2026 Plans and Challenges—1st Quarter Check-In

I thought I’d get this up no later than the 3rd. Oh, well.

Last year was a disaster for my plans and goals…both those stated and unstated. That only bothers me a little—I had too much fun with what I did accomplish, and was so tired because of everything else in life that perspective is easy. This is a hobby—I didn’t hobby the way I wanted to. But, still, hobbying was done.

This year, I think my plans (at least the stated ones) are more achievable…I fell back on the ol’ SMART Goal model, and cut myself a lot of slack (see below)–even stating upfront that I expected to fail with at least one goal. I do really wish my Literary Locals thing had a bit more life to it–I’ve got three Q&As in the works and hope for more soon. I’ve got some pitches for HC Chats, too–I just need to actually send them out. Grandpappy’s Corner has gathered more dust than I like–but I have a stack of those I need to make time for. I’m thiiiis close to just devoting a week to them.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? It could be better, but overall…?

2026 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

I honestly don’t care about them, I talk about them just as an indicator of how I spend my time (for myself), although it often comes across as something else. I’m also tackling some more thought-provoking and slower reads this year, but it’s not reflecting in that number (so far). I’m okay with that.

My TBR Range Challenge

As the table above suggests, there’s not really a lot of change on the pre-20206 heights—and that 2026 bar is higher than I want. Still…

Reading with Wrigs

• A book with a building or cityscape on the cover: City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• A book with a color in the title: Black Bag by Luke Kennard

I could be doing better on this one—but I’ve read two this month, and I have the titles for some of the others already picked. I’m feeling okay.

The 2026 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

• January–It’s a classic task for a reason: Read the very last book to enter your TBR pile. TBRs come from the habit we have of not reading books because we put them off. You have my permission to indulge yourself—Lit by Tim Sandlin
• February–Partners in crime?: For the month of Valentines you can choose a book about a partnership be it friends, lovers or whatever combination comes to mind—Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg
• March–First Bloom: As Spring arrives for this change I’d like to read a book that is the debut of an author. Who knows this may become someone you’ll follow forever!—Nav’Aria: The Marked Heir by K.J. Backer

Haven’t hit a stretch goal yet, but there’s still time.

25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years
Whoops, I stumbled a bit here. But I’ve recovered this month.

2026 Speccy Fiction Challenge

• A speculative novella (less than 250pgs)—Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
• The first book in a speculative fiction duology/trilogy/series—Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
• Speculative fiction that features a creature (animal/monster)—Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson
• A fantasy based on myth, legend or folklore—The Lost Daughter of Sparta by Felicia Day, Rowan MacColl
• A scifi that takes place on a spaceship or space station—Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cutting Myself Some Slack

I added one goal after the year started. My “To Write About” pile was out of control–seriously. And it was eating away at the back of my mind. So I did two things–I started those Monthly Leftover posts–requiring myself to write a catch-up post at the end of the following month for the books I haven’t gotten to yet (e.g., At the end of February, write about January books; at the end of June, write about the May). I also removed every book from 2003-5 from that list–unless I’d promised someone (an author, publicist, NetGalley) a much-overdue post or the Lewis books from last year I hadn’t tackled yet.

That cut 252 books from my list, and so much anxiety. It’s down to 29 at the moment–which is still daunting, but it’s really doable if I focus a bit (and a couple of those are going to be three-fers, tackling an entire trilogy in one post, etc.) Who knows, I might be back saying the same thing at this point next year…but hopefully not.

20 Books of Summer
Assuming that this is done again—hopefully last year’s hosts are up for it—I’ll be there. It’s a fun tradition.

How’re your reading goals/plans going so far this year?

The image for the Picture book list is taken from the article. The Book stack image by yeliao521 from Pixabay. The “finger scissors” image is from Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay.