Happy new year, book dragons! 🥂🎉 I’m posting this a little later than I usually would, I went back to work on the 4th and just haven’t found the time! Hope you all had a great and relaxing festive season. Here are my bookish goals for 2026!

26 books in 2026

I’ve set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 26 books, for no particular reason other than it’s 2026. I have also made a StoryGraph account to use alongside my Goodreads this year, just to see which platform I’ll enjoy using more and to make use of StoryGraph’s amazing statistics.

Read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

ASOIAF remains one of the greatest fantasy series even written, despite the fact it remains unfinished. I was a huge fan of the Game of Thrones TV show but never made the effort to read the books while the show was airing. This year I’ll be reading one book a month until I’m all caught up. You can check out the reading order I’ve set myself in my ASOIAF Read-a-long post. Maybe you could even join along if you’re yet to read this series too.

Start a BookTube channel

Way back in 2016 I started a BookTube channel, though it didn’t last very long. I struggled to find the time to make videos due to being at University, plus I wasn’t a very confident person. This year I’d like to start one again and get to 1000 subscribers by the end of 2026. I’ve got a few fantasy/comic con events coming up this year so I’d like to vlog them. Also film some book reviews and series discussions.

I think making videos throughout my ASOIAF read-a-long will really help to kickstart my channel. I’m Over-caffeinated Nerd on YouTube, I’d appreciated it if you would consider giving my videos a chance once I start posting. I’ve already got a few bookish Shorts up already. If you’re on BookTube please feel free to drop your channel in the comments! I’m always looking for new channels to subscribe to.

Make Rhaenyra Targaryen cosplay

Cosplay was one of my main hobbies as a teenager, I loved the creativity and the opportunity to learn new skills, like sewing and prop making. Unfortunately, once I graduated University and started working full-time I just didn’t have the time to keep it up. The last few years I’ve attended renfaire type events such as Fantasy Forest and have put together fantasy-inspired costumes, such as a pirate and an elf. Searching for and assembling different clothing pieces was super fun but I’d like to get back into sewing and improving my crafting skills.

Rhaenyra Targaryen has very quickly become one of my favourite fantasy characters from watching the House of the Dragon tv show. Her Season 2 promo gown is very ambitious for a cosplayer with my current skill level, but I think it’d be a great way to slowly upskill and learn new techniques. When I first started cosplaying I would create a costume within a week, although it would be fine to wear at a comic con, they weren’t made very well. I’d like to work on Rhaenyra’s gown slowly but surely, with the goal of entering her into the Fantasy Forest cosplay contest this July.

Bring down my physical and digital TBR

One of the ways I’m doing this is reading through series I own right after each other. When I first joined the book community many years ago, I would pick up a fantasy trilogy and read the books in order. Because of this I was actually finishing series in a reasonable amount of time. Then I started splitting my series over a certain period of time, or reading multiple series at once and this really hurt my reading progress. Here are a few of the fantasy trilogies I own that I’ll be reading in 2026.

To try and get my physical TBR down (and hopefully unhaul some books afterwards) I’m going to be a lot more intentional with my reading habits. The exception for this is obviously my ASOIAF read-a-long but I’m not worried about that series. I’ve watched the entire show more than once so where I would usually forget details between books in a series if I left a long time between reading them, that won’t happen this time because so much of the core plot is already cemented in my memory. Of course there’s characters and subplots that never made it into the show, I’m confident reading one a month won’t negatively impact my enjoyment of ASOIAF.

I’ve also put myself on a semi-serious book ban for 2026. I will not be buying any new books, apart from a few exceptions. I made a few pre-orders last year for books releasing this year so I’ll still get those. I will not be making any random trips into book shops to minimise any impulse purchases I would normally make.

Those are my bookish goals for 2026. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with writing too many. What’s your main bookish goal for 2026?