January 2026 Reading Recap

The first month of 2026 is over, and because it was seventeen months long, I feel like I actually got a lot of reading done this month!

My 2025 reading goals are pretty lofty—I want to read 250 books this year, and I have a bunch of smaller goals within that, and so let’s see what 1/12 of the year has gotten me so far

Total books read in January: 24

That’s almost 10% of my goal, and so I can be nothing if not content with that! I started the year reading Iron Flame, the second book in the Fourth Wing series, and that took a little bit longer. I also read several Dragon Masters books this month, which is contributing to my goal of catching up on them. I think I read 9 Dragon Masters books this month!

2 Audiobooks

I only did two short audiobooks this month–two kids books with 2 hours or less of run time, and then I started a longer adult nonfiction book, Intentional, but I haven’t made it very far yet. I’ll try to keep listening to it in February and do maybe one more audiobook next month too.

2 Books for Review

I reviewed two books for Booklist magazine this month, which is about usual for me! I want to try to keep up with this pace as the months pass, but I’m also wiling to take breaks when needed. Both books were middle grade fiction–one was a longer prose chapter book, and one was a novella-esque sequel to an older book set during the American Revolution. I’ve already got 2 more books in the queue to review in February–both middle grade fiction, one around 200 pages and one coming in around 320.

4 “Me” Book Club Books

I attended four book clubs with other adults in January–two for DAR, one for an alumni book club, and one through a local bookstore. For the state DAR book club, we read The Burning of the White House. I didn’t finish it all by the time we did the discussion, but I did finish it later in the month. My DAR chapter read The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig. The alumni book club read Rabbit, Run. I did not enjoy it, lol. But I’m glad I read it, I guess. And my bookstore book club read Piranesi, which I enjoyed greatly!

2 and Two Halves “Kid” Book Club Books

I am teaching my school kids young to love a book club–during lunch bunch and after school book clubs. On Tuesdays, some first graders and I are reading the first Dragon Masters book. We’re about halfway through. On Thursdays, some third graders and I are reading No Talking by Andrew Clements, and we are a fourth of the way through. My after-school group on Fridays is 4th and 5th graders reading a pre-chosen selection of 8 books for a DCLA 3 Star Book Award Battle of the Books Situation. I re-read Fresh Start, a graphic novel I read in 2025 as part of the kickoff, and also read Will’s Race for Home, which won the CSK Author Award this year! As the month winds to an end, I’m in the middle of our next book, Split Second by Janae Marks, which is also great so far. In February, my 4th and 5th grade classes will also stat their novel studies and I’ll add that to my reading mix! They’re reading a book I read and loved in 2025: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall.

One Book Over 450-ish Pages

Is the Fourth Wing series half the reason for this challenge this year? Yes, but I’m grateful for it. Iron Flame, which was my first book of the year, clocked in at 640 pages, and now I’ve just got 11 more books this long, or longer, to read. I was hoping to read, or at least start, Onyx Storm in January but I’ll likely push it to February.

And 4 more books just for me!

On top of all these books that checked boxes and goals, I also read 4 books for no reason other than that I wanted to, and 3 of them were books I owned physical copies of, which means now I can get rid of them. I read Yesteryear, a digital early copy, and really enjoyed it but it took me way longer to read than I expected. I read Firelight’s Apprentice, a Bree Paulsen upper MG graphic novel that I bought in San Antonio almost a year ago. I also read two middle grade books I’d had on my self for who knows how long: Dogtown by Katherine Applegate (cried, as always) and The Best Worst Summer of Esme Sun, which was a funny book to read during a literal snowstorm.

My Favorite Book This Month: Piranesi, which was an 8/10 star read for me and I’ll think about for weeks to come

Biggest Book Win This Month: Writing this blog post before February is even officially started!

Next Month’s Focus: Not acquiring MORE physical books, and keeping up the progress.