My 2025 reading plan
from a moody and distracted reader
I am so sorry to say that you are reading yet another 2025 reading plan post. Are you sick of these yet? If you’re nosy like me and want to know what other people are reading, then follow along.
Year after year I make reading plans for the year ahead and write them in my little notebook. Even though I don’t follow much of what I had planned as the year goes on, I like doing this little ritual of mine to look forward to the year ahead. Reading takes a big part of my time (and life in general) so it only makes sense that I make plans for it. I used to not put any structure into my reading year pre-Instagram or pre-Substack but I found it’s even more fun when you plan. It gives me something to be excited about. C’mon, try it.
2025 Reading List
Every year, I list down books I want to read for the coming year and every year I don’t get to complete all the books in my list. Again. But I don’t beat myself to it. Overtime though I have learned to create a reasonable list that’s based on the book’s availability in my country and my shopping habits. I am only going to list my five must-reads. Anything else I get to read in 2025 will be whatever I happened to fancy at the bookstore at that time.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
2025 Reading Goals
Read 50 books
This is my reading goal year after year because I already know my reading habits. I seem to average 4 books per month so that’s 48 books a year. But I’ve added two more books as a challenge and to also take account that I will be reading two big books this year which means I will be slower. So 50 books seems reasonable.
Reach 15 countries in my Let’s Read Asia Challenge
Back in September, I launched my Let’s Read Asia challenge where I want to read a book from every country in Asia. My current tally is 8/51 so this year I want to push myself to 15.
If you’ve been around for a while you’ll notice that I tend to gravitate towards Japanese literature. Here’s to hoping to expanding horizons.
Read 2 Big Classic Books
I started this challenge last year with Anna Karenina and now I am challenging myself to double it. I am planning to read Don Quixote for the first half of the year and Great Expectations in July. However, I might want to squeeze Middlemarch in between because I want to closely read it with
.Read all of Jane Austen’s works
I always wanted to be able to say that I have read all of somebody’s works (novels only though). I have unintentionally read all of John Green’s work (so far) but now I want to be intentional. Jane Austen seems to be a great author to start this challenge because 1. she can’t publish anymore books and 2. she seems to be universally loved. I have already read 2 of her novels so that leaves me 5 more to read.
I was also deciding between Kazuo Ishiguro and Jane Austen but Ishiguro’s older books are not as accessible in my city as Austen’s. I have also been seeing a lot of 2025 Austen read-alongs so I took it as a sign.
Reread three books
It has been my tradition to only reread books during January and February, mainly to take a break from all the December spending. I wasn’t able to do this in 2024 because I bought so many books by the end of 2023 and I kept buying more. So now I am bringing this tradition back.
I would love to know what you’re all planning to read in 2025! Tell me. I’m nosy.
Other 2025 Reading Plans that I Loved
C.D. Landreth’s 2025 Deep Reading List
Haley Larsen’s 2025 close reads
Andrea Bass’ 2025 Reading Goals
Matthew Long’s Philosophy of Self-Education and his 2025 Reading Plan
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Love this. You’ve also inspired me to read Anna Karenina as one of my big books this year. Lonesome dove and Middlemarch are on my list too!
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Don Quixote! Maybe I should pick up more by Jane Austen, I have not read everything by her.
PS: I really liked that you set the two first months of the year to do rereads, that sounds like a really nice tradition and way to starte the new year