Farewell 2024! You brought a lot if life changes but can’t imagine my life without the past year… the good and the bad.
Here are some of my reading related goals for 2025!
Read 100 Books
Well well well… if it isn’t the goal I make every year that I never seem to be able to reach.
I think my strategy this year is going to hinge upon not being afraid to walk away from books that I don’t like. Those are the hardest to finish. The ones where you don’t enjoy the story what so ever but feel like you have to finish no matter what. However, you finish and you realize that you can’t remember the plot and you just wasted days of your life.
Another way I am going to reach 100 is through reading children’s books. Surprisingly, my posts about children’s literature and comparing them to more mature content are the ones that get the most views. I think people like seeing these stories through a new lens and dissecting the themes. At least I do… and reading these are easy and enjoyable so why not.
Clearing My Kindle Queue
As previously mentioned, I have a huge backlog of books to read on my Kindle. I’d like to get this down so I can keep track of books better and not feel so bogged down by the sheer amount of books to read.
This would mean that I need to keep up with all the free monthly books that I get through Amazon Prime’s First Read Program. Honestly, I haven’t been impressed by the selection lately and might stop downloading them every month. I know that they are never going to pick a crazy popular book to make free but I always hope that I will discover a new author to like or just find a gem that I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
Only Read Books that I What to Read
Another carry over goal from last year, only reading what I want to read. So often if you are in the book community you feel pressured to read what is trending so you can be a part of the conversation and be relevant.
This whole project is supposed to be about enjoying myself. That’s why I won’t post nearly as often as I should. Once it becomes too stressful to fit into my life, I take a step back until I have the time.
What I am Looking Forward To
There are a couple of books coming out or ones that I just discovered that I am excited to read.
Sunrise of the Reaping
By: Suzanne Collins
Release Date March 18th 2025
From goodreads.com:
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.
As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Not at all surprisingly, I am excited for this to come out. When you have a book that world builds as good as the Hunger Games it is easy to fall into other stories in the series.
Of course, we all know what the end results are going to be after reading Catching Fire. Katniss watches Haymitch’s Hunger Games in preparation for her second time in the arena and obviously Haymitch lives to mentor the District 12 tributes. Still looking forward to seeing how everything came to be and most likely more gut wrenching realizations about the characters we already know.
Katabasis
By: R.F. Kuang
Released Date August 26th 2025
From goodreads.com:
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.
That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.
With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.
But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.
The Staircase in the Woods
By: Chuck Wendig
Release Date April 29th 2025
From goodreads.com:
Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.
Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.
One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.
Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .
Let’s go 2025! I’m ready for you.
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