My Simple Reading Goal for 2025

"There are many little ways to enlarge your world.

Love of books is the best of all."

attributed to JACQUELINE KENNEDY

I'm more than ready for a new year of books and reading. And my reading goal for 2025 is simple and loose-knit. I want to read from my own bookshelves as much as possible before acquiring more (but please don't hold me to that 😉). And I want to tackle the roughly 130 to 150 books currently on my shelves that have not yet been read. They include brand new acquisitions, gifts, library sale books, and thrift store finds. In my view, it never hurts to have a grand pile waiting in the wings, and it makes me happy to contemplate the possibilities and adventures yet to come.

On my shelves are also books (around 700 to 800) that I have read—many are longtime favourites, others are newer to the roster—and I'm interested in revisiting a few of them as well. I know from past experience there are books that should be read in their 'season'—i.e., when it's the right time to read them, when we're ready to receive them, and when we need their wisdom, beauty, strength, or humour. I will continue to use that as my rule of thumb in selecting what to read next.

I enjoy memoirs, biographies, and inspirational/spiritual books. I like poetry, children's books, anthology collections, and artsy/creative books. Fairy tales and a bit of fantasy. Books on writing. I like books that tell stories, even when they are nonfiction or full of facts and data. I like to know how authors relate to the material they're sharing and how they work it out in their own lives. I read a lot of novels, including historical fiction—novels based on historical figures and events but told with artistic license. I have a special interest in these in this season of reading. And, of course, mysteries and whodunits continue to be a staple in my reading diet. Since my youth, I have loved a good mystery - nothing too gruesome, but with lots of page turning twists, unexpected endings, and great writing.

Some years I'm a slow reader, taking my time with books to savour them, reading but a few. Other years I read voraciously, as I did in 2024, almost as if I'm starving for the next adventure into another world. We'll see how my reading journey unfolds in 2025. Hence, no goals of how many to read by December 31st.

To start off, below is a tentative short list, from my own unread shelves, mixed with a few titles that I have read before but want to revisit this year. I made the selections in about 10 - 15 minutes, just reaching for titles that caught my eye, with little thought and more intuitive spontaneity.

I already know I won't be sticking to the plan to the letter—Santa brought me a generous gift card for Christmas from the local bookstore, never fret that I won't be acquiring something new to fill my heart with glee and ensure there are no empty spots on the shelves. You will note that I have already finished the first book of the new year... and, no, I'm not reading these in order, just what I feel drawn to as I go. And who knows, the list may change through the year.

☑ 1. The Winter Mystery by Faith Martin (mystery, 2018)
2. A Thousand Feasts, Small moments of joy...a memoir of sorts by Nigel Slater (nonfiction, publ.2024)
3. The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R Chambers (novel, 2024)
4. Nature Tales for Winter Nights edited by Nancy Campbell (nature tales, 2023)
5. Jane Austen at Home, A Biography by Lucy Worsley (biography, 2017)
6. Write It All Down, How to put your life on paper by Cathy Rentzenbrink (writing, 2022)
7. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (novel, 1980)
8. A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle (nonfiction, 1972)
9. Louisa May Alcott, A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever (biography, 2010)
10. Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson (fictionalized autobiography, 1945)
11. The Lives We Actually Live, 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler (inspirational, 2023)
12. Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (2023)
13. Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson (biography, 1973)
14. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (novel, 1853)
15. Devotions, The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (2017)
16. Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter (2021)
17. The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood (historical novel, 2024)
18. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (novel, 2024)
19. An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor (novel, 2019)
20. 1984 by George Orwell (novel, 1949)
21. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (novel, 2012)
22. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (novel, 2018)
23. The Only Necessary Thing, Living A Prayerful Life by Henri J.M. Nouwen, edited by Wendy Wilson Greer, (on prayer, 1999)
24. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Biography/Nature, 2021)
25. Apples on a Windowsill by Shawna Lemay (meditations on still life, photography, beauty, marriage, 2024)
26. You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (memoir, 2023)
27. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (novel, 1891)
28. Rewriting Adam by Connie Mae Inglis (novel, 2021)
29. The Third Grace by Deb Elkink (novel, 2011)
30. Several short sentences about writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (writing, 2012)
31. Vet in a Spin by James Herriot (autobiography/humour, 1971)
32. Rooms of Their Own, Where Great Writers Write by Alex Johnson (nonfiction, 2021)
33. Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman (art, 2022) 

❦

Here's hoping there will be time you can set aside in

your new year for reading to your heart's content.

Wishing you a beautiful weekend,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Image by OlgaVolkovitskaia from Pixabay