Goodreads

My Year in Books

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

I didn’t achieve my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2025. 

Actually, I didn’t achieve my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2024, either. When I realized how far off the mark I was (in terms of the number of books I had hoped to read and the number of books I actually read), I lowered my goal for 2025. Lowered it a lot. 

The goal for 2025 was to read 24 books. And I missed it by 3 books.

I admit – on December 31st, I did think of going into my almost-eighteen-year-old son’s closet and finding some of our favorite picture books from when he was a little guy. I could have easily read three more books. I know I would have liked reading those books.

I could have read the 24 books and achieved my goal. But that felt like cheating. 

All this made me pause and wonder if I should bother signing up for the 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge. Why did I voluntarily sign up for the Goodreads challenge each year? What did I hope to gain from it? 

Part of me really likes the end-of-the-year statistics, and the fact that I don’t have to keep track of the numbers. Goodreads does that for me. 

For example, in 2025:

– I read over 5,000 pages. 

– The shortest book was Kelly Esparza’s A Spoonie’s Guide to Self-Acceptance. 

– The longest book was Jean Meltzer’s Magical Meet Cute.

– I reviewed more books, recognizing me as a Top 15% Reviewer.

– My top genres included romance and memoir.

And I realized something. With or without the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I would continue to buy and read books. I would enjoy talking with friends about books. I would continue to blog about the books I read. 

Because that’s who I am. I’m a reader. 

Which is also the reason why I didn’t achieve my goal. I read much more than the books listed on Goodreads. I have three magazine subscriptions (Writer’s Digest, Poets & Writers, and Real Simple. My mom and I share the Real Simple). I have subscribed to many blogs and Substacks, and do my best to read and like and comment. And I actually read the books; I don’t listen to audio books. 

So this year, I have once again set my goal for 24 books. 

And whether or not I achieve my goal isn’t the point. For me, it’s the feeling of being in community with other booklovers. It’s the opportunity to discover new books and new authors. It’s the excitement that comes from finally reading a book I’ve been eagerly anticipating. And, it’s the belief that every book I read brings me a little bit closer to achieving my ultimate goal — being the author of my own book and getting my book into the hands of readers. 

Please note: I am including a link to buy the books mentioned this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.

Read 25 in 2025

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

Confession: I didn’t meet my goal for the 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge.

This isn’t the first time I didn’t complete the annual challenge. But this was the first time I wasn’t even close to meeting my goal. (I read 29 books, and had hoped to read 45.)

Here are some things you should know about my 2024:

1.  I did read, but not as much and not as fast as I have in previous years. Plus, I also read magazines, including my subscriptions to Writer’s Digest Magazine and Poets and Writers Magazine, and magazines are not tracked on Goodreads. 

2.  I also spent potential reading time attending webinars, watching author talks on YouTube, and listening to podcasts. 

3.  Physically, 2024 was among my worst years — in terms of high levels of fatigue and pain, and low levels of restorative sleep and energy. Just the other day, my husband reminded me that I used to have “good days.” Neither one of us can remember the last time I told him I was having a good day (which translates into a low-pain day). Actually, I don’t know if there were any good days in 2024. 

4.  I short-changed myself. On busy days, the first things I stopped doing were the things I most like to do, such as sitting on my patio reading and completing my daily five-minute writing exercises.

So, after recovering from the horrendous flu, I made a few changes for 2025.

I set a much lower number (24) as my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal. Because it’s not the number of books that matters. It’s the books. It’s reading what I want to read when I want to read it. It’s spending money on books without feeling guilty, since I have more than enough to-be-read books at home. But I continue buying books, knowing my purchases help authors and bookstores. 

Reading goes hand-in-hand with writing, and I’m hopeful that if I start increasing the time I spend doing one of those activities, time spent on the other activity will automatically increase as well. 

Plus, I discovered the “Read 25 in ’25” challenge. Gretchen Rubin and Bookshop.org have partnered to support this group challenge to read twenty-five minutes a day in 2025. (You can read more about the #25in25 challenge by clicking here.)

Like I did with my Spoonie NaNoWriMo, I printed out a January calendar and am placing a sticker each day I read twenty-five minutes. I didn’t begin this challenge until last week, Monday, January 6th. You’ll notice, I fell short of the twenty-five minutes on my first day as well as last Thursday. (You can click here to read about my Spoonie NaNoWriMo experience.)

And that’s okay. 

What’s important is acknowledging that I want to read twenty-five minutes each day. That I am starting this new year aware of the importance of making the effort to regularly and consistently do something I enjoy.

How about you, dear readers? Anyone else participating in the #25in25 challenge? Let me know in the comments; I’d love to cheer you on, and learn about the books you’re reading!

Please note: I am including a link to buy the books I have mentioned on this blog. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.


A Book and Its Cover

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

We’ve all heard that bit of advice. (And if you’re interested, when I Googled it, I learned the origin of this expression is credited to a longer statement that conveyed the same meaning in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss.)

Nowadays, the adage is used broadly and is applied to many things beyond books. For instance, you can’t know a person’s true heart or friendliness by simply looking at them. You don’t always know if you’ll enjoy a meal simply based on how it looks on the plate. 

While I absolutely agree that you can never know someone’s full story or what they’re going through simply based on appearances (including my own invisible disability), when it comes to books, I think you absolutely can, and should, judge a book by its cover. 

When I scroll through books offered in a Goodreads Giveaway, I have limited information available to me. I have the title, a small photo of the book’s cover, and the first few lines of a short summary of each book. And I absolutely look at that cover image first. 

A book’s cover is an advertisement and a promise for what is included within the pages of that book. 

A dark cover featuring a sharp knife? I’ll skip that one, thank you. 

A pink cover with a woman and man facing each other? I’ll stop my scrolling to read the blurb. 

A green cover with holiday decorations? I’ll read that blurb also.

A black and gray cover with a set of eyes peering back at me? That’s one to skip.

While I’m not at that stage yet, I do sometimes think ahead and try to envision the cover of my memoir. I picture lavender or some other shade of purple. I think of sunflowers, my favorite flower, and a symbol for the chronic illness community — something I didn’t know until fairly recently. 

“The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is a simple tool for you to voluntarily share that you have a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent – and that you may need a helping hand, understanding, or more time in shops, at work, on transport, or in public spaces.”

I’m curious, readers. How do you decide which book to pick up at the bookstore? To check out at the library? To enter a giveaway for? Does a book’s cover play a part in influencing your decision at all? Let me know in the comments.

And, if you have any thoughts regarding my own future book cover, feel free to leave those in the comments section, too.