some deleting. As you get older especially, you don’t want to waste time on stuff that’s not for you. DNF is wise. I have a lot of physical books and some I have started and are not finished. I do feel guilty about revisiting my favorite old books, instead of expanding my repertoire. I guess you do need to force yourself out of your comfort zone sometimes. It helps to have a friend touch you sometimes. Balance.
Exploration. I consistently read UF and PNR. But, I make exceptions as a palate cleanser when things get monotonous. For example, I will occasionally read epic fantasy like the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks (which IMO is one of the best I’ve read). And sometimes classic fantasy like the Death Gate Cycle. Or “chicklit” as we used to call it. And, more frequently, humorous but well written mystery series. I would recommend you identify elements that are important to you. And that way you can narrow down books within genres that will appeal most to me. For me it is humor. That’s why I mystery is often my palate cleanser: there are many books with humor in that genre.
Reflection. I love the way you explained that you’ve changed and your TBR pile doesn’t reflect your life/values any longer. I had this realization. I’ve changed so much in the last 5 years. So I went over to my goodreads TBR pile and purged. It felt very liberating to let go of the guilt of reading something new instead of going back to something I selected 5 years ago or earlier. Life is best lived forward. Spending too much time looking back isn’t healthy.
Controversy. OR NOT. Ruthless DNF-er here. I am genuinely happy that self-publishing has taken off. BUT, that means that there are more books available that are not well written, or well edited, etc. If the author didn’t spend the time on writing it well, or editing it well so… I don’t have the time to spend reading it earnestly. Sometimes it’s not a good fit for other reasons. That’s okay. Even the best books aren’t one size fits all. I was an English major, so I have years of finishing books I didn’t enjoy. On my own time, I don’t have to do that.
Another thing that helps is my selection criterion. Over the years I’ve created a pretty strict criterion for selection (over 100 reviews, above 4.5 stars, no one star reviews, and no more than 2 two star reviews), and then I get the sample and reading it before reading further. But still… there are books that I can’t finish.
Most new authors spend a ton of time on their first couple chapters. That means two things to me: 1) if the first couple chapters aren’t engaging I should give up, and 2) that there could be quality drop off after the first 1/4-1/3 of the book (after sample). And if that happens, I frequently quit.
It’s like developing boundaries with your parents. It takes time and practice.
If I may suggest an idea for spontaneity? Pick a Genre. Do a few searches (AI, google, goodreads, whatever) identify a single sub-genre you are interested in, then identify top authors in that sub-genre, and narrow it down to three that you interested in specifically. And then post recommendations for books in that sub-genre by your three authors. And ignore everything that isn’t specific to that genre and those authors. If there are too many suggestions, then make a poll of the top ten, explain you will only read 3-5 of those books and for people to vote. Then read only the top 3-5 from the poll. Or DON’T and DNF them if they aren’t a good fit. Boundaries! Goodness knows the Horde needs them.
I am a true DNF proponent. What makes it easy an logical for me, is I spend a LOT of time on reading apps like Royal Road where content is plentiful, original, and (unfortunately) often dropped. Dropping a novel that has been in hiatus for more than 6 months (without author notification) is a form of self-preservation for me.
I have walked the path of DNF and it is glorious to behold all of the hours I did not waste hoping in spite of all of the evidence that the book/story was going to change. If I’m hesitant, I’ll read reviews to see if maybe it really has a slooooooow start and there’s a pivot that clears it all before I commit to the DNF. But there’s no shame in moving on. Not every book is meant for every person.
You will not regret your TBR purge. I have never regretted it yet, and I’ve done it more than once. I started my journey with DNF sometime in 2024/2025. As a new behaviour for me it’s still a work in progress – but I know that each time I allow myself the gift, it feels as though a mountain lifts from my shoulders and I know I’ve done the right thing. In the unlikely event I ever regret a DNF decision – the book isn’t going to vanish from the face of the earth. I like your boundaries around spontaneity. I’m looking forward to This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me as something different. I have always struggled with re-reads. I think the Ilona Andrews titles are the very rare things I’ve ever managed to re-read. Thank you for sharing.
I have read IronPrince and Firestone based on the recoomenation here. wasn’t sure I would like it, but Holy Moly. They were so good and while waiting for books, I picked up on book 1 on another series by the same authors.