‘Tis the season… for setting new book goals! I know that for many people, goals offer more stress than motivation. However, for myself, setting reading goals helps guide my reading over the year and it motivates me to read when I might rewatch Ted Lasso for the fortieth time. (Not that TL isn’t amazing.) Beyond the standard number of books and pages per year, I like to set myself different goals each year with a few new ones for this go-around. Onto my 2026 reading goals!
My 2026 Reading Goals
I have set myself tentative goals of 120 books and 55,000 pages for 2026. I tend to reach the book goal fairly quickly but sometimes the page goals take longer- in 2025, I reached my page goal of 58,000 pages on 28 December. I chose to reduce it a little bit to give a tad more flexibility!
It is also not a set goal, but I have a stack of books from my shelves that I would like to read this year. If I don’t get all of them read, that is fine- I would like to make a serious dent by December 2026, though.
75% Books Written By Women
This goal has appeared for both 2024 and 2025, and quite frankly will keep appearing until women are published in equal numbers to their male counterparts. In the majority of genres, men are published in far greater numbers than women, and one major way that we can see more female writers published is to read and support those who already are.
If you are going to say, “I don’t pay attention to who the author is, I just read books that grab me”, then you are supporting the status quo. And that does not only apply to women, but also other minorities. It is 2026, we can all be consciously reading. (And if you can’t find books written by women or people of colour or whatever minority group in your chosen genre, that is even MORE of a reason to seek them out.)
Previously I had this goal set at 80% rather than 75%- I lowered it to 75% to also give myself a bit more breathing room. Budgetwise, I can’t afford to buy many books, so it will somewhat come down to what I’m approved for on NetGalley or what the library has.
40% Non-Fiction Books
This will be a difficult goal for me, as my library has been purchasing a lot less non-fiction books than they used to, especially in history. However, I will keep requesting books on NetGalley and the above-mentioned stack of physical books to read is also non-fiction heavy.
Non-fiction books do typically take me longer to read than fiction, and I’ve found in the last year that specifically stopping and pausing to think on what I’ve read has made for a more enjoyable experience. This might mean that I don’t meet book or page goals but I am okay with that!
Read More Canadian Authors
Although I do not avoid Canadian authors in any way, I am aiming to read more from Canadian authors this year. (Not counting LM Montgomery, as I typically re-read two or three of her books each year.) Over the last year as Canadians, we have come to realise that we need to do more to support our own. Reading may not be the biggest action, but I do a lot of it- reading and sharing Canadian authors is definitely something I can do. I have not set myself a numerical aspect to this goal, as I don’t know what to expect in the genres I regularly read. However, I am hoping to add several Canadian authors to my list!
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What are your 2026 reading goals?
Cheers,
The Historian
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