My 10 2026 Reading Goals

It’s timeeeeeeeeee. Time to make my 2026 reading goals, having reflected on the success and failures of my 2025 goals, having gotten any committee assignments, and having looked around my bookshelves too many times.

This year, I made 10 reading goals. Some of them are big, overarching year-long goals. Some are one book goals. And most of them are somewhere in between. These goals were inspired by what worked well last year, some major books I want to read this year, and my goals overall as a reader and librarian right now.

1. Read one Agatha Christie novel

Yup, I’ve never actually read one before! I have a collection of 5 Miss Marple novels, so I’ll try to start with one of those. I considered doing a Christie advent calendar and reading 1 a day for 12 days, but look at me, scaling this down to something reasonable that doesn’t require the purchase of another book explicitly.

2. Read a “Best of X Year” short story collection

Back again with another short story collection goal. This year, I’m mixing it up and instead of doing a complete author collection, I’m going to do the 2024 (I think…) collection that’s by different authors, so hopefully less of an uphill battle. I think it has about 20 stories in it, which feels a little more doable.

3. Attend 5 author talks (non-conference)

I’m so lucky to live in the city of Politics and Prose and East City Bookshop, and I need to take advantage more! Outside of conferences like ALA and ALSC, I want to attend 5 author talks in-person this year, ideally. I’ve got my eye on a couple in the next few months.

4. Read 250 Books total (not including picture books)

I’m reading 250 books this year in honor of America 250. I’m going to count all the books I read, including the chapter books and shorter kid’s books I read, because those are books and stories too, and I’m a literal school librarian. I am not going to count the picture books I read though–not because they don’t “count” but because tracking those is simply too much work.

5. Read all of my DAR Chapter’s 2026 Book Club Picks

My DAR chapter hosts a book club on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, virtually, and even though I pick the books…I don’t always get to read them, haha. This was especially true last fall when I was in a grad class on Tuesdays, but this year, I want to be more intentional. I’m not going to make myself re-read books I’ve already read (our March and May books this year) but I am looking foward to reading our January and February books–The Girl From Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig and James by Percival Everett, even though I hate Mark Twain.

6. Read the fiction Pulitzer Prize and Carnegie winners

I was a previous Carnegie chair, so I know they make great choices. The Pulitzer Prize committee I sometimes disagree with. I don’t read as much adult literacy fiction right now, so I’m hoping to take a little guidance with these two (or one…) book. The Carnegie winner will be announced in January, and the Pulitzer in May..

7. Attend 3 in-person book club events

Should I be joining another book club? Absolutely not, but I want to be more social outside of my DAR chapter and so I’ve joined a book club at East City Books that reads adult fiction and have already scheduled the first four months of the year. Now we just have to hope I have time to read those books and no meetings arise on those evenings. The first book is Piranesi, which I’ve heard about a hundred times but haven’t read yet.

8. Catch up on the Dragon Masters series

I’ve read the first 15 books in this chapter book series, and I have books 16-30 waiting for me now. I’ll consider myself caught up when I get to book 30, but it looks like book 31 comes out in May and book 32 in August, so I’ll go ahead and pre-order these now.

9. Read the 2026 Newbery Medal winner and honor books

This could be one book, or it could be 5! We’ll find out at the end of January. I will not re-read any winner/Honors that I’ve already read–which hopefully will take at least one off my plate assuming the committee has read the amazing books I did this past year. Crossing my fingers for a particular dollhouse book…

10. Finish Murdle 1 and Murdle 2

This is book-adjacent, but I have both of these logic puzzle books, and the goal is to finish both of them in 2026! I’m about halfway though Murdle 1 already, and my boyfriend and I are doing some Murdle 2 puzzles together, so hopefully chippng away at them….as if I haven’t already bought Murdle 3.

What are your 2026 reading or book goals?