I think it’s smart to check in on my reading goals halfway through the year, because honestly, I have a bad habit of forgetting about them. So let’s see how I’m doing!

Read at least 4 short story collections. I’m on track here! I’ve finished 2 short story collections so far this year, both of which were in the 5-star range, and I’ve also read 5 standalone short stories.

Read at least 4 fantasy sequels. This is one of the goals I absolutely forgot about. I have read a bunch of fantasy so far in 2026, but I haven’t intentionally focused on sequels. I did read the 3rd book in the Emily Wilde series, because I wanted to complete the trilogy, only to shortly find out that the series is actually continuing past book 3.

 

Read books related to my travel plans. I did well with this one, reading 2 nonfiction books about Africa before my planned trip to South Africa. However, my planned trip to the Philippines got canceled, so although I did read a book by a Filipina author, I did not end up visiting there.

Read longer books/more long books than last year. The Dungeon Crawler Carl series is carrying me through this goal, as the books tend to get chunkier as the series progresses.

Read more dark academia. Not bad! I’ve read 2 dark academia books so far this year, one of which was a 5-star favorite and a new-to-me author I’d love to read more from.

Finally read from these authors I keep meaning to try. OK, I also forgot this goal. I haven’t read anything from Rachel Gillig, S.T. Gibson, or A.M. Strickland so far in 2026, but there’s still 6 months to go. I think S.T. Gibson is the most likely of these authors for me to finally read, probably during the fall.

Find new horror favorites. I haven’t read a million horror books this year so far, but of the three I’ve read, one is definitely a new favorite, and I do tend to focus more on horror during the fall.

Read more books from my physical TBR. So far, I’ve read 27 physical books and 24 audio/ebooks in 2026, so physical books are a bit ahead.

 

Book of the Month Reading Challenge. I always try to finish the BOTM reading challenge, and last year I failed by just one book; unfortunately, I’m way behind this year. I’ve finished 3 BOTM titles so far, and I’d need 15 to accomplish the challenge.

Aardvark Book Club. I kind of want to look back at the end of the year and see whether Aardvark or BOTM has found me more favorite reads, so although I don’t have a set number of books I want to read from Aardvark, I’d like it to be comparable to what I read from BOTM. So far I’ve read 3 from both, but I found 2 5-star reads from Aardvark and only one from BOTM. It’s a close race!

 

Top 10 TBR for 2026: 3/10 (I’m behind schedule…)

5-star books: 1/3

26in26: 11/26 (Pretty good!)

5-star books: 5/11 (Excellent!)