December has rolled around the corner quickly, which means 2024 is almost over. A new year means new resolutions, a fresh, clean slate, and, best of all, time to set a new reading goal.
However, 2025 isn’t quite here yet, so you still have a little bit of time left to finish your 2024 reading goal. Making goals and reaching them can be a tricky thing to do. At the start of the year, you might feel optimistic, set a high reading goal, or even have a long TBR to help you reach it.
At the start of the new year, you’ll never be able to predict what life has in store for you. You might be too busy, might not want to read, can’t find a good book, or something else entirely. All these things are okay!
If you’re trying to finish your reading goal by the end of 2024, whether you’re two books or 10 books away, here are my tips, tricks, and even some book recommendations for hitting your goals!
- Set a Smaller, Manageable Reading Goal to Meet Daily
-
Setting a mini goal can help motivate you to pick up your book and read. Telling yourself you want to read 10 books in December to finish your overall goal may seem intimidating and de-motivate you from picking up a novel.
On the other hand, telling yourself to just read 20 minutes per day will seem less intimidating and help you pace yourself to finish out 2024 strong.
It doesn’t have to be a minute goal, either. Maybe you tell yourself to read 50 pages a day, or maybe you tell yourself to get through a quarter of your book each day. Setting these small goals makes it easier to work reading into your schedule.
If you set a goal to read 20 minutes a day, it becomes easier to work on reading in your schedule. You can set a dedicated time to read your 20 minutes, 50 pages, and a quarter of your book. Maybe you read before bed, or maybe you spend time listening to an audiobook in your car, or you read as you wait between your classes.
- Make Your Reading Goal Fun & Reward Yourself!
-
Reading should be fun! If you’re forcing yourself to read and have no motivation to pick up a book, you won’t be able to finish your reading goals.
If you find yourself reading a book and you’re not enjoying it, just drop it. I used to force myself to finish books, and it’s usually never worth it.
Here’s my advice: if you don’t enjoy a book within the first 50 pages or so, it’s probably not worth finishing. If you can barely get through the first 50 pages, how are you going to make it through the whole novel? You shouldn’t have to be dragging yourself through what you read. It’s okay to DNF a book!
Also, to motivate yourself to read, find a fun way to track your books! Use a reading journal, or track the titles you read with a Goodreads account. Each book you read is a milestone, whether your reading goal is 10 or 50 books.
Also, reward yourself! When you get a quarter of the way through your list, halfway, or you even read just one book, maybe go get a sweet treat to celebrate, or go shopping at your local bookstore and buy another book!
- Create a Variety in the Books You Read
-
Try to vary the length and the genre of the books you read! Depending on how fast you read, if you have 10 books left on your reading goal and you’re trying to read 10 long novels, you may not be able to finish all of those books in December. Throwing in some shorter novels may help you finish your goal in the home stretch.
Also, try to vary the genres you read! I tend to read within the same genre, but switching it up can help add variety to your books. You may end up finding a new genre you like!
I typically read realistic fiction and fantasy, but recently, I’ve enjoyed reading classic novels because sometimes staying within the same genre can get stale, and I need to read something else for a while.
- Make a TBR List to Finish Out the Year
-
This is a short tip, but a good one. Most of us who like to read already have a TBR of books, but making a smaller TBR can give you structure to your reading goal. If you have 10 books left to hit your goal, make a list of the 10 books you’re going to read to hit it.
Consider combining making a TBR with tip No. 3. Make a TBR of books you want to read and add a variety of different novels of different lengths and genres.
- read a series to keep yourself motivated
-
Reading a book series is also a great way to keep yourself engaged with the books you choose to finish your reading goal. Personally, whenever I read the first book in a series that I enjoy, it just motivates me to pick up and read the next book faster.
Reading a series is especially helpful if there’s a new book coming out soon. If a series has book one and book two already, but book three comes out after the year ends, that can be motivation to finish books one and two so you can dive right into the next one after it’s released.
If you want a couple of recommendations for my series to read, my favorites include Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab, as well as Schwab’s Villains series, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake, and The Burning Kingdoms series by Tasha Suri.
Besides reading a series, try picking up a festive book! December is the holiday season, so pick up a holiday-themed novel to help get you into that festive spirit while hitting your reading goal.
The one thing you need to remember as we finish out 2024 is that reading is supposed to be fun. Meeting your goal is a huge accomplishment and can feel incredibly rewarding, but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t meet it.
I would count picking up even just one book as a win. No matter what or how much you’re reading, reading is reading! It doesn’t matter whether you read one, 10, or 50 books, all that counts is you’re trying to hit those goals and picking up a book.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest!