Welcome to the What Your Next podcast. So excited to be back today. I have an off the cuff conversation about my reading goals, what I want to see 2026 to look like. Look back at 2025 and the best of what I actually realized what I learned about myself. As many of I've been in a reading slum. For some time. I started over the year listening to mostly auto books. I'm surprised that I actually had about 30 star reads 'cause I was like, I didn't have a good star read, but I did. I actually found really different love, different books that I really enjoy. I what I really discovered 2025 to be a year of. Discovered what I like and trying to actually set boundaries of what, I just don't have the interest whatsoever. And so it's been an interesting year of curating a feed that allows me to engage in topics that I'm actually passionate about, that I'm interested, that I'm actually curious and I wanna keep reading more, and then letting go of the, those who are like really loud, but they're just like not the right fit for me. So let's talk about what my reading life will look like in terms of genres, because I think that's an interesting dynamic. For about 10 years I've been reading romance mostly. By Romans, I mean historical romances, contemporary Romans sports, Romans, dark romances. A little bit of paranormal. About five years ago, I tried to make paranormal work. It did not work. I tried so badly. I read fantasy. I read ya. Fantasy, romantic early contemporaries, all the big names it was great until I got bored and about two years ago I decided to, just give it a try. I started with Freida McFadden and reading some popcorn thrillers and I was like, this is kinda like fun just to kinda get it out the way. They're propulsive, they're plug driven, they're just kinda like twists and turns. They're not really big literature, but it really fit the need, but. Then later on I was like, you know what? I don't need the gory. I don't need someone to be in a high stress situation, so why don't I just try Cozy Mysteries? And I really did fall in love with Cozy Mysteries in 2024. I read about a hundred of series Starters. I just kept jumping around from Sears to trying to figure out what was my taste, one of the lock things is that a lot of new mysteries were coming out. A lot of Romans authors were writing mystery romcoms or mysteries a lot of Romans to plot line. And so I started to read a little bit of not just the cozy mysteries that we typically see with the town and amateurs live, but then I started reading some of those more millennial mysteries where it said and adult where they're set in. City or they have a little bit more gory, a little bit more true crime aspect of it, and there's not just a quiet amateur sleuth who just don't know. And so I really enjoy those mysteries. And I was like, okay, we're just gonna keep reading more of that. And so I let go of the popcorn thriller. I took a break from mostly Romans and I just started reading some like cozy and mysteries. And one thing I realized this past year is that I just jumped around to different places. Another area where I decide to add on new books to read is nonfiction, which you'll think I'm like, I've been reading fiction for most of my life. But there was something to be set up a nonfiction of topics that I was interested, or topics that I was curious or and how was weaved together the red, like fiction. And so I read a lot of pop culture nonfiction and I've done a couple episodes about this from TV shows in the nineties and two thousands to actually movies. I've read about books, about history about stores. I'm reading a book about an art heist. And all the fun stuff and like rich people behave badly. So it has elements that I like about fiction into nonfiction. Because sometimes the real world is we're, things are just much more crazier than we think. So a couple months ago I decided, you know what? Let's just figure out what's gonna work for me. Because I've been struggling with decision paralysis. I've been sampling a bunch of bug. And I just don't wanna finish any books or I just don't know what to read next. I really struggle and unfortunately, unlike when I started this platform where I had no idea what to read next, I was like, I need the recommendations. Now I'm on the other side where I have too many recommendations and I'm like. What am I supposed to do in my life? So I needed to curate and collate and just call the recommendations to what's my reading taste will look like. So I made some boundaries because I'm a queen of boundaries. I love putting things together, and it doesn't mean that the boundaries are set that I'm never gonna do this ever again. There's flexibility. There's like a lot of like. Space, but I needed to make some decisions for me to help me decide what to do. And I'll tell you what happens afterwards. So a couple of decisions I made was, one thing I did was that I reached out to my friend Francesca, for under the covers book block. She's one of my besties and she is a total warmest reader, but she understands my romance take. And so I was like, Francesca, help me decide. What I need to focus on. And so she was like, I think you're contemporary. I think you're cozy, but I think you're contemporary. You like mysteries, you like specific things. I think contemporaries where you wanna go, you may wanna do some historicals, but I don't see you reading historicals. And I was like, I haven't read historicals in five years, so we're just not gonna do this. And I've tried paranormal work and she has tried so kindly, but it just doesn't work. But I was like, okay, so we're doing contemporary and dark stuff. I like mafia. I like horror, dark horror romance, but I don't like the dark, romantic tragedies or stuff like that. So I was like, okay, we're not doing this. And I have some trigger warnings that I just avoid. Sexual assault, non consent. Just for the sake of doing this, I just don't care if I like cheating. I like love triangles. I like ins, so I'm probably not gonna go for why choose, or omegaverse because I just don't. Care about the too many logistics of it. I wanna simplify. I'm like, I just want you to just be angst about the decision. So if I like romances, when I think about romances and stuff like that, I really like the new adult, like the angsty about it, the toxicity, or I like the vibes, I like the ones, it's the vibes. We're gonna go with it and it'll fun stuff. I also like emotional arcs or ideas. So you're growing with it. So I do tend to be more in the traditional publish in the more women's fiction arc situation. I like some other growth that I didn't wanna see beyond just, I lost my job. A lot of parents have grief. I wanna see some growth within yourself, like some external conflicts. I also love the mystery romcom genre. I'm not a big romantic expense except that I like old school romantic events. I like Julie James. But I just don't care about the Catherine Cows. I am like, I don't care about that, but I like some stuff, so I like the mystery romcom where there's like a mystery. They're working together. I like, they're trying to solve something. I like the external conflict that drives the story. And so in that sense, I realized, I was like, okay, I like queer books. I like a lot of bipoc queer books, underrepresented. So it made a decision. I was like, what am I gonna read? So a couple things would look like I'm gonna focus on new Romans as opposed to backlist titles. 'cause I've done a lot of backlist titles over the past year, so I've forget about a thousand romances at this point. If I'm missing out, I'll go back to it. But for the most part, I'm just gonna go for new Romans and traditional published romances. And now I know what elements I like and what. Pick and choose to try. I'm also doing a menu approach where I just set up collections on my Kindle with different books based on month when they're releasing, or based on tropes and specific things. So then I know if I feel this mood, then I can choose that mood and I can go towards it. In terms of indies and KU books, there is something to be said about where I am and what I wanna see in the future. In. KU books. I'm gonna look for hidden gems. I'm gonna look for new releases that are actually not tried and true. The big popular authors. There'll be some of them that I do read, that I do enjoy, but for the most part, I'm probably gonna look for new authors, new emerging voices to try to test out is this gonna be worthwhile? I really love and try to discover authors. Before they become big. I read Elsie Silver before she was big. I read Ade before she was big. I read Paisley Hope before was indie. A lot of these indie to trad pub I read a lot of them in the early days when the covers are not perfect and all these different things, but the vibes are there and so I really wanna focus on that attention as opposed to the specific. I'm also focusing on trope that I really like. I like small town. I like rom-coms. I like funny rom-coms. I like, holiday books. I will look for trope that I really like. I'm probably not gonna go for like deep into specific things. I may try historicals as indies because that's where there's thriving. So I may go back to the historical in that space as opposed to the other space. When it comes to mysteries, as I said, I really love this genre a watch. I would love to read Agatha Christie, and maybe that's something I take as a project. I know Victoria from Bibliolifestye has given me, she's my expert and she has given me some like tips to try out how to get started, but I really love. Like mysteries are just like a little bit elevated. They're not quite thrillers, but they're just mysteries. And I like some cozy mysteries. A cozy mysteries seems to be an interesting dynamic because with the loss of mass market paperback, we're losing series. We're losing specific things and some new series are emerging, but they're coming der being sold as trade paperbacks, you might be elevated. And so it's gonna be like an interesting dynamic. I think Cozy is having the same moment that it had with historical s where we lost how they're getting published. So it's gonna be interesting. But I really excited for a lot of the new mysteries are coming in. A lot of new authors are writing mystery space and so more to come with that and I'll try to do more episodes 'cause I think it's a genre that's not been talked about, but there's new trends are coming so publishers are investing in new books in this genre and I think it's a fascinating genre. It is fun. It is. Great for PTSD, people like me who have a lot of triggers who cannot be really high stress and it just quiets your mind, but at the time and has a little bit of pledge of it. Okay. What are the areas where I'm definitely not, they're likely to see less from me. I'm not gonna say never, but you're likely to see less fantasy. We're meant to see paranormal unless it's vampires. Vampires is the only one, but we're world shifters. Any type of specific things that's No, that's just not, no, because I don't like it. I don't have the time to invest in a world building. I don't have time to invest in a thousand pages. I don't have time to invest in a long space. Like I just don't. So that's a big area. In terms of literary fiction, I'll try it a couple here and there. Based on what Laura from Laura at the library. My friend who has come here, she's my ter fiction, go-to contributor. She'll recommend me and she has a good idea of my taste and I'm like, okay, this one will work. And this one will work, so I'll try those. But I'm not gonna seek out like literary fiction. I may seek out women's fiction or literary fiction with romance or romantic plus driven first, and those will try to seek out, but just straight on literary fiction beautiful prose and stuff like that. No, it's okay. I'm okay. And historical fiction is another one I probably wouldn't do. I haven't done World War II and I really don't care about World War ii. So if there's any historical fiction that are in New York, historical fiction in the 20th century, I'll try to test it out, 'cause we're getting closer to that. And so looking for that nonfiction, then we are gonna go back to nonfiction. So nonfiction, I'm definitely gonna keep going with pop culture and go specific areas where I like, but, nonfiction that is just. Basically dry or, and that might mean self-help or career or specific areas. Nutrition. Diet wouldn't, that will be a no. But if it's a nonfiction about like fun things about pop culture, social studies, different rabbit holes that we're gonna go for, I'll definitely go for them. I know as well as book of essays. I may have a project coming up with memoirs, and so more with that. So there's gonna be a little bit of more fiction. So let's talk about some goal setting, which is like I've talked about what works, what doesn't work, and I really will encourage you to do that. I talked about like how to figure out my personal taste and I think it's an interesting point of reflection when you think about before coming up with goals, so this is a little bit of a reading taste. The process, how I came about was I talked to Francesca, but then I went back and I wrote down like some journal questions and I started to identify with my taste, what it will look like. I looked at the data of the past reading trackers of what did I get five stars and what I didn't like, and I started to come together to. Make sense of meaning. On the substack, I'll share like a journal prompt that can help you identify what your reading taste looks like for you. And the one thing I wanna tell you, this changes because 10 years ago I was straight up new adult. And five years ago I was reading like historical SI was reading sports romance I was reading cold flax. So it changes and I think it's accepting that it's. Always gonna be evolving as you discover new progress or as you discover new taste or your life changes or you have new ideas and new expectations and new things are happening. So it is okay, but in the substack I'm gonna write down, I'm gonna share some journal questions that will help you come up with those reading taste idea. As I realized what my reading taste looks like, I realized actually I was reading more often once I figured out what I wanted to read. And what it helped me to go through, I was finishing books much more quickly and not only was finishing books on audiobook, which was a simple thing that I was doing, I was finishing book on ebook, for the past year, the majority of the books I consumed were audiobooks. It was really rare that I. Sit still and finish a book on ebook, and now I'm actually finishing books in two days or three days. I'm actually enjoying the process. I'm allowing myself to do that. So that sets ways to the goal setting area. One of the areas that I did this year was not to set a numerica goal. I broke up with Good reads. I said I was singing, I'm gonna tell you how many books I read. I do track them on an Airtable by myself. But Airtable is kinda weird that you just. Doesn't give you the actual math, the total to the stuff in the app. So I had no idea how many notebooks I read. So far I read about 120 something books and it might be more, it might be less, next year I'm just gonna keep the running list the same tracker, so I'm not gonna do a new tracker for it. So that way it's easier just to have a compound data. But one of the things I realized is that when not tracking books I also had to let go of the idea that I had to read on a Kindle every fucking day. I'm sorry, but some days I don't wanna read and some days I just wanna have flexibility. And I talked about this in therapy because I was like, my life is so structured that I have to do everything right now. And the reality is that I just. Want to just sit still and scroll my phone mindlessly one night a week, and I don't wanna feel like, oh my gosh, I need to read at this moment. It's stuff like that. So I have moved away from the reading streaks The reality is building a new habit is not an everyday habit. You just have to build consistency with the habit. And so the more you do it, the more easier it gets. Once you have the habit, you can actually have days off and it's not gonna a case of the fuck it. It's like that's a big part of it. It's not gonna be like, well, I'm not gonna read ever again. It's just like you are gonna go back to it. You just have to trust yourself and you're gonna go back to it. So now that I don't have reading streaks down, I have basically like countdown goal stars and not Goal Star driven. That has given me some freedom to identify what's gonna look like from my reading goals, because I do wanna have some goals, but I just wanna have them in a way that allows me to just. Be present to my day and allow me to enjoy reading again. So that means reading for pleasure. So it's allowing myself to pick genres that I wanna pick. I want myself to talk to authors that I want to talk to, not because they're being pitched, or everyone's reading about them and they need to be part of the conversation. It's align myself just to be comfortable in my own place of things that I'm like, this is what I'm passionate about. This is what I wanna and you know what? And trusting that I'm gonna connect with readers who have similar tastes me. I don't have to adapt myself to. Other people's readers. I can allow myself just to be a reader again and be a reader first and have allowed myself to be like, well, you know what? Some people like Cozy Mysteries and Romans and they like mysteries, and they like nonfiction. They like pop culture nonfiction. And I can find multiple readers who. Fit into different genres that I love. I don't have to fit into just one genre and one niche, and that's all I'm gonna talk about. I can allow myself to talk about the different genres that I love and just pick and choose and everything. So that's allowing myself to Shari for pleasure. Read consistently, but don't feel so touched to like it has to be every single day. I'm a meditation practice, and this is a good segue. I have been meditating for about 15 years, but I didn't have a consistent practice until 2020. And I started with like simple 10 minute meditation, five minute meditation. And over time I actually have a pretty strong meditation practice. I can be in meditation for about an hour. I have different techniques, different places. I have different space and the one thing I can tell you is building the stamina for the first five minutes is the hardest part, but once you have that practice, you have that muscle built, you can just go back to it. So it's easier for me to, meditate. Pretty much regularly. Not every day, but five out of seven days a week. And the way I do it is by trusting that I can just do it, sit down in the space and knowing that I can go back to it. So I'm looking at reading the same way where it's just a reset. It is just something I do for myself. 'cause it brings me joy, it quiets my mind. It allows me to just be placed. And so the same way, that doesn't have to be every single day. It can just be most days. And that's okay. So reading for joy, reading for pleasure, allowing myself just to talk about books that I really enjoy. So hopefully you'll see more content from me saying I love this book, and this is why you should read it. Allow myself just to share more from my opinion and what I like about it. In terms of reading ahead, the one thing I had to set a rule is that I can only read ahead three months in advance by quarter, and that's helped me with overwhelm because I do get a lot of choices and it also helps me be more current and be able to tell you within the first of the month Hey, here's the books you need to pick up in January, or Here's the books you need to pick up in February so you don't think too ahead of the game, I'm still a little bit ahead you, but I'm giving you the heads up of quick ones so you can actually have those fights. So that's where we are. It, this was a long running, like this is a pretty so this is where we are. This is a long rambling about my reading tastes, my reading guides, my. Book goals, intentions this year. No splashy goals, no numbers, just. Read and read what you like, and I hope you enjoy this. If you wanna have a list of questions, please join the substack. I am at whattoreadnextblog.com. You can just join. The link is the front page. It's free. There's no paywall anymore. So feel free to join. I'll be sharing some more essays and more ideas of how to improve your reading life from a person who has been struggling and who actually. It's getting better about it. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a great day. Bye.