Leggy:
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season – I know I did. I was off from January 1st through the 4th, and I spent that time relaxing and reading, which couldn’t have been more perfect. When we were putting together our best and worst books of 2025, I realized I was still behind on my Goodreads goal of 70 books. It turns out Goodreads had double-counted two titles, and I noticed far too late. That meant I had to read three books in three days to make it and somehow, I pulled it off. I finished my 70th book at 10 p.m. on December 31st, which was such a satisfying way to close out the year. Honestly, it was the best possible way to spend New Year’s Eve.
Despite having a truly awful 2025, I’m surprised and proud that I still managed to hit my reading goal. I also noticed that I read a lot of romance last year, and through making monthly “best and worst” Instagram posts, I realized that most of my lowest-rated reads were romance novels. I also realized that without actually trying, I read a lot of women authors. A lot of the books I read skew female and besides the traditional fantasy books I read, I don’t really read a lot of male written books. I’m trying to study my reading patterns so that I can consciously make 2026 a better reading year for me. I found that in 2025, I read a lot of average books. I did not feel passionate about a lot of books I read and I want to pick better this year.
Per usual, I read a book from every category of the Goodreads Books of the Year. I really enjoy reading diversely and would like to keep that going in 2026. I have set my Goodreads challenge to 70 books like always, so we’ll see where this year takes us. Follow us on @nightstands2 to see all our thoughts and reviews of the books we read this year.
Taynement:
Reading has always been an outlet for me and I intend to continue that in 2026. I don’t think my goals will change much this year because I want it to continue being a source of joy to me and unfortunately that includes DNF’ing any book that feels like a chore. I tried to do that this year but sometimes FOMO wins and oh yes that’s another goal of mine – to give in to my FOMO. I hate being left out so I always try to read the buzzy titles so I can be part of the discourse.
I am a fiction girlie so I will be knee deep in those, I will always continue to support black and African authors so my reading will also be full of those. I will also try to read at least one book from different genres that aren’t my norm. I have a bunch of books that I saw repeatedly on “Best of 2025” lists that I hope to read in 2026 and if any of my must read authors – Tayari Jones, Chimamanda, Taylor Jenkins Reid etc. have a book out, it’s a must read as well for me.
As always, I have set a 30 book goal on Goodreads, I have also joined Storygraph and will be using it for the first time to log my books. I am looking forward to being lost in good storytelling and sharing that with you guys and like Leggy said follow us on Instagram!
Wishing everyone a good reading year!
TwoNightStands 