Happy New (Reading) Year Book Worms!
Do you track your reading? Are you a stats nerd?
It’s time to reflect on 2025 Reading Stats and set 2026 Reading Goals.

2025 Reading Stats

Image Source: Canva

Brace yourself for a nerdy post, bookaholics!

Do you track your reading?
Have you ever set a reading goal or considered a reading challenge?

Reading in 2025

I’d love to hear from you if you analyze reading data at year’s end. Although I’ve always been analytical, I think my appreciation for using data to plan was heightened during my tenure as a teacher when I poured over student data to inform my teaching. Now, instead of looking at student achievement, I’m paying attention to my own numbers as it relates to reading achievement. I realize that while numbers are not that important in a rewarding reading life, they do reveal some trends and inform future reading choices. It’s important to me that I’m reading diversely, supporting women authors, and increasing my nonfiction percentage. While this post about the numbers is mostly a self-reflection, I hope you find it interesting and possibly motivating toward considering your own reading achievement during the past year and setting some goals for the New Year.

If you’ve read ONE book this year, you’re a reader and I encourage you to celebrate that read and accomplishment!

Blog Feedback

I’d also like to know (in comments) what you’d like to see more of or less of on the blog for 2025. Has the variety of book reviews this year been satisfactory for you? Thank you for your engagement and support!

I’m also so grateful for wonderful books and delightful bookish conversations! Thank you to each of my followers and visitors! Thanks for the views, comments, and shares! I appreciate EACH one!

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Best of 2025

See this post for my most memorable reads in 2024.

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Let’s Talk Numbers!

Total Books Read: 170

Remember….it’s really not about the numbers! It’s about the enjoyment of reading.

This number is up from last year, but as long as I’m above 100 I’m satisfied. I averaged 25-30 books a year when I was teaching full time and the majority of those were read during the summer. For me in this season of life, 100 books is a comfortable number. I average three books per week and the weeks when I can only read one dense nonfiction or a 500+ page fiction are balanced out later when I can read three or four lighter, shorter books in one week (Novellas in November helps my numbers!). Pictured below is a Goodreads-generated summary for 2025.

Goodreads glitched at the end of the year. My GR Challenge Tracker lists 170 books and my GR Year End Graphic indicates 171. What?! Get your act together Goodreads! My Excel Spreadsheet has my count at 170 and Story Graph also has 170. So, I’m counting 170 as my official number.

GoodReads End-of-Year Graphic

GoodReads Challenge Tracker Graphic

Story Graph Year End Graphic

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Books Abandoned (DNF): 7

This is my recent blog post about my DNFs and underwhelming books in 2025.
I’m getting better at knowing my reading tastes and passing on books/genres that I know won’t be to my taste. You might be shocked at the number of popular books I resisted this year because I’m better at knowing my reading tastes. This number does not take into account the books I abandoned after reading only a few paragraphs or pages and didn’t bother to record. I’m not reluctant to abandon books that aren’t working for me. There are too many great books waiting to be read to make myself finish something that isn’t right for me at the time. Related Posts: My Love/Hate Relationship With DNF. Confessions From an Outlier. 10 Petty Reasons I’ve DNF’d a Book.

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Women Authors: 154

One of my goals in starting this blog is to support women authors writing about strong women and I feel like I’ve had success in this area. We’ve certainly come a long way since the days when women had to publish under a man’s name!

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Authors of Color/”Own Voices” Standouts:

Two standouts by authors of color in 2025 are White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton and New Arrivals on East India Dock Road by Renita D’Silva. Both earned a spot on my best-of-year list.

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Sources:

One stat I enjoy tracking each year is the number of books from various sources.

Library = 21
ARC (advanced readers copy from the publisher) = 77
Own = 72

58% (98/170) of my books are FREE! Great kindle deals help me buy books to own. Small revenue from blog ads and affiliate links help my purchasing power! Thanks! If I had more patience, my library count would be higher. I read a lot of new releases and the hold lists are long and I become impatient and purchase them…or I see an irresistible kindle deal. I always clearly state if I’m reviewing a book I’ve received for free.

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Stars:

seventeen 4.5-5 Star Reads
(WOW! highly recommended, memorable)
eighty 4 Star Reads
(very good read)
twenty-three 3.5 Star Reads
(more than OK, no WOW factor, mixed bag)
thirty-six 3 Star Reads
(mixed bag)
thirteen 2-2.5 Star Reads
(not especially enjoyable but I finished or skimmed it)
one 1 Star Read
(usually my DNFs but I saw one through to the end)

My average Goodreads rating was 3.7 Stars and my average Story Graph rating was 3.63 (SG allows half-star ratings).

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Fiction: 93% (159 books)

I’ve listed four top subgenres….I have to many subgenres to list them all.

Historical Fiction: 57
This is obviously a favorite sub-genre! 36% of the fiction I read is historical. (Also, this is why I think I read more nonfiction than I do!) My favorite histfic reads this year include One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter, The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay, The Lawyer and the Laundress by Christine Hill Suntz, New Arrivals on West India Dock Road by Renita D’Silva, and White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton.

Literary Fiction: 15
This is a category that brings about some debate among readers….the most simple definition is that literary fiction is not genre fiction. Also, it’s usually character-driven rather than plot-driven, beautifully written, and explores the meaning of life and its issues (most prestigious award recipients and national prize winners are categorized as literary fiction). Three favorites this year include The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Free Book Club Kit here), Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Free Book Club Kit here), and Reports of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand.

Contemporary Fiction: 64
One favorite and memorable contemporary fiction this year is Alexa and Abigail Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan.

Contemporary “women’s fiction” is lighter, escapist reads, a counterweight to Misery Lit and often referred to as “beach reads” or “vacation reads.”

Romance: 63
Most of the romance I read are ARCs. It’s not my favorite genre, but they are good brain breaks which I needed this fall! A favorite is Once Upon a Christmas Carol by Melody Carlson.

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Nonfiction (sub-genres): 7% (11 books)

My goal is to have a 20% nonfiction percentage. I’m far away from that goal because very few books captured my interest. My favorite nonfiction reads in 2025 were This American Woman by Zarna Garg, Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, and She Came to Slay by Erica Armstrong Dunbar.

Memoir/Biography: 5
Narrative Nonfiction: 2 (both biographical)
(Nonfiction written in story format.
Science Related Nonfiction: 2
Informational/Self Improvement: 2

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Story Graph

You may have heard about Story Graph, an alternative book tracking app to Goodreads. I decided to use both Goodreads and Story Graph and compare them (a blog post here about the results). I remain undecided, so I’m still using both. Two delights of using Story Graph include the ability to use half stars and the neat charts and graphs. My Story Graph handle is reading_ladies_blog. Here are three of my 2025 charts/graphs:

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Let’s Consider 2026 Goals

(please share yours in comments):

Goal 1: Tracking:

Goodreads Reading Challenge
(determine how many books you’d like to read and track them through the Goodreads app)

This is the easiest of the goals/challenges as it simply involves setting a number. This number can be adjusted throughout the year if you are reading above or below your goal. I recommend setting a reasonable goal and then raising it if necessary. My goal is 100 books. I met this goal in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, and it’s reasonable that I will meet it again. Retirement helps tremendously! Have you set your 2026 Goodreads challenge? Are we friends on Goodreads?

I also track my reading on Story Graph ( reading_ladies_blog ) and on an Excel Spreadsheet. Yes, it’s tricky to stay synched throughout the year! The reason I like a spreadsheet is so that I can track categories such as diverse reads, library books, arcs, women authors, star ratings, sub genres, etc. I know I could create shelves on Goodreads for the same purpose but the number of shelves I would need might be overwhelming and not of interest to anyone else.

Another stat I tracked in 2024 was “Bookish Books” (books about books) using Susan @ Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books as inspiration. Check out my wrap-up post here. I read 25 bookish books in 2025 and cannot resist them! I will continue with my goal of tracking these books in 2026. My pet peeve is authors who use this against me by creating titles that imply it’s a book about books or about a bookshop but in reality, it’s another subgenre of fiction disguised as a book about books. An example from this year is The Bookshop of Secrets by Kerry Barrett. 

Goal 2:

I want to curate a satisfying reading life in which I read what I want, when I want! (Thus, no other challenges for me this year.) I’ve come to the conclusion that life is hard enough without adding book challenges.

My goals are simple: read at least 100 books in 2026, track my bookish books, read widely and diversely, and increase my nonfiction percentage.

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What reading goals do you have for 2026?

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Happy reading in 2026! I hope you’ve experienced some pleasurable and challenging reading in 2025 and are eagerly anticipating the reading year ahead! I wish you health and happiness and a tall stack of unputdownable 5 star reads!

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QOTD:

Did you meet your reading goal for 2025?

What is your 2026 Reading Goal?

Do you use a method for tracking your reads during the year?

Have you considered your best read of the year? My Most Memorable Reads of 2025 post coming soon.

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Happy Reading Book Worms!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

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Let’s Get Social!

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***Blog posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price.

Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.

Book Cover and author photo are credited to Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website.

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