Fantastic! I’m collecting all of Anthony Trollope’s novels in Folio Society editions. I’ve currently bought 35 of them😊 One of my goals for this year is to read at least 15 of these. I’m also hoping to read at least 4 of Dickens, a couple of Gaskell as well as Russian authors Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Tolstoy.
Love seeing your spreadsheet every year! Your goals sound really fun and there are some nice accomplishments on there too. For the first time I have named 12 books I specifically want to read. They tend to be on the chunky side so we’ll see. As you say, it’s all for pleasure and fun. Currently still reading Dune and The Iliad which are carry overs from last year, plus reading a chapter a day of War and Peace. Enjoying them all! Also want to read more books about books, and books about fairy tales. Otherwise we’ll see where my reading takes me! Thanks for sharing your goals and plans. I find you and them very inspirational. ❤️📚
I always enjoy your goals video so much!! Good luck with all of them 🤩 What you said about goals almost giving you “permission” to prioritize reading resonated with me SO MUCH
I can definitely get behind goals like these 🤩. Your spreadsheet is so thoughtfully organised and still flexible enough for any mood reads. I'm glad I stopped my Goodreads Challenge, though-it led me to a lot of forgettable reads. In 2021, I read 60 truly quality books. By 2024, my reading became less intentional, just chasing a 'why not read this it counts?' approach to bump up my numbers for the Goodreads 120 book goal. It worked-I reached 142 books-but I realised most didn’t align with what I truly wanted to read. Your approach of dividing a numeric goal into a themed spreadsheet is brilliant. That was part of my thinking behind the Reading the Globe initiative with 25 books and 3 genres. You're in for a real treat finishing those Chambers and Hobbs books. And I must confess, I've never read Trollope 🙈
Katie: "Books that have been on my physical TBR for a really long time" Nada: "SAME!! I soooo relate to this!!" Katie: "A year+" **crickets** Nada: **cries in I-have-books-that-have-been-on-my-physical-tbr-for-over-a-decade** 😂😭 I know I've said this multiple times before but I'm really excited to hear your post-reread thoughts on He Knew He Was Right!! Also, which of Trollope's books are you planning buddy-reads for?
Haha, I mean some of them have been on my shelves for 1 year, but some have been there for 5 or 6 years. So, Trollope-wise, I guess: The Bertrams The Golden Lion of Granpère John Caldigate Marion Fay The Macdermots of Ballycloran, Castle Richmond The Landleaguers The Two Heroines of Plumplington and Other Stories Rachel Ray (reread) An Autobiography Let me know if you fancy reading any of them with me!
I get so intimidated by Trollope every time. I can't imagine how he managed to WRITE 47...the discipline! Love your goals. Victorian literature is so English-specific, maybe one Victober challenge can be 19th century "world-wide" and you can hit your challenge and stay true to your 19th century classics love. I can't wait to see all the things you do this year. Every year it's so inspiring and you always suprise me in the best way!
Good luck! I have so many books that I've owned for years at this point that I don't even remember when I bought them.😅. I know you'll achieve most of these! For help with the science fiction/fantasy reading some historical fantasy might be a good way! So many of them are Regency or Victorian inspired. Though I do recommend The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden which is Russian and based on the Vasia the beautiful fairytale. My main goals this year are to finish more series than I start and to try and match the amount of books bought to the amount unhauled.
You have so many goals and you actually do quite well compared to most of us every year. I hope to read some of my US history and biography books as well as several of my oldest tbr books. I have a recommendation for a book in translation for your modern list. It is Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt. It was published in 2016 and it's historical fiction so it may be something you would enjoy.
😂😂😂 Only owned physical TBR for six months to a year! Ah what a contrast our libraries are! And only 40-60 books. That’s amazing. Katie, your goals are working! You are reading a lot of books! 💛
Signed up for Proust and Dante readalongs. Also hoping to read at least one book for each quarter of Historathon2025, a similar philosophy-thon, and a science reading challenge. Also hoping to fit in some true crime, religion, self-help, and a Pratchett novel or two. Way more than I have been reading in recent years (completing, anyway), but it seems doable. Have also rekindled a competing love of film. Oops.
IF I would ever seriously consider a BookTube gig it would have to offer something different, but I can’t imagine what that would be. You and many others offer great content and explore books and topics that more than appeal to us, and along the way, we get to see a little way into what makes presenters tick. We actually think we get to know our favorites here, and we look forward to each new post. It is a brave thing to expose as much of yourself as you do (or any ‘tuber does), so we thank you for it. And as an aside, I’ve been re-visiting Jenn Brooks’ past videos lately, and it is such a sad (but also joyous thing). One gets to thinking she’s like an old friend, but of course, she is now on the other side of Jordan. It’s quite strange to listen to her talk about Dante and Italy while knowing such a bright, interesting, and young woman is no longer with us. But the point of this long comment is to make a suggestion. You are a book list maker and you talk about your favorites and your reading plans at great lengths. However, I don’t believe I have ever listened to someone discuss the 5 or 10 books that primarily shaped and informed the intellect of the young person that became our favorite Tubers. I’d be delighted to have you discuss the 10 that most made you “Katie”, and I’d guess that most of your loyal viewers would be eager to share theirs, too. And yes, Katie, you SHOULD read LOTR. My main goal this year is to remain on THIS side of Jordan and to get through the Divine Comedy and (perhaps) revisit the Iliad and Odyssey. Acquainting myself with some of the greats of Roman literature and working through Paradise Lost would also be worthy pursuits for 2025, God willing and NOT having those sisters (the Fates) reach for their scissors.
Hi Kevin! Yes, I sometimes watch Jennifer's old videos, too, and feel sad and joyous, as you say - her videos are so amazing. Thank you for the video suggestion. I'll have to have a think about books that formed me, as it were!
Your reading goals are always inspiring for me! I want to try with setting up a similar spreadsheet for me, even though the goals will be totally different (I read like 90% only translated books, so the other way around that you 😂) Good luck with your reading this year 😊
Good luck wirh your goals thia year. I made a real push to read more internationally/ in translation a few years back and the habit has mainly stuck. Some that i really wnjoyed were: The Eighth Life - Nino Haratischwili Go, Went, Gone - Jenny Erpenbeck An Unnecesaary Woman - Rabih Alameddine Twenty Two Years to Life - Mohammed Massoud Morsi Anxious People - Fredrick Backman Miracles of the Namiya General Store - Keigo Higashino I'm an Old Commie - Dan Lungu No Man in the House - Cecil Foster If You Want to Make God Laugh - Bianca Marais We, The Drowned - Carsten Jensen A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth On the classics front, The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon was really interesting - a diary from a thousand years ago!
I didn't read as many classics last year as I had hoped, but I did enjoy all the ones I did read. My favorite was Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
I really like your focused reading goals. I think it's much easier to concentrate on a few goals than to try to spread oneself too thin. Life has been chaotic for me the last few months, so I have stumbled into 2025 pretty unorganized (generally as well as in my reading). However, my reading has, of it's own accord, changed in ways I'm enjoying. I want to continue to 1) Read more from my own shelves (Instead of ignoring my shelves in favor of library selections or new purchases.) 2) Spend more time finishing series or favorite authors' backlists. 3) Reduce and curate my shelves to more accurately reflect my current reading tastes.
After watching Jared Henderson's (a philosophy TH-camr) video on reading better, I'm going to focus on reading projects instead of just general goals. I'm going to do a Tolkien project because I also have never read Lord of the Rings, but I love the movies. Tolkien seems to be a fascinating human being and I would like to learn about him. as a person. I'm also doing a project on Asian literature with particular interest on the Philippines, which is my grandmother's native country. This was a project I started last year and want to continue expanding upon. I also would like to read the books I own that are on Rory Gilmore's reading list. Finally, there are authors like Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson Anne Rice, Anthony Trollop, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens I want to either read more from or get beck into reading. Some of them write huge works that I struggle committing to and the classic authors, I spend more time building my collection of their work rather than reading through it.
So glad to see you embracing the dark side of letting your tbr be 60 books 😂 my shelves have about 650 books and 250 of them aren't read. But I'm okay with it because I buy all my books from thrift stores so whenever I find a classic book for three dollars I buy it. So it ends up that there are lots authors that I've read a few of their books but own five or six unread and I own a lot of poetry and anthologies. Which I love but am not in a hurry to read cover to cover. Best of luck! I love your international classics goal!
Oh, I wish I would have known you were planning on reading Marion Fay this year because I'm just about to finish it this week! Great job reading so many of his books already- I have only read like 3, so I have a LONG way to go. 😂
That was really good, very achievable and so exciting. I always want to read more sci and fantasy and often start the year well and then move away. Because I have been concentrating on international authors, especially German novels in translation I realised that I have fallen behind on authors I enjoy from my own country. So this year I intend to catch up on those I have missed, Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Jock Serong’s new novels immediately spring to mind. There are also some new authors to catch up with. Happy reading Katie.
I really enjoyed Marion Fay! My biggest goal for 2025 is to read Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, a group of us are reading it over the year doing each letter on the day it was dated. The readalong is on Storygraph and is run by Nicole at the channel Noteworthy Fiction
I love the way your goal-setting and recording of your reading gives me new ideas for mine - thank you. Also, can I recommend Andy Serkis' audiobook reading of The Lord of the Rings trilogy? I found it very enjoyable.
I would like to read 50 books in 2025, including Pride and Prejudice; Emma; and The Pickwick Papers because I already own them. To that I'll add about 4 Agatha Christie, a few Margaret Atwood novels and a lot of Zola. It's going to be a great reading year. ❤📚
As an Austrian anglophile I've read so many books by British authors but neglected those from my country and those around, especially the German speaking ones. So my goal for this year is to read more Austrian/German/Swiss authors. Your TBR bucket is cute 😊
For me, reading goals give me something to strive towards, rather than adding pressure. I've a notebook where I've noted down a lot of various kind of challennges - just for my own enjoymeent/benefit. It's fun to see how I'm doing and what kind of books I'm reading. I've got a lot of lists - I love lists.:) Amain Reading List, a Re-Reading List (a subsection one is a Chronological Re-Reading List - I believe I am at 1883 at present? My next book upon it is Trollope's "Autobiography".:)) I have also - at least - a half dozen different wishlists.This helps mee structure my reading - and book purchasing somewhat. There are just too, too many books I want to read, and this way I know which book to read next. And as I said, I just love lists.:)
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, and good luck with your personal reading challenges in 2025. For me there's really only one major goal - and it's been dominating my tbr for several years - that being the novels of William Faulkner, I was able finally to read one the past year (Absalom, Absalom!) and to finish As I Lay Dying would be ideal. He's a difficult writer but very very good. Being someone who also does like to be say I've read this many books so far this year being bogged down in one or two can be problematic. I'm working through it.
One more comment: in the 1990s Oxford Classics published all of Trollope in paperback, including 2 volumes of short stories: "Early Short Stories" and "Later Short Stories", both ed. by John Sutherland. I have picked these up as used copies and from what I have researched, these 2 volumes contain all of Trollope's stories except for 2: "Never, Never...Never, Never" and "The Gentle Euphemia." So if you like his stories, I would recommend getting hold of these editions.
This is quite a comprehensive list of reading goals, and I wish you luck with all of them. I'm particularly interested to see how you get on with the science fiction - this is a much neglected area of my own reading.
I love this video every year--it gets me inspired, even though I have (xxx) books on my TBR! Re: Anthony Trollope--I have his last 12 published books to read, which includes Marion Fay, John Caldigate and The LandLeaguers. I want to re-read He Knew He Was Right and La Vendee as well as finish re-reading the Pallisers. I found both the Macdermots and Castle Richmond so interesting because of the Irish settings; not his best books, but still fascinating, esp. Castle Richmond. And I'm upset because JUST YESTERDAY I ordered 2 books from Blackwells! If I'd only known!...do you think they'll give you credit after the purchase??? And they were BOTH books I heard about on your channel--Black and British, and Empireland, and I sent them to my son in Sheffield for his birthday! But that's OK, I have a long list I want to buy for me & sent to the USA. Curious to know what the Persephone book is on your 19-book TBR....
Well, next time, perhaps! I've been meaning to get a Blackwells link for ages and hadn't got it sorted. The Persephone book on my TBR is the Persephone Book of Short Stories :)
Not sure if you've read it but I highly suggest Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. It also checks off a few of your boxes- it is a book in translation, it's a modern classic, and if you like it, it's part of a 4 book series. Good luck with your reading goals this year!
The only Trollope book I've read that you haven't is John Caldigate which is excellent. I wasn't expecting much but it is thoroughly engaging. I also liked how an important part of the book takes place outside of England -- top ten Trollope easily! In another video I believe you mentioned an Italo Calvino story you read. For your international challenge you may find his book The Baron in the Trees interesting. It definitely is open to wide interpretation. The premise is so unusual.
Hello, Katie! I have been a subscriber for a while, but this is my first time commenting here. I find your spreadsheet helpful and will make one of my own. Also because I want to get into historical fiction, I will subscribe to you on patreon and take part in your read alongs there!
Hello, i have a recommendation for your translated books: The Decagon House Murders byYukito Ayatsuji. It qualifies, too, as a " classic" Japanese mystery. I just read it, what a delicious fantastic mystery, it is SO SO SO GOOD!! A Honkaku Club Japanese mystery, modeled after the Golden Age Crime. Ive read all A. Christie -- and this is one of the best mysteries ive ever read. 😊
Also, I do have a non-Engllish classic author recommendation for you: Swedish 19th century writer, Fredrika Bremer. She was very popular back in her day, and many of her books were translated into English by - I believe - Maryy Hewitt. I read a snippet of one of my favourite books by her - "The Neighbours" - in English online, and I really did feel as if the translation captureed her "voice" - it did feel as if I was reading Fredrika Bremer, except in English. I've got two volumes of her letters (which I have not yet read - they are on my Reading List, of course:)), and the first letter in one of them was in English, writing to her translator, Mary Hewitt (again, if I remmember the name correctly). That might explain a lot if they were in constant contact with each other. I do think she is someone whose writinn gmight interest you. And if a recommendation from a total stranger online is not enough - well, both Charlotte Bronté and Elizabeth Gaskell liked her books. :)
Sounds like you have enough ideas for SFF reading but I highly recommend Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, a stand alone. I've heard that the audiobook is fantastic. In September I started a year long goal having to do with finishing series but I didn't realize that a year long reading challenge that had started in July would be so all consuming. 🙄 🤦♀️ I guess I'll try for series again starting in July when the challenge is over.
Ooo I’ve never read Anthony Trollope Katie and if you were interested in doing a Buddy read with a complete newbie to his work to compare and Contrast to your take I’d be so up for that ❤
I have a book on my shelf(yet to be read) that sounds like your cuppa tea called The Dublin Railway Murder,a fact based Victorian murder mystery by Thomas Morris.
Reading goals for 2025 are to read more of what is on my shelves in the season of the book while not forgetting Kindle books too. Donate books that I will not reread.
Fantastic! I’m collecting all of Anthony Trollope’s novels in Folio Society editions. I’ve currently bought 35 of them😊 One of my goals for this year is to read at least 15 of these. I’m also hoping to read at least 4 of Dickens, a couple of Gaskell as well as Russian authors Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Tolstoy.
Love seeing your spreadsheet every year! Your goals sound really fun and there are some nice accomplishments on there too. For the first time I have named 12 books I specifically want to read. They tend to be on the chunky side so we’ll see. As you say, it’s all for pleasure and fun. Currently still reading Dune and The Iliad which are carry overs from last year, plus reading a chapter a day of War and Peace. Enjoying them all! Also want to read more books about books, and books about fairy tales. Otherwise we’ll see where my reading takes me! Thanks for sharing your goals and plans. I find you and them very inspirational. ❤️📚
Best of luck with your reading goals!! 🩵🩵
Oh, P.S. to my comment...im reading Mrs. Hurst! Nearly finished, and am enjoying very much! Good work! 😊👍
Thanks so much :)
I love your tick off sheet! Good luck on your goals.
I really want to focus on some series and my wish list and TBR books this year.
I always enjoy your goals video so much!! Good luck with all of them 🤩 What you said about goals almost giving you “permission” to prioritize reading resonated with me SO MUCH
Right! It helps so much.
I can definitely get behind goals like these 🤩. Your spreadsheet is so thoughtfully organised and still flexible enough for any mood reads. I'm glad I stopped my Goodreads Challenge, though-it led me to a lot of forgettable reads. In 2021, I read 60 truly quality books. By 2024, my reading became less intentional, just chasing a 'why not read this it counts?' approach to bump up my numbers for the Goodreads 120 book goal. It worked-I reached 142 books-but I realised most didn’t align with what I truly wanted to read. Your approach of dividing a numeric goal into a themed spreadsheet is brilliant. That was part of my thinking behind the Reading the Globe initiative with 25 books and 3 genres.
You're in for a real treat finishing those Chambers and Hobbs books. And I must confess, I've never read Trollope 🙈
Hope you feel better soon, Katie. I noticed your voice at the start but forgot by the end of the video. Take care 💛✨️
Thanks, Katja!
Katie: "Books that have been on my physical TBR for a really long time"
Nada: "SAME!! I soooo relate to this!!"
Katie: "A year+"
**crickets**
Nada: **cries in I-have-books-that-have-been-on-my-physical-tbr-for-over-a-decade** 😂😭
I know I've said this multiple times before but I'm really excited to hear your post-reread thoughts on He Knew He Was Right!! Also, which of Trollope's books are you planning buddy-reads for?
Haha, I mean some of them have been on my shelves for 1 year, but some have been there for 5 or 6 years.
So, Trollope-wise, I guess:
The Bertrams
The Golden Lion of Granpère
John Caldigate
Marion Fay
The Macdermots of Ballycloran,
Castle Richmond
The Landleaguers
The Two Heroines of Plumplington and Other Stories
Rachel Ray (reread)
An Autobiography
Let me know if you fancy reading any of them with me!
I get so intimidated by Trollope every time. I can't imagine how he managed to WRITE 47...the discipline! Love your goals. Victorian literature is so English-specific, maybe one Victober challenge can be 19th century "world-wide" and you can hit your challenge and stay true to your 19th century classics love. I can't wait to see all the things you do this year. Every year it's so inspiring and you always suprise me in the best way!
Try listening to Trollope being read by Timothy West. He is superb. He turns the books into riveting page turners.
@maryh4650 thank you!
Thanks, Andreea! I do recommend Trollope on audiobook - he works very well read aloud.
Looking forward to seeing you check boxes again in 2025. 🥳
Good luck! I have so many books that I've owned for years at this point that I don't even remember when I bought them.😅. I know you'll achieve most of these! For help with the science fiction/fantasy reading some historical fantasy might be a good way! So many of them are Regency or Victorian inspired. Though I do recommend The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden which is Russian and based on the Vasia the beautiful fairytale. My main goals this year are to finish more series than I start and to try and match the amount of books bought to the amount unhauled.
You have so many goals and you actually do quite well compared to most of us every year. I hope to read some of my US history and biography books as well as several of my oldest tbr books.
I have a recommendation for a book in translation for your modern list. It is Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt. It was published in 2016 and it's historical fiction so it may be something you would enjoy.
Thanks for the recommendation! Sounds intriguing :)
😂😂😂 Only owned physical TBR for six months to a year! Ah what a contrast our libraries are! And only 40-60 books. That’s amazing. Katie, your goals are working! You are reading a lot of books! 💛
Signed up for Proust and Dante readalongs. Also hoping to read at least one book for each quarter of Historathon2025, a similar philosophy-thon, and a science reading challenge. Also hoping to fit in some true crime, religion, self-help, and a Pratchett novel or two. Way more than I have been reading in recent years (completing, anyway), but it seems doable. Have also rekindled a competing love of film. Oops.
IF I would ever seriously consider a BookTube gig it would have to offer something different, but I can’t imagine what that would be.
You and many others offer great content and explore books and topics that more than appeal to us, and along the way, we get to see a little way into what makes presenters tick. We actually think we get to know our favorites here, and we look forward to each new post. It is a brave thing to expose as much of yourself as you do (or any ‘tuber does), so we thank you for it.
And as an aside, I’ve been re-visiting Jenn Brooks’ past videos lately, and it is such a sad (but also joyous thing). One gets to thinking she’s like an old friend, but of course, she is now on the other side of Jordan. It’s quite strange to listen to her talk about Dante and Italy while knowing such a bright, interesting, and young woman is no longer with us.
But the point of this long comment is to make a suggestion. You are a book list maker and you talk about your favorites and your reading plans at great lengths. However, I don’t believe I have ever listened to someone discuss the 5 or 10 books that primarily shaped and informed the intellect of the young person that became our favorite Tubers.
I’d be delighted to have you discuss the 10 that most made you “Katie”, and I’d guess that most of your loyal viewers would be eager to share theirs, too.
And yes, Katie, you SHOULD read LOTR.
My main goal this year is to remain on THIS side of Jordan and to get through the Divine Comedy and (perhaps) revisit the Iliad and Odyssey. Acquainting myself with some of the greats of Roman literature and working through Paradise Lost would also be worthy pursuits for 2025, God willing and NOT having those sisters (the Fates) reach for their scissors.
Hi Kevin! Yes, I sometimes watch Jennifer's old videos, too, and feel sad and joyous, as you say - her videos are so amazing.
Thank you for the video suggestion. I'll have to have a think about books that formed me, as it were!
Your reading goals are always inspiring for me! I want to try with setting up a similar spreadsheet for me, even though the goals will be totally different (I read like 90% only translated books, so the other way around that you 😂) Good luck with your reading this year 😊
Good luck wirh your goals thia year. I made a real push to read more internationally/ in translation a few years back and the habit has mainly stuck.
Some that i really wnjoyed were:
The Eighth Life - Nino Haratischwili
Go, Went, Gone - Jenny Erpenbeck
An Unnecesaary Woman - Rabih Alameddine
Twenty Two Years to Life - Mohammed Massoud Morsi
Anxious People - Fredrick Backman
Miracles of the Namiya General Store - Keigo Higashino
I'm an Old Commie - Dan Lungu
No Man in the House - Cecil Foster
If You Want to Make God Laugh - Bianca Marais
We, The Drowned - Carsten Jensen
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
On the classics front, The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon was really interesting - a diary from a thousand years ago!
Thanks so much for the recommendations!
I didn't read as many classics last year as I had hoped, but I did enjoy all the ones I did read. My favorite was Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
I really like your focused reading goals. I think it's much easier to concentrate on a few goals than to try to spread oneself too thin. Life has been chaotic for me the last few months, so I have stumbled into 2025 pretty unorganized (generally as well as in my reading). However, my reading has, of it's own accord, changed in ways I'm enjoying. I want to continue to 1) Read more from my own shelves (Instead of ignoring my shelves in favor of library selections or new purchases.) 2) Spend more time finishing series or favorite authors' backlists. 3) Reduce and curate my shelves to more accurately reflect my current reading tastes.
Good luck with your goals :)
After watching Jared Henderson's (a philosophy TH-camr) video on reading better, I'm going to focus on reading projects instead of just general goals. I'm going to do a Tolkien project because I also have never read Lord of the Rings, but I love the movies. Tolkien seems to be a fascinating human being and I would like to learn about him. as a person. I'm also doing a project on Asian literature with particular interest on the Philippines, which is my grandmother's native country. This was a project I started last year and want to continue expanding upon. I also would like to read the books I own that are on Rory Gilmore's reading list. Finally, there are authors like Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson Anne Rice, Anthony Trollop, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens I want to either read more from or get beck into reading. Some of them write huge works that I struggle committing to and the classic authors, I spend more time building my collection of their work rather than reading through it.
Great goals! Good luck :)
@@katiejlumsden Thank you.
So glad to see you embracing the dark side of letting your tbr be 60 books 😂 my shelves have about 650 books and 250 of them aren't read. But I'm okay with it because I buy all my books from thrift stores so whenever I find a classic book for three dollars I buy it. So it ends up that there are lots authors that I've read a few of their books but own five or six unread and I own a lot of poetry and anthologies. Which I love but am not in a hurry to read cover to cover.
Best of luck! I love your international classics goal!
Oh, I wish I would have known you were planning on reading Marion Fay this year because I'm just about to finish it this week! Great job reading so many of his books already- I have only read like 3, so I have a LONG way to go. 😂
I hope you enjoyed it! He wrote so very many books XD
That was really good, very achievable and so exciting. I always want to read more sci and fantasy and often start the year well and then move away. Because I have been concentrating on international authors, especially German novels in translation I realised that I have fallen behind on authors I enjoy from my own country. So this year I intend to catch up on those I have missed, Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Jock Serong’s new novels immediately spring to mind. There are also some new authors to catch up with. Happy reading Katie.
I really enjoyed Marion Fay! My biggest goal for 2025 is to read Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, a group of us are reading it over the year doing each letter on the day it was dated. The readalong is on Storygraph and is run by Nicole at the channel Noteworthy Fiction
I always hear fascinating things about Clarissa. I'm looking forward to Marion Fay :)
I love the way your goal-setting and recording of your reading gives me new ideas for mine - thank you.
Also, can I recommend Andy Serkis' audiobook reading of The Lord of the Rings trilogy? I found it very enjoyable.
Oh yes, I must try and listen to that audiobook specifically. I hear great things!
I would like to read 50 books in 2025, including Pride and Prejudice; Emma; and The Pickwick Papers because I already own them. To that I'll add about 4 Agatha Christie, a few Margaret Atwood novels and a lot of Zola. It's going to be a great reading year. ❤📚
As an Austrian anglophile I've read so many books by British authors but neglected those from my country and those around, especially the German speaking ones. So my goal for this year is to read more Austrian/German/Swiss authors.
Your TBR bucket is cute 😊
For me, reading goals give me something to strive towards, rather than adding pressure.
I've a notebook where I've noted down a lot of various kind of challennges - just for my own enjoymeent/benefit. It's fun to see how I'm doing and what kind of books I'm reading.
I've got a lot of lists - I love lists.:) Amain Reading List, a Re-Reading List (a subsection one is a Chronological Re-Reading List - I believe I am at 1883 at present? My next book upon it is Trollope's "Autobiography".:)) I have also - at least - a half dozen different wishlists.This helps mee structure my reading - and book purchasing somewhat. There are just too, too many books I want to read, and this way I know which book to read next. And as I said, I just love lists.:)
Lists are always excellent!
I did a spreadsheet like yours for goals but haven’t start yet ! I just thinking of other things to add but don’t want to to much .❤
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, and good luck with your personal reading challenges in 2025. For me there's really only one major goal - and it's been dominating my tbr for several years - that being the novels of William Faulkner, I was able finally to read one the past year (Absalom, Absalom!) and to finish As I Lay Dying would be ideal. He's a difficult writer but very very good. Being someone who also does like to be say I've read this many books so far this year being bogged down in one or two can be problematic. I'm working through it.
I haven’t set proper goals but I want to re read more books from my shelves and read more books with disability rep
One more comment: in the 1990s Oxford Classics published all of Trollope in paperback, including 2 volumes of short stories: "Early Short Stories" and "Later Short Stories", both ed. by John Sutherland. I have picked these up as used copies and from what I have researched, these 2 volumes contain all of Trollope's stories except for 2: "Never, Never...Never, Never" and "The Gentle Euphemia." So if you like his stories, I would recommend getting hold of these editions.
This is quite a comprehensive list of reading goals, and I wish you luck with all of them. I'm particularly interested to see how you get on with the science fiction - this is a much neglected area of my own reading.
Thanks, Charlie!
I love this video every year--it gets me inspired, even though I have (xxx) books on my TBR! Re: Anthony Trollope--I have his last 12 published books to read, which includes Marion Fay, John Caldigate and The LandLeaguers. I want to re-read He Knew He Was Right and La Vendee as well as finish re-reading the Pallisers. I found both the Macdermots and Castle Richmond so interesting because of the Irish settings; not his best books, but still fascinating, esp. Castle Richmond. And I'm upset because JUST YESTERDAY I ordered 2 books from Blackwells! If I'd only known!...do you think they'll give you credit after the purchase??? And they were BOTH books I heard about on your channel--Black and British, and Empireland, and I sent them to my son in Sheffield for his birthday! But that's OK, I have a long list I want to buy for me & sent to the USA. Curious to know what the Persephone book is on your 19-book TBR....
Well, next time, perhaps! I've been meaning to get a Blackwells link for ages and hadn't got it sorted.
The Persephone book on my TBR is the Persephone Book of Short Stories :)
Not sure if you've read it but I highly suggest Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. It also checks off a few of your boxes- it is a book in translation, it's a modern classic, and if you like it, it's part of a 4 book series. Good luck with your reading goals this year!
The only Trollope book I've read that you haven't is John Caldigate which is excellent. I wasn't expecting much but it is thoroughly engaging. I also liked how an important part of the book takes place outside of England -- top ten Trollope easily! In another video I believe you mentioned an Italo Calvino story you read. For your international challenge you may find his book The Baron in the Trees interesting. It definitely is open to wide interpretation. The premise is so unusual.
Oo great, I'm excited for John Caldigate then! And yes, thanks, I should read more Calvino!
Hello, Katie! I have been a subscriber for a while, but this is my first time commenting here. I find your spreadsheet helpful and will make one of my own. Also because I want to get into historical fiction, I will subscribe to you on patreon and take part in your read alongs there!
Hi, and thanks so much, Marvin :)
So funny, I was stuck on Robin Hobb #2, too. I’m maybe a third of the way through #3 finally.
The Bertrams and Castle Richmond are both on my Trollope list for 2025!
Ooo let me know if you fancy buddy reading either/both of them with me at some point in the year?
Hello, i have a recommendation for your translated books: The Decagon House Murders byYukito Ayatsuji. It qualifies, too, as a " classic" Japanese mystery. I just read it, what a delicious fantastic mystery, it is SO SO SO GOOD!! A Honkaku Club Japanese mystery, modeled after the Golden Age Crime. Ive read all A. Christie -- and this is one of the best mysteries ive ever read. 😊
That sounds great! Thanks so much for the recommendation.
Also, I do have a non-Engllish classic author recommendation for you:
Swedish 19th century writer, Fredrika Bremer. She was very popular back in her day, and many of her books were translated into English by - I believe - Maryy Hewitt. I read a snippet of one of my favourite books by her - "The Neighbours" - in English online, and I really did feel as if the translation captureed her "voice" - it did feel as if I was reading Fredrika Bremer, except in English.
I've got two volumes of her letters (which I have not yet read - they are on my Reading List, of course:)), and the first letter in one of them was in English, writing to her translator, Mary Hewitt (again, if I remmember the name correctly). That might explain a lot if they were in constant contact with each other.
I do think she is someone whose writinn gmight interest you. And if a recommendation from a total stranger online is not enough - well, both Charlotte Bronté and Elizabeth Gaskell liked her books. :)
Thanks so much for the recommendation! How fun that Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte liked her books, too!
Sounds like you have enough ideas for SFF reading but I highly recommend Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, a stand alone. I've heard that the audiobook is fantastic.
In September I started a year long goal having to do with finishing series but I didn't realize that a year long reading challenge that had started in July would be so all consuming. 🙄 🤦♀️ I guess I'll try for series again starting in July when the challenge is over.
Oh yes, I loved the Martian - I should read Project Hail Mary!
Ooo I’ve never read Anthony Trollope Katie and if you were interested in doing a Buddy read with a complete newbie to his work to compare and Contrast to your take I’d be so up for that ❤
Hi Candy! Yes, absolutely, that would be fun! Are there any of the Trollope books I listed in the description that you'd be interested in reading?
I have a book on my shelf(yet to be read) that sounds like your cuppa tea called The Dublin Railway Murder,a fact based Victorian murder mystery by Thomas Morris.
Oh yes, I've seen that one about, and it looked fascinating!
I intend to keep reading the Barchester series
Enjoy :)
Reading goals for 2025 are to read more of what is on my shelves in the season of the book while not forgetting Kindle books too. Donate books that I will not reread.
Have you read The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster? It's an early science fiction...His predictions are rather amazing.
I have, and I loved it!
Never read Lord of the rings?!!! 🤯
I know - so shocking XD