My plan on reading more books in 2025 đź“š


The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. - James Clear, Atomic Habits

Hi Reader,

in 2024, I only read 10 books, which was far below my target. At the beginning of last year, I had set a goal of reading around 20 books, as that had been my average over the past few years.
For 2025, I want to aim higher, hoping that a bigger goal will motivate me to read more. However, setting a higher target isn't the only step I'll take to achieve my reading goal. Here are the steps I’ve planned for myself:

Read a set amount of pages each day

Last year, I revisited my notes on Atomic Habits and was reminded that one of the key steps to forming a habit is starting with small, manageable actions. For this goal, I’ve decided to read a minimum of five pages per day. I chose this small number because it feels achievable and non-intimidating—and I know that once I start reading, I’ll often exceed five pages.

If you’re interested in learning how to build better habits, I recommend checking out my extended summary of Atomic Habits here. It’s the perfect resource to kick off the new year.

Make reading as easy as possible

For this step, I plan to keep a book within easy reach wherever I relax. This way, it’ll be effortless to grab a book and start reading. Too often, I find myself lying in bed wanting to read, but without a book on my bedside table. Since I tend to be lazier in the evenings, once I’m already in bed for the night, I’m unlikely to get up and fetch one. By making books readily accessible, I’m removing this obstacle entirely.

Choose the next read spontaneously

In the past few years, I would choose my next read even before finishing my current book. However, by the time I was ready to start the next one, I often found myself no longer interested in the book I had preselected. I’ve realized that I need to choose my next read right after finishing a book to match my current mood and interests more effectively.

Alternate between big and short books

After finishing a big book, I plan to read a shorter one. Reading two 500-page books back-to-back can feel exhausting, so a shorter book in between will give me a much-needed mental break and help me maintain my momentum.

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What are your reading plans for this year? Let me know by replying to this email.


Next week's book releases

The actions or inactions of elected and appointed leaders determine whether the people they serve flourish or suffer. What hangs in the balance is not just quality of life, but often life itself. Unprincipled and unethical leadership puts at risk mission accomplishment, good governance, public trust in democratic institutions, national security, and even the rule of law.

A nation’s citizens need and deserve exceptional leadership. By providing guidelines for principled, ethical, competent, and courageously selfless leadership, What Hangs in the Balance leaves readers well poised and inspired to positively and profoundly impact the lives of those they serve.

A sweeping history of The Age of Reason, revealing how—although it was a time of great progress—it was also an era of brutality and intolerance with a very human cost.

By exploring all the key events and bringing to life some of the most influential characters of the era—including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, Louis XIV, and Charles I—acclaimed historian Paul Strathern tells the vivid story of this paradoxical age, while also exploring the painful cost of creating the progress and modernity upon which the Western world was built.
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In a world where there is so much conflicting information about how we are supposed to live, what can we really know?
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Knowing the truth, what’s real from what’s fake, should be easy. In today’s world, that’s far from the case. In The Certainty Illusion, Timothy Caulfield lifts the curtain on the forces contributing to our information chaos and unpacks why it’s so difficult—sometimes even for experts—to escape the fake.
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Break free of toxic perfectionism by cultivating emotional courage and self-compassion to face life’s challenges with a 6-step program.
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In today’s high-pressure society, we are constantly fed a fable of individualism, exceptionalism, determination, and ingenuity and taught a mythology of grin and bear it; no pain, no gain; and hard work pays off, despite the fact that the conditions for success are unpredictable and ever changing.

The essential biography of the controversial rebel, traitor, and only king of Haiti. Henry Christophe is one of the most richly complex figures in the history of the Americas, and was, in his time, popular and famous the world over: in The First and Last King of Haiti, a brilliant, award-winning Yale scholar unravels the still controversial enigma that he was.

The First and Last King of Haiti is a riveting story of not only geopolitical clashes on a grand scale but also of friendship and loyalty, treachery and betrayal, heroism and strife in an era of revolutionary upheaval.

In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—including “forensic knot analysis” and criminal profiling (which was invented fifty-five years later with Jack the Ripper)—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’s research to find the truth and bring justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given.

Written by a leading expert on the water infrastructure of Rome, this grand tour offers a new way to appreciate the history, geology, and character of the ancient and contemporary city. Richly illustrated itineraries wind through Rome’s streets, piazzas, and gardens, following the trail of water as it flows, propelled by gravity, through different neighborhoods. In addition to mapping thirteen walking tours, Katherine Wentworth Rinne also pulls the reader underground—where hidden springs and streams still flow—to illuminate how Rome’s complex topography has been transformed since antiquity, as well as into the sky, imaginatively flying over Rome’s villas and parks to give readers a sense of the infrastructure through an aerial view.


What I've been reading

I’m currently visiting my mom for the holidays and only brought one book with me. So, my reading year began with The Bill Gates Problem by Tim Schwab. I’m a few chapters in, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Growing up, I always thought of Bill Gates as a rich, superhuman philanthropist, but this book challenges that image and reveals a very different side of him.

Before the end of last year, I had started reading Goddesses by Joseph Campbell and Psychological Types by Carl Jung. I’ll pick up where I left off with these books next week, so stay tuned for my next reading update!


Thanks for reading! I'll be back in your inbox next Sunday. Let me know what you'd like to see explored in future issues.

Talk soon,
Elena


P.S.: Don't have time to read an entire book but still want to soak up the key insights? Head over to my online shop for expertly crafted book summaries that give you all the wisdom in a fraction of the time! Perfect for busy readers who crave knowledge on the go:


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