My 2025 Reading Review & My New 2026 Reading Goals!

2025 was a very bookish year for me! I read 62 books, attended my first book festival, supported a lot of small bookstores irl started an astrology TBR series, and bought more physical books than I attended. Isn’t that just the way? Looking back, I had a successful bookish year and am happy with all the reading I did in 2025. Before sharing my new reading goals for the year, I wanted to share my top 5 books of 2025 and look back at my previous bookish goals I set at the beginning of 2025 to see which ones I accomplished and which I didn’t.

Make sure to follow me on Goodreads to be updated on what I’m reading and on StoryGraph if you’re curious about my book statistics.

My Star Rating Scale
★★★★★/5 – Loved it! I would highly recommend this book to others.
★★★★/5 – Kept me entertained. I would reread.
★★★/5 – Didn’t love or hate. Had some flaws, but overall a decent read.
★★/5 – Did not enjoy it and probably skimmed through most of it.
★/5 – Hated it and regret wasting my time with this book.
DNF – Did not finish.
N/A – Not available. Applicable for memoirs.

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you make a purchase with the links I provide, I may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.

My Top 5 Books of 2025
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
This was my favorite horror read of the year, and I read a lot of bad horror/thrillers in 2025! Plus, the ending was so haunting! I also highly recommend the audiobook if you want to get extra creeped out, as it’s narrated by a little girl.

You can read my full review here and purchase Incidents Around the House here

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison
 I had completely forgotten I read Such Sharp Teeth this year because I read it at the beginning of the year. In 2025, I read three books by Rachel Harrison and Such Sharp Teeth was my favorite out of the three. In fact, it’s one of my top 3 Rachel Harrison books!

You can read my full review here and purchase Such Sharp Teeth here

We Could Be Rats by Emily R. Austin
Sometimes you read a book, and you feel so seen. We Could Be Rats was that for me. I saw so much of myself in the main character and could relate to a lot of what they discussed in this novel. The sibling relationship between the two sisters was also very sweet and authentic.

You can read my full review here and purchase We Could Be Rats here

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib wove together his love for music, cherished memories, and history, all through the lens of a black man living in America. I loved this! It made me emotional and reminded me how important listening to music impacts our lives. He even convinced me to listen to some of the songs and albums he discussed in his book that I hadn’t listened to!

You can read my full review here and purchase They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us here

Meditations with Cows: What I’ve Learned from Daisy, the Dairy Cow Who Changed My Life by Shreve Stockton
Of course this book made it to my TBR! Meditations with Cows has been on my TBR for the longest time, and it did not disappoint! I laughed, I cried, I got angry, and I questioned certain motives by the author. It gave me all the feels! As a cow lover, this book brought me so much joy!

You can read my full review here and purchase Meditations with Cows here

Reviewing My 2025 Reading Goals
#1. Read 40 books
Yup! Not only did I smash this goal, but I managed to read 62 books in 2025!

#2. Start a book journal
I did begin a book journal in 2025, but I haven’t updated it as much as I wanted to. However, I plan to continue using the same notebook this year, and when I’m content with it, I’ll make a separate post about it.

#3. DNF more books
Another successful goal achieved! I only DNF’d like 3 books in 2025, at least that I tracked via Goodreads. Part of me still wants to be a completionist, but I’m trying to let myself get more comfortable with the idea of letting books go unread. However, it’s a little more difficult to DNF a physical book!

#4. Try not be so critical of my ratings and reviews
Ngl, this was the most difficult goal for me. I know I probably shouldn’t take books so seriously and just enjoy them for what they are, but my Virgo Mars placement just can’t calm down sometimes! But I would like to think that I’ve gotten better at being less negative with my criticism. But, I don’t know, you tell me!

#5. Read more books off my bookshelf
Technically, yes, but I didn’t read as many as I thought.

#6. Reread some of my favorite books
I barely achieved this goal! In 2025, I only reread one book, and that was a book I read in December. It was the second to last book I managed to finish before the end of the year. So, yeah, I’ll be redoing this goal this year.

#7. Attend a used book sale
I was actually surprised that I managed to checked this goal off my list! In September, I attended my first book festival and at the festival they had several used book stalls that were selling preloved copies of books. So, techinically I attended a book sale. lol

My New 2026 Reading Goals
#1. Read 50 books
My Goodreads reading challenge for 2026 is to read 50 books. 10 more than last year! If my reading year is anything like the past few then this should be easily attainable!

#2. Read more physical books
I’m very good about not buying new books but when I go to a local bookstore that’s a different story and as a result I ended up buying more books in 2025. I don’t regret this though! Support your small bookstores! But I’ve made a rule for myself that if I want to buy a new book I have to finish a physical copy first!

#3. Reread my favorite books
Redoing this goal because I failed miserably last time.

#4. Read the historical American Gril books
This is a fun one! As you all know, I’m in my crazy doll lady era, and I’m currently obsessed with American Girl dolls as I recently unearthed my old AGD. The first American Girl dolls were created with the goal of educating young children on history and life lessons. The historical American Girl dolls represent a current time period in America. Each doll came with an introduction book at the said character and eventually the each historical doll had a series of books. Sadly, they also don’t make historical dolls anymore. RIP.

When I was younger I always wanted to read the historical doll books because my older sister had some of them and she loved reading them but I couldn’t comprehend those books at the time. So, you see where I’m going with this. There are several books in a series for each doll, but the books aren’t too long. I believe most of them are under 100 pages so this seems like another attainable goal.

#5. Share my book journal
Making this a goal so I hold myself accountable! haha

#6. Attend the Decatur Book Festival (again!)
Last but not least, I want to attend the book festival I went to last year again. It was so much fun gettng lost in bookish stuff! It won’t be happening until October so I’ have a while I’m going to have to wait to mark off this reading goal.

What was your favorite book of 2025? Do you have any reading goals this year?