2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Normally I'd be aiming for 60, but one of my goals for 2024 is to re-read some of the young adult series that I loved as a kid in order to confirm when (or if) I want to pass them off to my nieces. Since they're shorter books, I am really hoping I can hit 65 this year.

Here are my mini goals for 2024:

Read 15 non-fiction: 17/15
Read 5 biographies: 8/5
Read 25 books from my TBR pile (including childhood re-reads): 22/25
Read 30 books by female authors: 40/30
Read 20 books by authors of color: 13/20
Read 5 classics: 5/5

Total read: 70/65

Finished book 1 and 2 of my reread of the Sweep series by Cate Tiernan.

I'm going through my unread list on my Kindle and decided to read over The Haunted House: A True Ghost Story since it was on the list. I am 100% sure that Hubbell embellished a LOT of it, but I do wonder how they pulled off all of the manifestations.

Finally picked up and read Fool, which has been on my radar for quite some time. Very fun!

Read Pawn of Prophecy and enjoyed it quite a bit. Looking forward to more of the series.

Read Chase Me Up Farndale Avenue, s'il vous pla�t after my SO read it and was laughing out loud over it. Would definitely be a fun play to watch.

Finished Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases, which was a gift, and I really enjoyed it. Makes me want to learn more about the history of DNA evidence.

Enjoyed reading Silly Cow, could totally picture one of my friends playing Doris, heh.

Finished off Peter Pan which had been on my TBR list for a while. I enjoyed it, even as I disliked Peter himself.

Finished To Green Angel Tower, which is huge but oh so good. I think it's honestly my favorite of the trilogy.

Finished I'm Glad My Mom Died and have picked up another YA reread from my TBR pile.

Finished Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood which was so excellently written and gripping and moving. I think my favorite thing about it was how he focused it on his childhood and kept the focus there, rather than trying to tell his entire life story up to that point.

Tore through Blood Witch, which is still soooo angsty and I do not care, lol. This is the book that starts to introduce the stereotypical teenage love triangle.

Finished the first book in the Everworld series, and the 4th in the Sweep series over the weekend. Quick reads, and both re-reads from my childhood. Definitely think both are a bit too mature for my nieces just yet, but I know eventually I'll pass them on to the girls.

Finished off Queen of Sorcery!

Tore through another of the Sweep series, which I'm re-reading.

Totally loved Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science and would absolutely recommend it!

Got through the second Everworld book, since I'm rereading the series. :)

Enjoyed listening to Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life

Finished The Hanging Tree, which wasn't my favorite of the series so far to be honest.

Listened to the incomparable Billy Porter read Unprotected: A Memoir and wow wow wow. 5/5, hands down. Heartbreaking but also brilliant and I continue to just be amazed by his tenacity and authenticity.

Read through the first 3 graphic novels as part of the Rivers of London series. They were pretty cool, neat to see the interpretation of some of the characters.

Finished A Conjuring of Light and the trilogy. Great reads overall.

Finished Enter the Enchanted

Finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Finished the third book of the Belgeriad. Magician's Gambit

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex was great. I really appreciated that she didn't sugar coat anything.

Finished off Valor's Trial which was pretty good! One more to go in that series.

Finished Two Into One, which is a bit dated but has its funny moments.

I finished off both The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science and Who Wants to Marry a Doctor?

Finished Nettle & Bone, which was delightful, and finally starting on A Dirty Job which has been on my TBR list for a loooong while.

Finished Giovanni's Room, which we read for our Pride Month book club at work. I enjoyed it, even though it's a really sorrowful story.

Finished A Dirty Job, which was definitely different. Not sure if I'll read any more of that series, though.

Picked up and finished Bewitching over the weekend and I'm kinda meh about it. Maybe I had too high of hopes because of how much I enjoyed Beastly?

Finished Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman, which was so well written.

Read Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story on the recommendation of my neighbor since she'd read it in her childhood and I had not.

Read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Finished book 4 of the Everworld reread.

Finished Discover the Destroyer

Highly recommend giving Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End a read or a listen to. Especially if you have some fears around death.

Four Aunties and a Wedding was pretty good, though not as enjoyable as the first in the series in my opinion.

This Is How It Always Is was so good.

Finished Children of Anguish and Anarchy - what an amazing conclusion to the trilogy!!!

Hey Echo,
Those are some really fantastic goals you've set up!

Have you ever found that you enjoy childhood favorites less when you re-read them as an adult? I'm always nervous that there'll be a disconnect between enjoyment and nostalgia, which kind of leads me to consider whether it's worth re-reading certain books, you know?
Like, it makes sense in your case, and I would love to do something similar for my kid at some point but that thought always gives me pause.

Anyways! Wishing you a fantastic reading year.
Have fun and happy reading!

Oh it's definitely happened with at least one author that I loved as a teen, but on re-read it was just.... Meh.

And certainly with the Sweep series there's been moments of "sheesh this is predictable," but nothing so as to make me regret it. Then there are a few rare books that I can read again and again and I still love it just as much.

Finished the Shadow House trilogy, which the neighbor's daughter loaned me after I recommended Coraline to her. :) It was a decent horror story for being for younger audiences, but there are definitely some major gaps... Goosebumps were definitely more of a favorite for me personally.

Finished The Teacher, which definitely had some cringey moments and also had some good thrills.

Finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and picked up three books from the library too.

Did a re-read of The Lightning Thief because I never did finish the series and I'd like to.

Completed A Study in Drowning