My New Year's READsolutions
Plus 10 ways to liven up your own reading habits this year
Hello fellow readers!
We’re one week into 2025. How are your New Year’s resolutions holding up? Did you even make any?
For me, I hate making New Year’s resolutions. The pressure starts to wear me down and I devolve into a self-sabotaging rebel. Who says I shouldn’t eat this bag of cookies? What do you mean, I can’t buy all these books? Resolutions, smesholutions. I’m eating all the cookies and buying all the books.
Resolutions are rigid. Instead of I could, we say I will, full stop. That’s a promise, even if it’s just to yourself. No one is going to feel more let down if you don’t keep it than yourself. Who has time to lug that weight around on their shoulders all year?
Setting goals is a different beast. They’re about my desires. I want to lose 10 pounds, so maybe I should only eat one cookie. I want extra cash flow at the end of the year, so I probably shouldn’t purchase more than two books (which, oh my gosh, these days at $30-ish a hardcover and $15-ish a paperback, is almost too much for just two books). Goals are simple cause and effect. I want x, so I’ll do y to make it happen. And, they are flexible. They can be reset and revised as needed.
So I don’t make resolutions per se. I choose the goal-oriented approach instead and set READsolutions at the beginning of the year. Books are my life and devouring them is something I completely control, so the tasks I assign myself I can easily do with a bit of hard work. I mean, why set yourself up for disaster instead of success? Take the wins where you can get them, folks.
This year, I set three READsolutions:
Be better at logging the books I’ve read into my BookBuddy app. If you’re an avid bookworm and you haven’t used this or a similar app to catalog your personal library, I suggest you try it. It’s very simple. Scan the ISBN and give the book a tag. Done. Because of this, one look at my phone in a bookstore can tell me if I’ve already purchased a book. I also use it to track books I put in storage, because my house is small but my personal library is not. I can tag books I had but have given away, too, so when I’m staring at my bookcases and thinking “I know I had a copy of that,” I can look at the app and realize I used did, once, but don’t now.
Take a baby step out of my mystery/horror genres and explore romantasy. Romance isn’t the easiest genre for me to read. I like a good love story, but my preference of death and intrigue over meet cutes means many don’t hold my
attention for long. Over the holidays, I read Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle on my daughter’s recommendation and greatly enjoyed it. I picked up Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson and Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe on a recent trip to Bethany Beach Books. I’m anxious to test the romantasy waters this year.
Read three books a month in 2025. This is where the really hard work comes into play. I’m a fast reader, but, y’know, life gets in the way sometimes. To make this READsolution a reality, I’m going to focus on carving out time each day to stick my nose in a book. I prefer long stretches of time for reading, so snagging five minutes here and there is going to be a challenge.
I like these READsolutions because they expand my reading world (romantasy), assist in corralling all the books stacked around my house (BookBuddy), and make me flex my bookworm muscles (three books a month). At the same time, they are all achievable and attainable. No stress or fuss.
In case you’d like to make your own READsolutions but can’t figure out where to start, here are some suggestions.
Join or start a book club this year. Online or in-person, it doesn’t matter. And show up. Discuss the finer details of books. Share your thoughts on characters. Get social.
Set an amount of time to read each day and stick to it. It doesn’t have to be just one book, either. Read part of a short story. Read a few flash fictions. Read newspaper articles and part of a short story. Whatever time limit you set for yourself—five minutes, twenty, an hour—block it out and don’t do anything but read whatever you want to in that time.
If you’re primarily a physical or ebook reader, give audiobooks a try. Some people argue that audiobooks don’t count as reading. Yes, you’re technically listening to the story, not reading, but the end result is you experience a story. It’s just via a recording instead of print. To me, that counts as reading.
Make reading an event. Every night at the same time, brew a cup of tea or mix up a mug of hot chocolate. Curl up in a cozy corner of your home. If anyone calls, tell them you’ve already made plans. Make reading a special and sacred part of your day.
Read aloud. Put on a show for yourself. Give the characters voice. Ask yourself questions and debate with yourself. Muse about the possibilities of the plot. Take it seriously or play it loose. Record yourself if you want to. Have fun!
Keep a journal as you read. There are tons of reading journals out there to choose from. Log your emotions. Lay out your thoughts. Note your favorite characters or twists. Write a review. Document the experience and go back periodically to reread your opinions.
At the library or bookstore, find the shelves with the genre you enjoy reading and close your eyes. Hold out your fingers, caress the bindings, and choose a book to read at random. If it’s one you’ve already enjoyed or can’t read for some other reason, close your eyes and choose again.
Instead of floundering with Amazon reviews or Goodreads, ask a librarian or bookseller for suggestions. Tell them what you like and don’t like. List your favorite authors. Share your favorite tropes with them. Librarians and booksellers (especially at indie bookshops), in my experience, tend to be very knowledgeable on the books in their care and can provide you with a wealth of information on what book or author to pick next.
Make a vision board of the books you want to read, old or new. Put thumbnails of the covers next to the titles. If the books haven’t been published yet, note the pub date, too. As you read each one, remove or cross out the cover. If you want to make a quick note, such as how many stars you’d give it, do that. Add book covers as you discover new titles to add.
Get a blind date with a book. I’ve purchased these on Etsy, in bookstores, and at flea markets. Usually there’s a short description of the plot and other pertinent information, like the genre or publication date. Here’s an example from my Instagram.
There’s probably a million other ways to enhance your reading experiences this year. I encourage you to seek them out and give them a try, whether you’re in a reading slump or just looking for a fun way to interact with books.
Happy reading!