Here we are: the second quarter of 2025 is down, meaning that we are halfway through the year! I’m fairly happy with my reading habits and stats, thus far. While there is no right or wrong number of books to read, I find that setting myself goals is a great way to encourage myself to read rather than watch TV or doom scroll. I have the standard book and page goals for the year, but I’ve also set myself more “unique” goals to direct my reading. I am hoping that by sharing my updates here, someone else might be inspired to read a book they normally wouldn’t. Let’s get into 2025 Reading Goals: Update 2.
2025 Reading Goals- Update 2
April to June was a ridiculously busy time for work but I still found time to fit my reading in! (It helps that reading is my main form of entertainment. I can say for certain that I finished 43 books between April, May, and June! (I have two that I might finish by Monday but I wanted to have this post up before the hiatus starts on Monday, 30 June.) I am reading more physical books again, but sheerly because they happens to be the format that I own them in. (Shout out to the wonderful publishers sending me physical ARCs!)
All of the photos here are books I’ve read and enjoyed, with reviews linked if you click on the photo!
Read 2 Non-Fiction Books Written by Women per Month
As always, I find it incredibly important to support women who are writing and to share their books. And that is doubly true in non-fiction, as there are far fewer women being published in non-fiction genres than men. I have thankfully been able to surpass my two book/month goal! I’ve found that I’m focusing on an author’s bibliography- once I’ve found them at the library or on another service, I tend to read several of them.
These are the non-fiction books I’ve read for the past quarter:
April-4: After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Epoque Through Revolution and Way, Helen Rappaport; Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser; The Warrior Queens, Antonia Fraser; The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Rusia Never Had
May-4: Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt, Barbara Mertz; The Novel Life of Jane Austen, Janine Barcas; The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well-Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense and Sensibility, Natalie Tyler; Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams
June-3: The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton: A 19th Century Heroine Who Wanted Justice for Women, Antonia Fraser; City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, Holly Tucker; London and the 17th Century, Margarette Lincoln
Read 80% Books Written by Women- 93% (40/43)
Because I don’t think that I could rewrite this as succinctly or directly, my original motivation for this overall goal:
I have seen many, many people on social media say that they do not pay attention to the gender of the author when choosing books. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but that attitude tends to reinforce traditional gender and race focuses in the publishing world. It is 2025, and we can all be responsible readers.
I am still passing my goal of 80% by a good gap- I will be thrilled if I can stay above 80%. I am finding that both non-fiction and mystery are still rather saturated with male authors (at least in the sub-genres I am reading), so I’ve had to be very thoughtful about the books that I am choosing to read.
75% of Books Read from Library, NetGalley, Spotify, or owned for 1+ year- 90% (39/43)
To recap quickly, this goal was set mostly with my budget in mind, as it means I’m not purchasing new books. I have started taking physical books out of my bookshelf and putting them somewhere that I will see so that they are top of mind when I need a new book. (It seems to actually make a difference!)
Also, my library finally has audiobooks on Hoopla again after seven years without, which has opened up a lot of book options. While Libby books/audiobooks have quite a long wait time, Hoopla has none. (My only criticism of Hoopla is that there is a metric ton of AI books, which make it difficult to scroll through genres to find new books.)
Read 5 Books from “New” Areas of History
This is my first goal finished! I tend to stick with a lot of royal history and literary history, so I think that pushing myself out of that comfort zone has been a good choice. In particular, the crime history book about Paris gave me a lot to think about. Unfortunately, it did make me a bit queasy at some points, but all in all, it was incredibly interesting!
I have bolded the three new books read this quarter.
- Hidden Histories of the Viking Age, Eleanor Barraclough (Viking history)
- Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures, Katherine Rundell (Environmental history)
- Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt, Barbara Mertz (Egyptian history)
- The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton: A 19th Century Heroine Who Wanted Justice for Women, Antonia Fraser (Legal history)
- City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, Holly Tucker (Crime history)
What books are you planning to read this summer?
Cheers,
The Historian
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