“How?!”
The first question people ask when I share that I read 106 books in 2024. My recipe for reading a lot of books was equal parts luck and effort. I am a speed reader by nature, so this definitely made this goal more doable. I can read a book cover to cover in mere hours and often have to force myself to slow down while reading. But beyond speed-reading, I also gave up quite a few things this year to make time to read. Like nearly all television for half the year, a decent chunk of my social life, and incidentally even my job when our family moved to Hawaii.
Hitting this goal also required habits like reading my kindle while walking my dog, using audiobooks to continue chapters in the car when I had to set physical books down, and reading way past my bedtime.
Will I read 100 books again in 2025? Probably not!
I usually read around 40 to 50 books a year, and doubling that was a huge investment of my time and energy. I want to focus on other endeavors this year like writing more, enjoying more of beautiful Hawaii without my head buried in a book, and hopefully finding a job I love.
But reading will always be important to me, and I’ve found a few consistent habits have helped to easily implement reading into my daily routine. Here’s what I recommend: 
- Cut down on TV and phone time in the evenings.
- Always bring a book or e-reader on outings. A decent amount of my reading happened in waiting rooms for appointments or in a vehicle if my husband was driving.
- Have a book or e-reader within reach when kids start to play independently instead of mindlessly scrolling.
- Utilize different formats of reading including e-readers and audiobooks. My kindle is compact and light, and so easy to pop into my purse and discreetly read in most settings.
- Join a book club. Having a group to stay accountable to and a deadline to read often helps prioritize reading.
Now as far as what you should read? Here are 15 books I can confidently say are worth your valuable time and should be on your TBR in 2025:
- Demon Copperhead (Literary Fiction)
- Outlander (Romance)
- The Serpent & the Wings of Night (Romantasy)
- The Wedding People (Contemporary Fiction)
- This Summer Will Be Different (Romance)
- When the Moon Hatched (Romantasy)
- The God of the Woods (Mystery)
- The Wives: A Memoir (Memoir)
- The Idea of You (Romance)
- The Anxious Generation: The Great Rewiring of Childhood (Non-fiction)
- The Guncle (Contemporary Fiction)
- Funny Story (Romance)
- The Women (Historical Fiction)
- The Rachel Incident (Literary Fiction)
- Same Time Next Summer (Romance)
For this year, my reading goal will be a more relaxed 72 books. I still plan to set an annual goal because it helps keeps me accountable and encourages me to use my phone less (a resolution I make every year: less phone time).
If you want to start making reading goals and tracking you progress, I recommend a book tracking app like Goodreads, Fable, or Storygraph. These apps allow you to make reading lists, connect with fellow readers, and compile fun stats of all the books you’ve read.
Whether your goal for 2025 is one book or one-hundred, I hope you can build habits and find the time to hit it!
