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Crush Your 2025 Reading Challenge Goals with These Tips
Congrats on taking the first (and arguably most important) step of the 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge: signing up! By joining, you're making a personal commitment to spend time reading throughout the year. And to help you get started, we're sharing these tried-and-tested tips for staying motivated.
(Haven’t signed up yet? There’s no time like the present—join below.)
Mix up your formats
There’s no need to limit yourself to just physical books. Incorporate audiobooks into your commute, workout sessions, or while doing household chores. E-books are perfect for reading on the go or in low-light conditions. This variety can help you fit more reading into your busy schedule and keep things interesting.
Always have a book with you
Keep a book (or your e-reader) in your bag at all times. You’d be surprised how much reading you can accomplish during unexpected downtime—waiting rooms, long lines, lunch breaks… Those small pockets of time add up quickly over the course of a year.
Set a daily reading target
Break down your goal into manageable daily chunks. Even 20 pages or 30 minutes a day can add up to a significant amount of reading over the year. Consistency is key—make it a habit like brushing your teeth!
Keep a book (or your e-reader) in your bag at all times. You’d be surprised how much reading you can accomplish during unexpected downtime—waiting rooms, long lines, lunch breaks… Those small pockets of time add up quickly over the course of a year.
Set a daily reading target
Break down your goal into manageable daily chunks. Even 20 pages or 30 minutes a day can add up to a significant amount of reading over the year. Consistency is key—make it a habit like brushing your teeth!
Include a mix of genres, lengths, and difficulty levels. Shorter books or graphic novels can give you quick wins, while more challenging reads can be balanced throughout the year. Browse the books that your fellow Goodreads members have been picking up for their own Reading Challenges, our big guide to Summer Reading, or articles from our editorial team, like these recommendations for books to bust a reading slump. And don’t forget to use your Want to Read shelf to help keep track of what you’d like to read next.
Create a cozy reading nook
Designate a comfortable space in your home specifically for reading. Make it inviting with good lighting, comfortable seating, and minimal distractions. Having a dedicated reading spot can help you associate that space with your reading habit.
Use the “rule of 50”
If you’re not enjoying a book after reading about 50 pages, give yourself permission to put it down and move on. Life’s too short to struggle through books you don’t enjoy, and forcing yourself through a difficult read can slow your progress and dampen your enthusiasm.
Schedule reading time
Just as you would schedule any other important activity, block out specific times on your calendar for reading. This could be 30 minutes before bed, during your lunch break, or first thing in the morning with your coffee. Treating reading as a priority ensures it doesn’t get pushed aside by other activities.
Don’t be discouraged if you fall behind—life happens!
You can always change your annual goal on Goodreads. The important thing is to keep reading and enjoying books at your own pace. With these strategies in your tool kit, you’re well-equipped to make significant progress on your Reading Challenge and perhaps even surpass your goals.
Remember, the ultimate goal is to enjoy the journey and reconnect with your love of reading. Each book you finish is an accomplishment, regardless of how many you read in total. Reading should be a pleasure, not a chore, so find ways to make your Challenge personally exciting and rewarding.
Happy reading. And may your year be filled with wonderful books!
Comments Showing 51-100 of 223 (223 new)
I hate that I cannot see my friends challenges. It was good and motivation to see that !
Lara wrote: "Why can‘t I see my friends reading challenges ?? That was so fun"It's frustrating that this feature is missing from the new challenges page!
As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The changes were unnecessary, and you've taken away the ease to see all previous challenges and the books read those years. I, and I assume others, only do the challenge to see at a glance what I've read in what year which is why I now set very low targets. Reading is not a competition, reading two long books a year and savouring every moment is far more valuable than racing through books to complete some arbitrary goal.
Kilburn wrote: "Your new Goodreads Reading Challenge format is a patronising slog masquerading as motivation. "Congrats on signing up!"—really? Spare us the condescending pep talk. We don’t need to be spoon-fed cl..."I couldn't agree more.
Last year was a good year of book let’s hope the same for this year as well
If it’s helpful to anyone wanting to do the ‘rule of 50’ but worried the book might get better, I do this: open the book at some random pages further in and read a couple of paragraphs. Then go to the end and see if I actually care about what happens. If not, I leave it at a DNF. If so, I would go back and read the whole book. However, not once have I needed to go back and read it!
Where can I find my friends reading challenges?
Je préférais quand on avait les challenges de nos amis. C'était plus convivial.
The new Challenge in Goodreads is to be able to find your Friend's Challenges and to Like and Comment on them. That is the new Challenge! I have found several of those of my Friends by scrolling through the feed going back a few days. Don't know if that will work for others. Also be sure to tick Notify after you have commented, otherwise you may not hear back again.
my goal is 30 cuz i am a med student also I HOPE I CAN DO THIS !!!!
I am too excited to 2025 reading challenge. I have a lot of interesting book in my to read list
Alan (the Lone Librarian) wrote: "The new Challenge in Goodreads is to be able to find your Friend's Challenges and to Like and Comment on them. That is the new Challenge! I have found several of those of my Friends by scrolling th..."You won't be able to see it for the rest of the year
Alan (the Lone Librarian) wrote: "The new Challenge in Goodreads is to be able to find your Friend's Challenges and to Like and Comment on them. That is the new Challenge! I have found several of those of my Friends by scrolling th..."You can't even click on their reading challenge. You can see they are doing the reading challenge. But if you click on it, nothing happens.
Kilburn wrote: "You won't be able to see it for the rest of the year"Kilburn wrote: "You can't even click on their reading challenge. You can see they are doing the reading challenge. But if you click on it, nothing happens."
You're correct that it won't appear again in the feed unless they change the challenge amount sometime in the future.
If you click on the time of posting doesn't it take you to their challenge page where you see the likes and comments under it? It works for me.
I'm going to bookmark the Challenge addresses of my top GR friends just to have those url's for the future, but that is only a dozen or so people so not practical for larger numbers.
I'm tinkering with the 2025 Year in Books and the 2025 Year in Review as possible other methods to monitor myself and my top friends. A lot of extra work of course.
Why did you change the Reading Challenge layout?? I can't see any of my friend's books. This sucks and I'll probably be switching to another app.
Alan (the Lone Librarian) wrote: "Kilburn wrote: "You won't be able to see it for the rest of the year"Kilburn wrote: "You can't even click on their reading challenge. You can see they are doing the reading challenge. But if you c..."
So I created another account and then added myself as a friend and clicked on the time of posting and was able to see my reading challenge in the old format with the book recommendations.
That was the important thing for me. The recommendations. So I've bookmarked that.
Thanks
Kilburn wrote: "So I created another account and then added myself as a friend and clicked on the time of posting and was able to see my reading challenge in the old format with the book recommendations. That was the important thing for me. The recommendations. So I've bookmarked that. Thanks"Oh that is a good one Kilburn! What a pain that we have to figure out these workarounds to try to get back to the Goodreads we loved.
I don't like this new format. Why can't I see my friend's challenges?
The rule of 50 sounds great! I’ll probably read abt 500 books that’s my goal!
Set my highest goal ever for 2025 - I aim to read 150 books!
I'm excited about the new year's reading challenge, but I have to admit that I am NOT liking some of the individual "challenges". I read about them and some are absolutely not achievable unless one can easily read cr*p they don't want to read.
Where has the friends reading challenge gone? How can I see if they’ve reached their goals now
kinda set a crazy goal but I'm going to try harder this year
That rule of 50 pages to judge is something that can use this year.
Please bring back the friends' challenges view!
I hate the new reading challenges format so much. It was the main thing I used on GoodReads --- to keep abreast of what my community was reading. I suppose I get it—from Amazon's point of view, encouraging people to read more books results in higher book and Kindle sales. But this seems like the wrong approach, focusing just on the individual and not including the community. Take the analogy to dieting apps: most dieting apps now try to bring in community support. Goodreads is here going in the opposite direction, which is also very much against its basic design philosophy of community reviews, etc.
Removing such a core and easy piece of functionality dampens my enthusiasm for the whole site. Time to check out the alternatives, I think.
Why change something that literally nobody asked for or even wanted? The whole point of Goodreads is to use the app as a way to collect and store the books that you’ve read over the years, and be apart of a community where you can see eachother reading goals and now they’re progressing themselves throughout the year. These new challenges are just a way to keep people reading therefore creating a larger income to reading apps like kindle (which is linked to Goodreads). How about instead of updating this app with pointless and unnecessary updates why don’t you fix the multitude of bug issues and overall lagging of the app. If I didn’t have to transfer over 2,000 books to another app which would take days, then I would’ve moved books apps years ago. Listen to your users Goodreads and reverse the bad update.
Why does the reading challenge no longer show the longest, shortest, most popular, least popular, etc. book?
Jo wrote: "Why does the reading challenge no longer show the longest, shortest, most popular, least popular, etc. book?"Aren't you thinking of the Year In Books page? That is still there but you may have to add a few books in 2025 to see the new year version. https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...
Go back to old version…cannot see friends challenges!
Kilburn wrote: "So I created another account and then added myself as a friend and clicked on the time of posting and was able to see my reading challenge in the old format with the book recommendations. That was the important thing for me. The recommendations. So I've bookmarked that. Thanks"I did the same thing and it works! A great workaround Kilburn, thank you!
Is anyone able to see their past challenges? It used to be on our profiles, but I can't find them now.
Kilburn wrote: "Reading short books to make it look like you've read more books, is not a win. "so what if Bryan suggests plays as part of a reading challenge? we're not in a competition against 1 another here. reading should be fun for all of us despite our different go-to genres.
Yes please bring back friends reading challenge views - it helps to discover good books!!
guys, if disappointed, pls leave a FEEDBACK on the 2025 reading challenge page!!! We still might be able to get the old version back at some point.https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal...
Started already.. I'm loving this challenge 💪🏾😀
Sara wrote: "guys, if disappointed, pls leave a FEEDBACK on the 2025 reading challenge page!!! We still might be able to get the old version back at some point.https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal..."
Leaving feedback is pointless you need to contact goodreads directly
Plus one to what everyone else is saying about the new challenge format - much prefer the old one
Another vote for the old format. Being able to see my friends' reading challenges was so motivating for me. Found new authors and titles that way. Tried to contact goodreads about it but got an error page so that's just great isn't it?
how can I enter the books I have read into the challenge? In the old version it was so easy, you just have to keep clicking. :/ I miss the Old Version
like last year my goal is 52 books in 52 weeks
My goal is to read when I feel like reading and what I feel like reading.
I don't even care about the new challenges necessary, but it is frustratig that I can't see others' books in their challange and that inside the challange there is only one book per row instead of five. It is so hard to overview every book I've read like this.
YES PLEASE!!! And I want to see my friends' challenges and goals.