2022 is slowly coming to an end, meaning that 2023 is about to begin! Now is the perfect time to think about your New Year’s resolutions and reading goals for the upcoming year. Who knows, maybe this time you will ACTUALLY stick to them, not like the past couple of years…. your will to try is all that counts.

If you don’t really know what your bookish New Year’s resolutions are going to be, here are 15 ideas for you:

reading a certain amount of books (or pages)

I personally am not a big fan of setting reading goals based on the number of books I want to read because it keeps me from reading longer or more complex books. Longer books simply take longer to read than shorter books and by making it a race against time to finish as many books as possible, especially when the reading goal is very ambitious, long books seem to be hindering my progress. For me, reading goals are there to motivate me to spend more time reading, so what matters isn’t the amount of different stories I have read but the amount of time I have actually spent reading. Instead, if I set a reading goal for myself, I prefer using the number of pages since this is a more accurate way to actually measure how much I have read in a year/month. Of course, the text on a page also varies from book to book, depending on the font size but it is still more precise than comparing books (just think that when counting the books, reading a really short book like Animal Farm would count the same as reading Lord Of The Rings, which is obviously much thicker and will inevitably take longer to read).

reading at least one book by an indie-author

Indie-authors are often less visible than traditionally published authors but the stories they have to tell are equally fascinating. Reading books by indie-authors means you are supporting an individual realising their dreams. Another great thing about reading books by indie-authors is that it means you can discover some hidden gems that are not the typical booksta favourites and that you may not have come across otherwise. Plus, indie-authors have more freedom over what they write and how they write it, so you may find a wider variety of stories and styles than you would with traditionally published books.

venturing outside your preferred genre(s)

There are probably few readers out there that love all genres equally and more often than not, most of the books we read are from the one to three genres that we love the most. While it is perfectly okay to not like every genre and to read books from the genres we like (after all, we want to enjoy the book we are reading…), sometimes it is worth trying something new. It doesn’t have to be a genre you hate, but maybe one you aren’t that fond of or one you have never really tried. There have been quite a number of times I really enjoyed a book I didn’t expect to like at first, so you may be surprised. Worst case scenario, your opinion of a genre gets reinforced and you know that you are not missing anything the next time you decide to skip reading a book everyone is raving about but that is from a genre you don’t like.

reading more books that aren’t as popular

While most popular books are popular for a reason, that doesn’t mean that less popular books don’t have the same potential. Especially if you are under the impression that many popular books didn’t meet your expectations or the genres and tropes currently all over bookstagram, booktok or wherever you get your book recommendations from don’t really fit your taste, it might be a good idea to take some time to find books that are less popular. It might feel like you are missing out but there is no point in reading books you don’t really enjoy just so you know what everyone is talking about.

re-reading an old favourite (this is a really difficult one to do, I know 😉 …)

Don’t we all love re-reading our favourites? Maybe it is a book you loved as a child and you want to read it again for the nostalgia or maybe it is a book you just can’t stop thinking about. Sure, New Year’s resolutions are meant to challenge us to improve something in our life, but that doesn’t always have to be a chore! While discovering new books is definitely great, revisiting a world and characters you already know and love is wonderful too. Plus, you will probably notice some things that escaped your notice the first time around (or in case it’s been a while since you last read the book, maybe there are things you have completely forgotten about).

reading some of the books that have been sitting on your shelf for a long time

I am not the only one who has tons of books sitting on her shelves, waiting to be read, am I right? You could use this as motivation to finally pick those up before you lose interest in them (or at least admit that you don’t really want to read some of those books instead of feeling guilty for procrastinating on reading them time and time again). You probably bought them for a reason, so hopefully you will have a great time reading them! Who knows, maybe you will discover some books that you have already forgotten you possessed in the first place and they turn out to be your new favourites…

reading one or several books your friends recommended to you

You probably know the feeling of excitement when you recommend your favourite book to your friends and they actually pick it up and read it. So why not return the favour and read some of the books they recommended to you? Maybe you are lucky and they will also ask for recommendations. This is also a great opportunity to discover books you wouldn’t normally read and get introduced to new genres. Worst case scenario, you absolutely hate the book and know that your and your friend’s reading tastes vastly differ. But at least you gave it a try!

only buying a maximum of … books a month

This is probably one of the most difficult suggestions on this list… I mean we all love buying books, don’t we? Of course, you could mark the limit at 100 books a month which should be easy to achieve (unless you are a millionaire and have unlimited money to spend on books) but this would kind of defy the purpose. So, in case you don’t want to use this as an easy to tick box (like putting something on your to do list that you already did, so you can tick it off and feel good…), setting a realistic goal slightly below the amount of books you normally purchase within a month might stop you from buying excessive amounts of books while not taking all the fun away. You could also set a yearly limit if you know that you buy more books for certain occasions while you don’t usually buy many books in other months.

annotating one of your favourite books

I absolutely love annotated books but I am by far too lazy to do this for every book. Actually, I have never finished annotating a whole book… which is why this is on the list of New Year’s resolutions! Perhaps you are like me and annotating a book you have never read and aren’t sure you will end up enjoying doesn’t seem like a great idea. Just take one of your favourite books and mark your favourite scenes, things that stood out to you, write your thoughts on the side… that way you at least know your efforts won’t be wasted on a crappy book. It’s even more fun if you have just started or are in the middle of a series you are enjoying because you can annotate as you go along and note down your predictions and thoughts on certain characters. This will be a lot of fun to read through once you have finished the series to see where you completely misjudged a character or where you saw a plot twist coming and correctly predicted the ending.

reading a certain amount of pages each day

This one is pretty simple but a great idea if you want to read more and measuring the amount of books to read each year doesn’t work for you. Even if you only use it as a guide and not a strict rule, it may bring you to read more and you can adjust the number of pages depending on how busy you are and how much you would like to read.

reading another book by your favourite author

This one also belongs into the category of fun New Year’s resolutions. If you loved one book by an author, chances are you will also like other books they have written (provided they have already published multiple books of course). So why not check your favourite author’s works for any other books you might be interested in. This is also a good alternative for those who tend to get frustrated when searching new favourite books because they search for something similar to the books they loved but don’t want it to feel like a rip-off or basically the same story just not as good. Usually it is not only the story we love but also the way the author tells that story. The other books by the same author will probably have a similar style or certain features that stay the same, while also delivering a completely different story. I know that it is usually not so much the overall plot that I fall in love with but the feeling of the story or certain aspects and chances are that those will also appear in the author’s other novels.

reading a certain number of books that are more than 400/500/600 pages (depending on what your normally read)

Reading long books can be a daunting task. Especially if you measure your reading goals in the number of books read, reading books with more than a certain number of pages can easily seem overwhelming. However, while reading shorter books allows you to discover a wider range of different stories, reading longer books has its fair share of advantages as well. It gives you more time to immerse yourself in the world and to get to know the characters which in turn allows you to form a deeper connection to the story (provided you generally enjoy the story). I know for sure that I enjoyed many of the long books I have read, despite hesitating to read them for a long time due to the commitment.

finishing at least one book in a single day

This one can also be interpreted as: choose one day you only dedicate to reading a book from cover to cover. Depending on how fast you read, it can be a short or long book, whatever suits you best. Reading in between tasks when you have a couple of minutes is great but enjoying the story as a whole in a relatively short period of time makes it easier to connect to the characters and the events. Plus, who doesn’t want to spend an entire day reading?

taking part in a reading challenge

Reading Challenges are a great way to broaden your horizon, discover new books, get out of your comfort zone and have fun with other readers. There are tons of reading challenges available, ranging from simple prompts for one book a month to season-themed challenges to ambitious reading challenges for those who really want to be “challenged”. The great thing is that you can complete them at your own pace, depending on how many books you read in a month/year or how many books you want to read outside the challenges. As a starting point, you could check out my monthly reading challenges on my blog.

not reading any books you aren’t interested in because they are popular at the moment

Have you ever read a popular book that you weren’t really interested in, just because it is popular? I know that I have, and in most cases I ended up not really liking it. I understand wanting to know what everyone is talking about and to see if the book is really “worth the hype” and it is totally fine to decide you want to give a book a try. However, forcing yourself to read a book that doesn’t intrigue you at all will most likely lead to disapointment. Especially if you don’t read 30+ books a month (or even 10+ books a month) you may be stuck mostly with books you don’t really enjoy and possibly end up in a reading slump. It can be hard to withstand the pressure but if you find books that bring you joy you won’t miss all those popular books that are not for you.