Mid-Year Update on My 2026 Reading Goals

It’s now the last week of July, which is when many avid readers talk online about their mid year reading goals. Since I decided to make a reading goal for myself in January, and I talked about it on this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about how my reading goal is going.

To be brutally honest, I’m really failing in my reading goals for this year. I did mention in a previous post that my reading goal for 2026 is really ambitious, but I was willing to push myself to meet my goal. In order to meet my goal, by the end of July I will need to read half the number of books to meet my goal. Sadly, this did not happen. At all.

Among the reasons why I didn’t read so many books is because I needed to prioritize taking care of myself. I have very sensitive skin and allergies, which has caused me pain for many years. This year I decided to try a new body wash (which was recommended to me by a concerned friend) to see if it will help me. It has and my skin has been steadily improving ever since I began using the body wash. Even though I’ve been improving, and the pain in my skin is improving as well, I still have new pains from the ability to move freely without pain again. I was warned by a doctor that this would happen if my skin condition improved, but, of course, I forgot about it and overworked my body more than I should’ve. I will be fine, but only if I pace myself and start stretching before I work out or do anything really physically intensive.

Along with my improving health and getting used my body post-health problems, I am also caring for an older family member. I was struggling with caregiver fatigue, but I didn’t notice it because I was too focused on my own health problems. Normally reading is a great way for me to relax and enjoy a story, but this time it wasn’t. I was too tired and exhausted to read. So, I ended up watching TV instead.

During this time, a third reason for a lack of motivation to read popped up: I really did hate the books I was reading at that time. And when I say hate, I mean it. Whenever I would talk about the books I would read online, I would omit all the ones I felt especially annoyed, irritated, or had a special loathing for. The books got on my nerves for a variety of reasons, but in general they were poorly written, I hated the characters, the book’s blurb was better than the actual book, and the story and it’s characters were written to serve the author’s alternative motivation… which was very clear to me. After reading so many books like this in a row, I just couldn’t keep reading them anymore. I also became so disgusted with them that I decided not to keep many books in my collection that I knew I would hate, no matter if I read them before getting rid of them or not.

There were also other problems, worries, and fears that plagued me in the first half of the year that impeded my desire and ability to read, but I decided to omit those from this post for privacy reasons.

Anyway, I’m really far behind in my reaching my reading goals for 2026. Again, the number of books I wanted to read are really high for me and I felt it was going to be hard to for me to achieve my goal. Still, I was optimistic I could do it. I still have the latter half of the year to finish, but seeing how everything is going in my life, I may be too busy or distracted to read so many books.

Right now I am considering an alternative reading goal. Instead of reading a certain number of books, I could read a specific genre of books on my to-be-read (TBR) list by the end of the year. Or I could read only my favorite books by the end of the year. I think these goals are more practical for me to achieve and will keep me motivated, and excited, to read. I am still thinking about what to do, so I probably won’t make a decision about adjusting my reading goals until next month.

I hope everyone else is doing well with their reading goals and don’t experience setbacks like I have been!

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

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