2026 | A New Year and New Intentions
It’s OK to set intentions for yourself and … not do that!
Well friends, 2025 was nothing like how I imagined it would be. Since it was quickly derailed after 3 months into the new year, I just kind of took several steps back to readjust to everything. And it was one of those things where I had to take it in stride. Thankfully around the half year mark, I shifted gears and set new intentions for myself not just around reading, but many other aspects of my life.
Got a new therapist and now I’m at the point where I’ll be discharging. I feel like I’m at a good spot in this current stage of life. I’ve started a workout routine that works out perfectly with my busy schedule of being a stay at home parent. Pretty sure I spend most of my time in the car dropping off and picking up my kiddos. I forever cherish this time with them!
I applied for grad school and got into 2 that I applied to, but not the one that was financially better. I will apply again for the fall, so it’s a little bit out of sight at the moment. But despite the never-ending nerves around this, I was quite proud of myself.
I was still reading! That was one thing I wasn’t sure was going to be a thing for 2025, but I went beyond my reading goal.
So what’s 2026 going to look like?
The StoryGraph’s 2026 Reading Goals
I completed my books read and hours listened goals for 2025 and thought about changing my pages to accommodate. But said, oh well and that I was okay with it. Because it is absolutely okay!
Personal Reading Goals
- 100 new to me authors
- 90% feedback ration for Netgalley
- be more intentional when requesting ARCs
- tackling my physical tbr
- always review the books I read even if it’s a couple sentences
- reminding myself that the hype isn’t always worth it…even years later
- dnf more and unapologetically
- annotate my physical books
- no kindle unlimited for Q1 and Q2, but possibly the entire year, I have 170+ books on my physical tbr
- be even more intentional with my reading
- as a reviewer, remind myself more about expectations, had a few this past year that were rather grounding
What reading challenges are you doing?
26 in 2026
This challenge last year was a fail and I managed to only read 2 off of my list. And then one book got booted! I kept a few from 2025 and added them to 2026 and the rest were mostly books off of my physical tbr!
The 52 Book Club
This one was another challenge that fell to the wayside last year, but since I’m going analog with my reading journal, I’m motivated to get this done. And we’re 5 days into the new year, I’ve already checked one prompt!
Romanceopoly 2026
Romanceopoly had a little revamping done and it’s absolutely amazing! Academia anyone? It’s one of the most detailed reading challenges that I’ve done in a while, but you can easily tailor it to fit your reading. You get to pick a major and minor, work around your school map. I’m so excited for this! There are quite a few ways to track this one and as you can see above, I set up a journal spread. I also have the notion template they included or if you want something super easy, there’s the challenge set up on storygraph!
year of the goober 2026
Since I decided to go analog with my reading journal, I started looking for all the journaling inspiration and came across JashiiCorrin on Youtube or maybe it a friend that mentioned it to me. At first, I thought this was the Goober Book Club, which is completely separate. Year of the Goober has their own set of prompts, two you can choose from for each month and they’re food/dessert related! What’s not to love! Jashii explains the challenge in a video and provides resources to help setting up the challenge. If you’re into Discord, like myself, they have that set up as well. I’m excited for this new one! I don’t have a journal spread set up for this yet!
