2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Last years goal was to read 20 books, as I only picked up reading as a hobby again. I surpassed that goal by a few books and thought long about how many I want to / be able to read in 2025.
I do have a few hours less that go into my job but on top of my job I´ll start my Masters Degree in April so I´m not sure yet how much time I´ll have left.
However I´m trying to read 30 books in 2025 and I also want to listen to a few audio books but I won´t put a goal on these.

I definitely want to read my owned TBR:

1. Intermezzo
2. The Spellshop
3. Reckless
4. Powerful
5. The Two Towers
6. The Return of the King
7. Remarkably Bright Creatures
8. The House in the Cerulean Sea

There might be a few changes on this as I want to read one or two more books in december 2024 and I´m sure I´ll get a few books for christmas from my family.

Also I want to read Sunrise on the Reaping which comes out in march and Water Moon which comes out in January.

Audiobooks on my list are:

1. Dream a Little Dream
2. Twilight
3. Fourth Wing

If I like these audiobooks, I´ll also listen to the other books in the series.

Happy Reading to everyone!

Good luck with all your amazing plans, Alina 😊
I commend you on focusing on already owned books!

Wishing you the best of luck, and looking forward to seeing where 2025 takes your reading!
Happy reading!

Alina wrote: "Last years goal was to read 20 books, as I only picked up reading as a hobby again. I surpassed that goal by a few books and thought long about how many I want to / be able to read in 2025.
I do h..."

Congratulations on the Masters Program! I appreciate how much thought you put into your goal for this year.

I read the two LOTR books (ones I also physically owned, as I was also focusing on my physical tbr) this year and they were so great! The Two Towers took me like two days to read about 60% of, but I did stretch out the remaining 40% because I'm not as invested in Sam and Frodo's portion of the story (I know, I'm terrible!). But overall, I had such a great time with those books so I can't wait to see how you feel about them. Since I had read the first book a few years ago, I did re-read that in the form of listening (though I read it physically my first time) and discovered that the new audiobooks are narrated by the voice actor for Gollum and he does an incredible job, figured I'd let you know in case you were interested.

I'm also looking forward to the new Hunger Games book.

Good luck and happy reading!

Sara wrote: "Alina wrote: "Last years goal was to read 20 books, as I only picked up reading as a hobby again. I surpassed that goal by a few books and thought long about how many I want to / be able to read in..."

Thank you Sara!
While I do read in english, I only listen to audiobooks that are in my mother tongue (german) as it´s easier to concentrate and understand while doing chores at home - but the german narrator is really good - I listened to the first book a few years back.

I read the first book last year and am excited to continue. I watched the movies so I already know the story - that means I´ll read the books when I need a little time off from new things and thoughts.

I also want to challenge myself into writing reviews for at least 10 books this year!

I will post my reviews here:

1.

January

I try and write myself my own monthly message here - containing my plans for the month and maybe, when the month is over a review of my own achievments.

_______________________________

Sooo January!
I am planning on reading (at least) 3 books this month and decided on the following:

1. Powerful This is the 1.5 book in the powerless series and more of a sidestory that plays during the time of the first book.

2. The Spellshop

Got this one for christmas.
Nominee in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2024 in Romantasy and also Januarys Group Read! I love the Cover and also my copy has purple edges which looks really nice.

I am also particpating in a Twin Read - my Twin hasn´t answered me as of yet but I suggested reading:
3. Water Moon Coming out in the middle of January. Goodreads is claiming for it to be one of the big books/must reads in 2025 - I like the cover art and the story premise sounds interesting to me - I´d like for this to be my first review of the year.
_______________________________

Also I joined the Let´s Turn Pages Challenge for this year. I just calculated and if everything goes according to plan I´ll be reading approximately 1.000pages this month (over all goal for the year is 10.000)

First book of the month and year is done!

Powerful


I really wanted to get a headstart so I decided to try and finish the book I started in december 2024 by the first of January 2025.
I am happy to say that I did it! I had about 200pages left and am so happy that I already have one book done for this year!

I really enjoyed this additional story. I finished the first book in this series last year - it wasn´t my favourite but still a good read. I think this book was a touch better and I am excited to see if the new character has another storyline in the upcoming books!

For now I´ll take a break from this series though as I want to dive into something new.

I'm really enjoying how your page is turning out, Alina 😊.
Also congratulations on starting your Master's!

I know you already said that you prefer to listen to audiobooks in German, but I just wanted to share, because I completely agree with Sara that Andy Serkis does a spectacular job, that his recordings of the audiobook are available on Youtube. If there is one thing to be thankful to COVID for, I guess it's that. 😁

Those are some amazing January plans. The premise sounds so intriguing that I'm seriously looking forward to reading it. Doubt I'll start it before the release date though because apparently I'm an awful reviewer, and completely defeats the purpose of ARCs but that's life sometimes, I guess.
Congratulations on already finishing your first book of the year! 🥳 Here's to many more to come!

Good luck with your reading goals this year, Alina! And congrats on starting your Master's degree :) I will also be starting graduate school this year on top of my regular job, so I hope I'll have enough time to commit to my reading goals. We're in this together!

Lisa wrote: "I'm really enjoying how your page is turning out, Alina 😊.
Also congratulations on starting your Master's!

I know you already said that you prefer to listen to audiobooks in German, but I just w..."

Thank you Lisa! I´ll keep the audiobooks in mind! For now I think I´ll work on reading or maybe listening The Two Towers and The Return of the King later this year - I don´t know why since I really want to read these books but it´s really hard for me to actually sit down and say okay let´s start with it.

Kristen wrote: "Good luck with your reading..."
Thank you Kristen! I also hope you´ll find enough time between your job and and school to read as much as you´d like!

Finished
The Spellshop


I enjoyed this! Even though there a few things that could have been executed better - I didn´t care for the romance and a few sidestories were too flat for me.
However a good read!

I tried working on a review - I don´t really know how to write a good review and I haven´t found my own style yet. I do see a lot of review styles on good reads that I like but I don´t want to copy anyone - also english isn´t my first language so sometimes it´s hard for me describe what I mean.
However I am starting my own journey on writing reviews and just see where 2025 takes me.

My Review of The Spellshop

Alina wrote: "Finished
The Spellshop


I enjoyed this! Even though there a few things that could have been executed better - I didn´t care for the romance and ..."

Hey Alina, I have finally found your personal challenge page, I wasn't sure how many books you wanted to read, so I looked in the other topics as well. 😂 Anyway, you've set up your goals so nicely! I kind of want to re-do mine now, because mine is so messy and also spread out into the personal corner topic, where I track the challenges. You gave me good ideas, that I might incorporate, like the writing of a message for yourself every month.

Congratulations on your masters studies! What subject are you studying?

If you have not read Water Moon with your tbr twin yet, we could read it as buddies in the future, if you like? I also have it on my tbr.

Also, about the reviews. So nice that you are trying to write more of them now. I would suggest not worrying about your style yet and just writing according to your feelings, let it flow, sort of. Your style will be clear with time, the more you write. 🙂

And thanks to this topic I now know about LOTR audiobook on Youtube, so that's also nice. I really like that Andy Serkis' gollum voice.

LinaVer wrote: "Hey Alina, I have finally found your personal challenge page, I wasn't sure how many books you wanted to read, so I looked in the other topics as well. 😂"

Welcome to my personal challenge haha!
I feel that, I am always SEARCHING for my friends personal challenges - I am not happy with goodreads deciding on not showing what our friends personal goals for the reading challenge are this year - It was way easier to find their topics in this group.
I wanted to comment on my friends topics on here but I just can´t find them because I don´t know where to look 😂
I try to tick the "notify me when people comment" box now, so that I can see when someone posted something new.

Thanks for your congratulations! I´m studying social work and am really excited for the masters program to start in april. I do have a few things planned (not really planned - I guess I just have a few dreams) regarding my scientific work. However I´m working in two different jobs at the same time as the masters program so I don´t know how much time I´ll actually have left to work on those dreams while still maintaining my personal life.

I´d love to read Water Moon together! Unfortunately my Twin still hasn´t reached out me yet. But I think we have a lot of new members in this group and I´m sure sometimes life just happens and one forgets to log in here so that´s okay. I just hope my next Twin Read is actually happening because I really enjoy those.
I´d still love to read Water Moon this month - but if this doesn´t fit your scedule I´m happy to move it to february?

You´re right I shouldn´t worry so much about my reviews. They´re more for me but still - I´d love it if someone out there read my review and thought to themselve "hey that´s a really good review"

Alina wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Hey Alina, I have finally found your personal challenge page, I wasn't sure how many books you wanted to read, so I looked in the other topics as well. 😂"

Welcome to my personal ch..."

Yes, but the problem with ticking the “notify me” and good reads in general is that this (and many other) function is not available on the mobile app. I find it so frustrating, that whenever I want to do something a bit more elaborate on good reads, I have to open it on my computer, in the browser…

Wow, sounds like you have it busy with your studies and work. I hope that you find all the time you need for all your goals as well as your personal life.

February is quite busy for me regarding books, although I might finish some of them faster (hopefully) than I think, as it happened in January. Would you be willing to read Water Moon in March instead? It’s ok if you don’t, then just start reading it yourself without waiting for me. 😊

LinaVer wrote: "Alina wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Hey Alina, I have finally found your personal challenge page, I wasn't sure how many books you wanted to read, so I looked in the other topics as well. 😂"

Welcome to ..."

Yes, the goodreads app really isn´t the best. I don´t mind it as much though because I like it better to update on any topics on my computer. I only use the mobile app to update my reading process and answer any messages I might have in my private inbox.

Reading Water Moon in March is fine to me! I still have a few other books on my TBR that I can read in february instead.

Alina wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Alina wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Hey Alina, I have finally found your personal challenge page, I wasn't sure how many books you wanted to read, so I looked in the other topics as well...."

Great, then I'll add Water Moon to my March books. :)

Shall I add a comment to the buddy-reads sign up topic and invite people to join us for Water Moon (march) and There There (may)?

I finished Remarkably Bright Creatures


I did enjoy it but I think it could have been a little faster paced.
Towards the middle I was asking myself when things were going to happen but I didn´t have to wait long after that.
I think most of the characters were beautifully developed by the author.

For everyone who would like to know more about what I thought of it here´s my Review

I finished An Elephant in the Garden


Great book - however I read it in english and wished I read in german because most of the time when the protagonist said something in german it was misspelled or was gramatically wrong.

I´d still recommend it as a ww2 book that isn´t as tense as others.

Januarry Wrapped

I planned on reading three books - in the end I read four! Yay!
Powerful 3.75/5
The Spellshop 3.75/5 My Review
Remarkably Bright Creatures 3.5/5 my Review
An Elephant in the Garden 4/5

I also tried getting into reviewing and I am quite happy with the ones I wrote.
Overall I read 1.187 pages and listened to 13,5hours (Fourth Wing - this audio book is over 20 hours I can´t)

I am ahead by one book regarding my 30book challenge this year.
Also I am 296pages ahead regarding my 10.000 pages goal.
My average time to finish a book was 7 days.

I am really happy with my January Reading and hope february will be as good.

February

Plans for february:
I´d like to read another 3-4 books in february.

I definitely want to read Reckless as I´ll be joing the in april upcoming buddy read for Fearless.

I haven´t really put other thoughts in what I want to read as I intend on joining the Readathon and I think it would be good to keep my mind open for that.
I might read The Book of Doors, Career Suicide: Meine ersten dreißig Jahreor The House in the Cerulean Sea
Also Deep Cuts is coming out this month and I really want to read this but I am not sure if I´ll be able too

Also I joined the Twin Read - let´s see on what book my Twin and I are going to decide on together.

For audiobooks I´d like to finish Fourth Wing - I think I have around 11hours left on that.

And I think it would be great to read another 1,000pages but let´s see!

I fiished The House in the Cerulean Sea


I absolutely adored this book - I even had a few tears in my eyes but as I was reading it on a plane I didn´t want to cry there haha.

I might write a review on this later but I´m not sure yet.

February Wrapped

February really wasn´t the best reading month for me. I started A LOT of books but wasn´t able to finish them except for The House in the Cerulean Sea which I loved.

I started reading The Book of Doors and The Cartographers - both I read up to approximately 50% and like them so far.

I haven´t finished listening to Fourth Wing - I hope to finish it in march but I don´t think I will listen to the other books in the series.

For my reading Goal of 30 books I am still on track as I finished 5 books up until now.
For my 10.000pages challenges I am ahead by 261 pages

March

March will have to be better than february as I signed up for some buddy reads, the readathon is still going on and I need to finish a few books I have left from february.

So for the readathon that ends on 2nd March I want to read Everyone's Thinking It: a sharp, compelling YA debut brimming with drama, gossip and romance

Then I still need to finish my twin-read from february (sorry to my twin for being so slow) which is The Cartographers

Also I started The Book of Doors in february and want to finish it before starting anything new.

I signed up for two buddy-reads:
Water Moon
The Love Hypothesis

Also I bought a copy of Deep Cuts and I am really looking forward to this book.

aaaand I still need to read Reckless so that I can read the final book in the series next month.

Also I want to finish my audiobook Fourth Wing

In total that makes 7 books (2 I already started) and 1 audiobook - I haven´t read that much in ages (or maybe ever) and I´m pretty sure I won´t be able to actually make this happen but I am going to try.

Great progress on your goals, Alina! Busy month. I can see how disappointing it can seem to have started some books and feel like you might not be able to finish. But it seems overal you're actually ahead on your goals and that's cool! 🙂 (I have also planned a lot of books for Feb and will have to start and finish some Feb buddy reads in the first week of March. 😅)
How was your vacation by the way?

LinaVer wrote: "Great progress on your goals, Alina! Busy month. I can see how disappointing it can seem to have started some books and feel like you might not be able to finish. But it seems overal you're actuall..."

Thank you Lina!

Well let´s hope march works out for us then haha!

My vacation was great! I went to Cyprus for a little less than a week and it was great to something new.

I finsihed The Cartographers


The story felt kind of inconsistent to me and the characters didn´t have a lot of ... character? Also the romance was dry - or maybe it just felt that way because the characters weren´t executed well.

However it did entertain me and I wanted to know how it ends soo I gave it 3 Stars

Finished The Book of Doors


Rated it 4.5/5 Stars - this was just a really good book and I felt that everythings had it´s purpose and all the loose strings got pulled together at the end - just great.
At the end there was a really abstract chapter which I didn´t really get but I was tired when readong it so maybe I would´ve enjpyed it even more if that were´nt the case.

I finished Water Moon


3/5
I thought I liked it at first but the more I think about it, the more I am confused about everything that happend.

Here´s my Review

I finished The Love Hypothesis


I´ll write a review later today - after work I guess

Honestly in the beginning I thought I´d dislike this. Just thinking about being in a love-relationship with any of my professors makes me cringe but somehow I was able to take a step back from my own experiences at uni.
This book was super unrealistic and Olives constant lying about things that needn´t be lied about was annoying:
nontheless I actually enjoyed this. I haven´t read a romance in a while but I think my 16 year old self would have eaten this up.
The smut part wasn´t too bad - normally reading smut just feels cringe to me.

I give this a 4/5 stars - is it actually a 4 star book? probably not but with this book I am a feels and vibes rater so that´s my rating lol.

March Wrapped

So March was much better then February even though I didn´t finish my goals - but I knew that before the month even started haha.

In total I finished these books:
The Cartographers
The Book of Doors
Water Moon
The Love Hypothesis

My favourite of these was Book of Doors.
Water Moon on the other side probably wasn´t the worst but it definetly didn´t live up to my expectations.

I read around 1.200pages and voted these books with an average rating of 3.8/5.
All of these books were ebooks - I really need to get to my physical SUB next month.

I haven´t really listened to anything. So I also decided to cancel on my audio-book subscription. I´m sure I´ll start listening to audio books again but at the moment it just isn´t the time. I might try and finish Fourth Wing while my subscription is still on but honestly I feel like this is way toooo loong and yes I get it, the protagonist "i´SnT gOiNg To DiE tOdAy" and her love interest is mysterious and wants to kill her- doesn´t he? (He doesn´t - it´s obvious) bla bla - the only things that´s kinda interesting are the dragons but everything around is just annoying.
Hope I don´t get any hate for that - I know that Fourth Wing is like on of the hype-series at the moment.

I´m actually interested in how the choice awards will go this year as a few hyped-series got their ending or a new book (Onyx Storm, Fearless, Sunrise on the Reaping)

April Plans

So for April I am really excited!

I already started Sunrise on the Reaping and can´t wait to finish it. Probably on of my most anticipated books this year.

I also want to read
Deep Cuts
Reckless

I realized that the buddy read for Fearless (the thirs book in the powerless-trilogy) isn´t actually for that Fearless but another book that has that name so I pulled out of it and have more time to finish the second book in this series.

I am still excited for Deep Cuts - it´s the authors first book and her PR team did it´s best to convince me that it be great.

Deep Cuts and Reckless don´t have many pages so I MIGHT start another book - but I haven´t decided on that one yet

I´m starting my Masters degree this month so I think 3 books should be enough - I probably will have to read a lot for uni over the next month.

Finished Sunrise on the Reaping



I loved it!
Heres my review

I finished Deep Cuts


I absolutely loved this one - I hope it´ll be a movie some day as I feel it would be such a cool 00s throwback.

Unfortunately I don´t have much time to write reviews at the moment as I started my masters program but if you enjoy music and reading this book is for you!

April wrapped

So in April I only read two books:
Sunrise on the Reaping

and
Deep Cuts


both of them were 5 star read for me so I´d say this has been a succesfull month!
I hope Holly Brickley will continue writing as I´m really excited to read another book from her.

I also started reading so I´d say I almost finished my goal - I know I wanted to read Reckless in full in April but with uni and everything going on I´m happy I made it this far

may plans

So for may I´d like to finishReckless

and I also want to read:
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - this is my Twin Read this month. I wanted to read it for a while as I really enjoyed Zevins Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I am excited to get into this.

and
There There - is is my buddy read for the month.
I read Wandering Stars which is the prequel/sequel story last year as a Twin read and me and my Twin learned so much about native american history - and it was just great to have someone to chat about it. So I am excited to read There There with a group of people where we can discuss - I think this is going to be a really good book for discussions

____
That should be enough for the month - I have a lot going on so I don´t really think that I am able to read more than three books. But I am still on track for my reading goal and I think that´s great!

May wrap up

The good news first:
I finished The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and it was pretty good! I really like the writing style of Gabrielle Zevin and hope that she´ll release a new book soon.

However I still haven´t finished Reckless - so far it´s okayish but I keep starting other books as this just isn´t holding my attention.

I also haven´t finished but the buddy read was extended so good for me!

June plans

I still need to finish the following:
There There - I´m about 25% in like it so far - I hope to finish it this week

Reckless - about half way through, also trying to finish it this week.

Also I signed up for the Babel buddy read and am really looking forward to it.

Again that should be enough for this month. I do have a wekk off of work so I think this month I should be able to finish all of the above

Hi Alina! Looks like you're making good progress on your goal. I hope you are enjoying some wonderful books!

I'm terribly impressed with how you're keeping up with your reading while working two jobs and graduate school. I had a similar setup and I don't think I was doing much reading back then. Reading sadly fell to the wayside.

Looking forward to seeing what else you read! Happy reading!

Working and doing a Masters! I'm impressed. I struggled with my Masters and I wasn't working. Looks like you've read some good books so far this year.

AmbWitch wrote: "Working and doing a Masters! I'm impressed. I struggled with my Masters and I wasn't working. Looks like you've read some good books so far this year."

JennH wrote: "Hi Alina! Looks like you're making good progress on your goal. I hope you are enjoying some wonderful books!

I'm terribly impressed with how you're keeping up with your reading while working two ..."

Thanks to both of you! Doing a masters, working and uptaining my reading hobby is quite hard. I definetely don´t read as much as I want to and I´m two books behind my yearly challenge. That´s fine though as I tend to read a lot of books during christmas break so I hope I can still achieve that goal haha. Also the masters is only 3 semesters and I only have two more ahead of me...well I still have to write a few papers for uni but hopefully I can manage that.

June wrap-up

This month was really heavy on me - I had so much work und uni stuff to do that I really couldn´t find the time to read a lot. That really makes me kind of upset - not because I want finish my yearly goal - it´s okay if I don´t but because I feel I´m not doing a lot of things just for me.

So this month I finished
There There

I really enjoyed it - I read Wandering Stars the sequel/prequel last year and I think Tommy orange has wonderful way of explaining the generational trauma that indigenous people often go through. I learned so much and a lot of the parts were making me sad and angry but also hopeful. So it was simply a good book.

___

I am still reading Reckless but I decided to put this on hold. I´m not really interested in the story anymore at this time and I felt that I read even less than I could´ve because I wasnt interested in this enough. I still want to finish it this year but let´s see when that happens

I started Babel but only read like the first chapter in June so not a lot to say about that yet.

July plans

For July I am not quite sure yet, what I want to achieve. I don´t want to set my goals so high and then not being able to achieve them again.

I´d like to participate in the group-readathon but maybe only for one book...I´m still thinking about actually signing up.

Also I want to finish Babel where I´m about 90pages in. I enjoy this very much at the moment and am so interested in what´s going to happen next.

I also signed up fo the Intermezzo buddy read - that another 500pages book (I think). I wanted to read this for a long time so I hope I´ll be able to. I think my goal is to at least starting this book July and maybe getting half-way through.

Babel and Intermezzo are both around 500pages long - I normally read books between 300 and 400 pages so I´m excited to see if I´ll like this length or if it´s too long for me.

Alina wrote: "AmbWitch wrote: "Working and doing a Masters! I'm impressed. I struggled with my Masters and I wasn't working. Looks like you've read some good books so far this year."

JennH wrote: "Hi Alina! Loo..."

I'll be cheering you on as you achieve your goals!

And you should totally participate in the team readathon! It's one of my favorite activities here. Even if for only one book.

Hope to see you at the readathon! 😁

JennH wrote: "Alina wrote: "AmbWitch wrote: "Working and doing a Masters! I'm impressed. I struggled with my Masters and I wasn't working. Looks like you've read some good books so far this year."

JennH wrote: ..."

Thanks for your kind message Jenn! So sorry to be late responding, I just didn´t have the time to update on here

So as I didn´t find the time to update on here over the past weeks I decided to switch things up a little on this thread.

At first here are all the books I read over the past weeks:

Babel my first book over 500pages since I picked up reading again - really proud of me and the book was great! I love Kuangs work and will be reading her new book this month

The Unmaking of June Farrow I was hoping to love this book but I didn´t. The characters felt flat to me and din´t have any chemistry. The "curse" was interesting but I don´t think it was executed well.

The Bright Years read this for the readathon and loved it. Great family-drama

Lessons in Chemistry I think I also started this for the readathon but wasn´t able to finish it until after it ended. This is my top 1 book of the year so far.

September plans

I am currently reading Katabasis. It´s also a buddy read and I can´t wait to see what everyone has to say about it.

I hope to get another book done in september I am just not sure yet wich one. This is a list of books I have at home - if anyone reads this and thinks one of them is a must read - do not delay any further please tell me!:
Somewhere Beyond the Sea
Intermezzo
Want
Make It Make Sense: From Shit You Should Care About's Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop