For the past couple years, I’ve made several reading goals. For the most part, it’s been fun trying to reach them throughout the year. Though I don’t always meet all of them, I feel that setting specific goals gives the year the little bit of structure I need as a mood reader. What are my goals for 2026 and have I made any major changes from last year? Keep reading to find out!

Goal 1: Continue to Cap My eBook Buying at 5 eBooks Per Month:

The biggest change I’ve made for reading in 2026 is that I’m not putting myself on a book buying ban from January to my birthday in late February like I’ve done over the past two years. Instead, I will continue to do what I’ve done during the months where I allow myself to buy eBooks: I will cap my eBook buying at 5 per month. If I buy less than five books within the month, those allotments roll over to the next month! I’ve found this limit has trained me to not make rash purchasing decisions when it comes to eBooks being on sale, and to really vet potential reads before I buy them.

Goal 2: Nonfiction

Over the past few years, I’ve discovered I have a thing for certain nonfiction genres. So, I plan on keeping the same nonfiction reading goal I’ve had for the past 2 years and read at least 12 nonfiction books in 2026. Last year, I also started reading most nonfiction books at a slower pace, like a chapter each day, to really help me soak in the material. I plan to continue to do this throughout the year.

Goal 3: Finish The Lord of the Rings trilogy

To my utter surprise, I had the best time rereading The Hobbit and finally (on my third attempt over the last decade) finishing The Fellowship of the Ring last year. Since I now understand what all the hype is about, and my sweet hubby got me a box set of the trilogy for Christmas, I would love to finish the trilogy this year and watch the movies for the first time after reading the books.

Goal 4: Classics

Last year, I felt like reading 4 classics would be a challenging goal for me, since classics can be hit or miss for me, but I ended up reading 5 (if you count Redeeming Love as a classic… I’ve heard mixed opinions, but I counted it because it’s regarded as a classic Christian fiction work)! This year, since I’m aiming to finish the last two books in The Lord of the Rings trilogy anyway, I want to keep the same goal and read 4 more classics this year. I definitely want to read one of the two Jane Austen books on my TBR cart, and plan on reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, so those may fill the other two slots! Who knows, though. I may end up reading more again if the mood strikes me. 🙂

Goal 5: Rereads

I ended up liking my rereading goal last year of 6 books, so I plan to keep this one the same for this year. I may end up rereading more than that if I want, but I won’t pressure myself to because I want to prioritize my unread books. Which brings me to…

Goal 6: Taming My Unread Kindle TBR

Yeah, so my unread Kindle TBR is still massive, but it’s nowhere near as obnoxious as it used to be! Last year, I started the year with 144 unread books on my Kindle, and my goal was to bring that number down to 120 books by the end of the year. I’m so excited to let you know that I did reach that goal in mid-December, but I bought a couple more eBooks after that. I’m still counting it as a win, even though the total number wasn’t under 120 by December 31st. As I’m writing this post, I have 122 unread Kindle books, and my goal for 2026 is to get that number down to under 100 books by the end of the year.

Goal 7: Get the list of Oldest Unread Books on My TBR to Under 25 Books

This is the ONLY reading goal I didn’t reach in 2025, and I’m lowkey mad about it because I only missed it by 2 books!

Last year, since I started the year out with 85 oldest unread eBooks on my Kindle that had been on the device for 2+ years, my main goal for the year was to shrink that number down to at or under 25 books. By the end of 2025, 27 books remained on that list. Even though I didn’t quite reach the goal, I’m happy about the progress I made throughout the year. I also found some hidden gems along the way, which made the experience worthwhile!

This year, the year started out with 65 oldest unread books (books I bought in 2024 were added). I decided to include books on my physical TBR cart this year as well, because I found I’ve been ignoring those in favor of taming my Kindle TBR and want to rectify that. My goal is to still get this list down to under 25 books, and I’m confident I can finally accomplish it this year, because…

Goal 8: Read All of the Oldest Unread Books That Were Bought Between 2019 – 2023

Again, I consider my “Oldest Unread” books to be anything that I’ve owned for over 2 years and haven’t read. While the unread books I bought in 2024 are still considered “Oldest Unread”, I want to prioritize reading the 30 remaining books that were purchased between 2019 and 2023 this year. Three physical books were added to the books that remained from last year, so that’s why the count is 30 rather than 27. This way, by the end of 2026, I won’t still have books on my Kindle or shelves that have been sitting unread since the last decade!

Goal 9: Reading for Editing

Last year, my goal was to read On the Flip Side at least three times for edits, and I was able to accomplish this. This year, since I’m hoping to publish On the Flip Side this fall, Lord willing, I’m aiming to read it for edits again at least 3 more times.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Did you set any reading goals last year? How did yours go, and did you set any for this year? Let me know in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀