Book Goals 2026

[e_k_braveman]

Happy new year! I'm still struggling with my social media addiction, but I'm determined to do stuff about it! Including, but not limited to, trying to read more books!

Well, ok, actually my current goal is to finish the books I started years ago (*looks pointedly at Way of Kings* not you.) cause I noticed a bad habit I have is I'll get into a book for a couple of days, making steady progress as I go... and then drop it for either some other book or a completely different hobby entirely. So! I'm taking some opportunities to knock those out.

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First of all, I'll be participating in batmanisagatewaydrug. At least the books I started but never finished are eligible for the squares, so I'll be focusing on filling them first before any others. Additionally, for the Romance and Cultural Nonfiction sections, I have some books on my TBR I think are worth getting into, so I've added those as well. Here's my preliminary bingo card. Or wishful thinking bingo card as the case may be lol.

• Non-Euro fantasy: The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste - an urban fantasy set in the United States and focusing primarily on Black characters and their experiences. Also haunting in the background is SVSSS because I need to finish it but I feel like it's not fair to count it for the bingo since I don't have that many pages left lol.
• Indie/self pub: Serious Weakness by Porpentine Charity Heartscape. Published via itch.io and Amazon.
• Literary fiction: Boy Parts by Eliza Clark. I actually started this one last year but now it's on the Currently Reading and I gotta finish it!
• Pink cover: I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya. This is actually eligible for the 25th square too, but it's pinker than the one that I put there lol!
• Banned or challenged book: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Another one I actually started last year, but I want to prove to myself I can stick to a fairly long fantasy book!
• Cultural nonfiction: Cannibal Fictions: American Explorations of Colonialism, Race, Gender, and Sexuality by Jeff Berglund. I actually haven't started reading this one at all, but it's the intersection of maaaany things I'm interested in learning about, so I think putting it on the bingo as an actual goal is very good.
• Romance: Wanted: Brooding Man, Tragic Past by Lydia Foxglove. I started this one literally yesterday while looking over the bingo! I've never actually read a proper romance book and TBH I was never super interested in them, but the author made a youtube video going over the plot as part of a discussion on outlining and I was hooked! SO might as well add it.
• Writer bio/memoir: Gender/Fucking by Florence Ashley. Ashley is an academic by trade, which doesn't necessarily mean she writes a bunch as part of her job, but one look at her wikipedia page shows she's written lots of essays and articles, so she counts I think, particularly by the criteria of the bingo creators.

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Aside from all of those there's two other books I started but didn't finish:

• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I have it in audiobook and I love the performer, I really gotta get back into it.
• The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke. IDK I started reading this on a whim over the summer, cause I was looking for something a bit different. I think I'll de-prioritize it because it's such a recent read, although I'll probably still reach for it when I get tired of juggling non-fiction and violent novels, but still want a more challenging read than YA and self-pub.

Also I have a bunch of nonfiction on my e-reader saved and occasionally partially read because of wanting to understand shit for worldbuilding purposes. I think I'll look at those when I need them IDK.

And maybe, potentially continue The Way of Kings... just a little bit. I won't actually attempt to finish that behemoth cause fuck that. But worth a shot!

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So that's the plan! I don't have any "read x many books!" goals cause I think that would just stress me out, especially because I've never been much of a book reader (comics on the other hand...). Even the 24 books (+ a TTRPG) of the bingo feel kind of daunting! Less so now that 8 of them are works I'm already familiar with, but still. Hopefully I get something done through this! ^w^

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

good luck with it

[e_k_braveman]

Thank you!