How to Set Reading Goals for a Literary Life

There is nothing like the beginning of a new year to ignite the desire to set goals and establish habits that help push you forward to the life you envision for yourself. If you consider yourself a reader, an academic scholar, a bookworm, a bibliophile or the like, then you probably want to set a few reading goals for the new year or, perhaps, for a new chapter in your life in which you desire to become a reader.

There are many ways to set goals for your literary life and, naturally, they’ll be as uniquely specific as you are. But in this blog post, I hope to inspire you with a few ideas in which you may adopt or adapt to set goals that expand or enhance your reading life.

5 Ideas to Help Plan a Better Reading Year

Establish the Number of Books You Want to Read
Your reading goals should be detailed and attainable. By naming the number of books you want to read, you give yourself a very specific goal that you can accomplish. The trick is to pick a number that is realistic for your season of life.
Have a newborn? Maybe only five to ten books are appropriate. Perhaps reading one book per month (a total of twelve books per year) feels doable with the busy life you lead. If you’re an avid reader, one book per week (a total of 52 books per year) may be your style.
Choose a number that feels comfortable and NOT overwhelming. You never want reading to feel like a chore or a burden. You can track the books you read on Goodreads, in the Notes App on your phone or in a traditional notebook or journal.

2. Choose an Author of the Year

Is there a certain author you’ve been dying to read but just never made the time do so? Do you want to tackle a Dickens novel, read some Jane Austen or dive into Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere? Choose an author of the year and make their books a priority in your reading life.

You don’t have to only read those author’s works. You just need to prioritize them, reading as many of their works in a year as you can. Even one or two of their books is a great introduction!

Last year, I chose a male and female author of the year. I made it through all six of Jane Austen’s novels and twelve books written by C.S. Lewis. I also read a biography of each author to learn more about them. This was such a fun way to structure my reading life!

3. Select an Area of Study or a Specific Time Period

Another way to help you set goals to enhance your literary life is to choose a specific area of study or time period to focus on.

Do you want to read more Victorian literature or learn more about Greek mythology? Maybe you want to look into homeschooling or homesteading. Choose a focus area that excites you and start compiling a TBR (to-be-read) list to tackle throughout the year.

For example, my area of study is Greek Mythology, and I plan to read The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer.

4. Develop Reading Rhythms and Routines

Set a goal that helps you develop reading rhythms and routines that promote more consistent reading in your daily life. Some examples are:

Bring a book with you everywhere you go
Read one chapter every morning when you wake up or every evening before you go to sleep
Do not look at social media until you’ve read something
Take a 15-minute reading break in the middle of the day
Read a book instead of doom scrolling on social media while in the waiting room, the car rider line, grocery pick-up or any other “dead time”

5. Examine Your Book Buying Habits

Do you own more books that you haven’t read than books that you have? It might be a good idea to set some reading goals that cultivate healthier book purchasing habits. You want to be a book lover not a book glutton, after all.

Set a specific book budget for every month. This isn’t a restriction, more like permission to spend your money on books while making sure you can still pay your mortgage on time. Limit yourself to a dollar amount, twenty or fifty dollars a month.

If you want to be even stricter, give yourself a book buying rule: Do not purchase a new book until you have finished two books that you already own. Something to help you tackle the books already on your shelves.

Want to save money all together? Set a goal to visit your local library every month instead of shopping for new books.

A Fulfilling Literary Life

Whatever goals you set, remember to make them realistic to your season of life. Reading should never feel like a chore. Pressuring yourself beyond your limits is the fastest way to burnout and a reading slump.

Your literary life should be full of the books that you love to read. Life is too short to read books that you don’t enjoy. Trying new genres can be fun but if the most popular books just aren’t your thing, it’s okay to DNF (do not finish) them and return to the kind of books you could live in forever.

Mid-year, re-evaluate your reading goals. Change them if they’re no longer working or feel overwhelming. Ask yourself why you’re struggling with reading. Did you commit to too many books or studying an author you find that you don’t actually enjoy? Change the number, scrap the author and pick a new one. Goals can and should be revisited often to see if they’re working.

I hope these tips and ideas were helpful!