Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! I kept seeing these posts online, so I thought I’d participate. Here are some book habits I’d like to leave in 2025 to build better reading and reading habits.

My relationship with reading has changed a lot in the past two years, and I’d like to make it better going forward.

I’ve got my habit tracker printed off and ready to go. I want to get back into it and revive my love for reading in 2025.

1| Reading Schedules

The first thing I am going to try to stop doing is making reading schedules. I don’t know WHY I do this, but it’s something I have always done.

When I start a book, I’ll make a schedule of the chapters I want to hit every day. I noticed this year that while I’m slumping so much, not being able to hit the goal each day was taking my enjoyment away.

I just have so many books I want to read, and sometimes I can’t help but try to read faster sometimes.

However, in December this year, and going forward, I’d like to break this habit. It isn’t helping me in any way. If a habit isn’t bringing me joy, I need to cut it off.

2| Memoirs/Non-fiction

One thing I haven’t been reading in the past few years is non-fiction books. I LOVE memoirs. I have so many on my TBR that I’d love to get to, but I just haven’t.

I love regular memoirs, celebrity ones, and even graphic novel ones. Why haven’t I been reading them? I have no idea. In 2026, I need to change this!

3| Pretty Books

One thing I have always been adamant about is not wanting to have special editions. It actually makes me want them less now that every book is special. I feel like in 2026/2027, we are going to see a decline in people’s want for them because the market is so flooded.

It used to be that people only wanted their absolute favorite books in special editions, and now every book we own is. I don’t have barely have any myself.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I do want to get into these special editions. I decided I want to get some classics and middle-grade ones. I think middle-grade special editions are rare, but I’m excited to seek them out.

I have three editions of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, and I’d love to collect a few more. Another one I’d love to have a pretty edition of is Les Mis. I’m excited to explore this next year when I go book shopping!

I’ll always be the girl who owns 3 different versions of the covers in a 5-book series, but sometimes I can get something pretty. I have been trying to build the habit of buying either paperback or hardcover for all the books in one series, but I still mix them together at times.

4| 3-Star Reads

This is really killing my experience with reading. I am having too many 3-star reads. If I’m not loving a book, I need to just quit reading it. I need to build the habit of just reading a spoiler-filled review so I can move on.

Every time I read a book I love, I get the spark back, and then I go and force a 3-star read on myself.

DNFing is going to be my best friend in 2026! I’m going to try to be as brutal as I can. Life is too short for reading books I don’t really love.

5| Reading Guilt

This is something I have been trying to work through because I’m not sure why it happens. But a big issue I’ve been having is that I feel guilty when I spend time reading.

Sometimes I will sit down to read, and I’ll stop myself because I think I could be doing my college work or housework. I won’t even let myself read if I haven’t done any schoolwork for the day.

Why can’t I just enjoy things? I just think I don’t deserve to spend time enjoying things if I haven’t done things I am supposed to do first.

Before I met my boyfriend, I wouldn’t do my schooling until 7pm, so I could do it without interruptions. By the time I’m done, it’s too late to be reading anything.

Now I am doing school earlier in the day, but I’m still struggling to feel less guilty. I’m sure other people have this same issue at times.

6| Long Breaks Between Books

As I’ve been mentioning to you guys, I printed off a year-long habit tracker to help myself. I’m just going to link the PDF below so you guys can use it if you like. I was using the monthly ones this summer to build a habit of exercising more.

I actually cannot remember where I got this from online. But I was printing the monthly ones each month to help build the habit. It really helped me because I would glance at it each day in my closet, and that would remind me to exercise.

I printed the one this time that has all the months on it for 2026. I want to stop taking a week off each time I finish a book! I set a habit in my 2026 Reading Goals to try to read at least 4x a week, which I think I can do. That will be about 16 to 20 days a month. Totally doable.

To combine this with an earlier section, I will NOT be giving myself a page goal to hit, which is what I used to do. I want to read at least one chapter. I think that is fair and doable.

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Happy blogging and bookish adventures! 📚🦒✨

This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.

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