If you’re a regular reader of this blog, chances are good that you, too, obsess a bit about your reading life. I’ve been reflecting on my 2024 reading intentions and am setting some for 2025.

Moby-Dick unexpectedly took over my reading life in 2024.

2024 Reading Intentions – how’d I do?

• Number of books: For decades, I’ve aimed to read 52 books a year, one a week. I try to add everything I read to Goodreads. Sometimes, I forget to add a book, and there have been occasions when a book gets listed twice. That said, Goodreads tells me I have read 70+ books in 2024. I enjoy the site’s end-of-the-year stats, such as the longest and shortest books read (Armadale by Wilkie Collins and Goodnight Moomin by Tove Jansson) and the most and least popular (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and The Glass Studio by Sandra Yannone). I’ll share my top reads early in the new year.
• Challenge: I completed the Willa Cather Short Story Challenge! Beginning in 2019 and ending this August, I read one short story by Cather a month. It felt great to finish this long-term challenge, but I miss having a monthly structure.
• What & When: In the past, I’ve “saved” books to read for a particular reading-themed month, like Victober or Nonfiction November, but then when the month rolls around, I’d not be in the mood, or life would be too busy, etc. So this year, I vowed not to do that and have enjoyed reading what I wanted to when I wanted to. Instead of forcing myself into some imagined perfect reader, I am completely embracing that, at least for now, I am a mood reader. Know thyself. Socrates was on to something.
• 19th-century: This is my favorite historical period, and my TBR for it is ever-growing. I had three novels in mind for 2024: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, and Silas Mariner by George Eliot. I am happy to report I read and very much enjoyed the first two and bumped Eliot into 2025.
• Margaret Fuller Moby-Dick. I thought Margaret Fuller would be my author of the year, but then Moby-Dick splashed down. Several times. Three to be exact: the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s readathon in January, a buddy read in spring, and then the Mystic Seaport readathon in August. I’d read the novel years ago and enjoyed it more than expected. Spending so much time with Moby-Dick was a highlight of my year. It’s one of those novels that gets better with each reading.
• Romance. The Romance genre was the Book Cougars’ theme for our quarterly readalongs in 2024. I wanted to challenge myself to read more than just the four books we would read with our community. I ended up reading twelve: ten novels and two nonfiction. I feel more comfortable with the genre now. I’ve learned how huge and diverse it is. There really does seem to be a sub-genre for everyone.

2025 Reading Intentions

• Read 52. I’ll stick with this number, but instead of making it a goal I can surpass, maybe I’ll think of it as a limit and read fewer books in 2025. Who am I kidding? I don’t want a number to rule my reading, but I would like to think more deeply about what I read and write more about each book—in my journal, on the blog, or perhaps in more formal reviews. I wrote a review for Criminal Element in 2024 (Trial by Ambush by Marcia Clark), something I had not done in several years, and it felt good to think so deeply about a book.
• Ghost stories! Over on the Book Cougars, we are shifting from Romance to Ghost Stories as our reading theme for 2025. Emily and I both enjoy a good ghost story, so it should be a lot of fun. Our book for the first quarter of 2025 is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, one of my favorites. We talk about our plans in this BookTube video.
• Be open to buddy reads & challenges. I’m already planning on some buddy reads. In January, I’ll be reading A New Home, Who’ll Follow by Caroline Kirkland with Sigrid, Swann’s Way by Proust in Feb/March led by Robin (look for #ProustPilotProject on Instagram), four classics with Kate (Old New York by Edith Wharton, Silas Mariner by George Eliot, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and The Red and the Black by Stendahl), and all twelve of Willa Cather’s novels with a group lead by Colleen (see the second image for the reading schedule and I’ll share it at the end of this post as well). I did a Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge in 2012 and am excited to revisit her novels. I’ll also participate in Sue Jackson’s Big Book Summer reading challenge, which focuses on books that are 400+ pages (two that I have in mind for this are The Power Broker by Robert Caro and The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt).
• 19th-century. Read a few more 19th-century novels. I’ve already mentioned some specific novels I plan to read. I’m sure there’ll be more; perhaps even some 18th-century novels might creep in. I’ve been doing a slow read of an advanced reader copy of Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend (Feb 2025) by Rebecca Romney, which is tempting me to read some of the novels that inspired Austen.
• Margaret Fuller. I plan on reading some Margaret Fuller but will tone down my expectations from making her my author of the year. Instead of methodically reading through the Library of America’s forthcoming Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (Feb 2025), I will read selected texts, particularly Summer on the Lakes in 1843 and Women in the Nineteenth Century. Please let me know if you want to read one or both of these with me. I’ll probably read them sometime between late spring and early autumn.

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Reading schedule for Colleen’s Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge

The books will be read chronologically, except for The Professor’s House, which is moved up because it is the focus of the Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference in Red Cloud and the 19th International Willa Cather Conference in Milwaukee, both in June. It’s the 100-year publication anniversary of The Professor’s House.

Colleen welcomes readers to jump in for one book, a few, or all; you can participate in the Instagram check-ins, the Zoom discussions, or both, whatever fits your schedule. This is a friendly group of readers.

How did your reading go in 2024? What are your reading intentions for 2025? I’d love to know!