Reading Resolutions for 2026: Part 2-- 2026 Goals

Yesterday I began the process of posting my 2026 reading resolutions by first looking back and assessing how I did on my 2025 resolutions. You can read that post here.

Today, I using what I learned doing that exercise yesterday and adding in what I already have planned for the coming year, I present my 2026 Goals-- the ones I will hold myself to for assessment a year from now. I use the term "reading resolutions" to keep the posts as similar as possible from year to year, but really this process is more akin to goal setting. However, since my work is defined by my mission, "training library workers to help leisure readers," reading is at the center of it all.

Please remember, I post both my assessment of the year that was and the upcoming year on back-to-back days to begin each new year so that they are easy to find yes, but also I am forced to hold myself to account for it all. Because I am a big proponent of the "lead by example" leadership style, if I am advocating for you to make resolutions and then go back and assess how you did before making the next year's resolutions, I also have to do it myself.

These are my resolutions and goals for 2026. I create these for myself specifically; however, I hope you can use them to help you craft resolutions that will work best for you.

Finally, I want to make a plea to do resolutions or goals for yourself no matter how you are feeling. They do not have to be lofty. I love this post from 2022 in Book Riot, with easily achievable reading resolutions. These are no stress, and may seem silly on first glance, but I think they are great. Having something as a goal gives you direction and encouragement to keep moving forward. Small victories add up to larger advancements. 

 

Okay now on to my 5 official resolutions for 2026:

2026 Resolution: Try A Year With No Specific Reading Resolution: As I mentioned yesterday, I feel like I finally figured out how to make sure I read the books I have to read for review and still fit in the books I want to read for joy. As 2025 went on, I didn't have to try to fit in non-work books. However, I also know that thinking you figured something out is not the same of holding yourself accountable to keep it going. So instead of declaring victory, I am going to make a cautious but intentional goal about my reading by trying not not have a specific reading resolution and yet still make the commitment to assessing how well that worked (or didn't). I toyed with the idea of just not having a reading goal this year, but as everything I do is tied to reading-- both for work and pleasure-- I am not ready to abandon having this as a goal. However, I am very excited to see what happens in 2026 without a specific reading goal and am looking forward to how this pans out.

2026 Resolution: No New Training Programs: This month marks the 25th anniversary of my graduation with my MLIS. I have been out of libraries as a worker since June of 2015 and in May 2025 I left my position as a library trustee. All of this means that my ties to a physical library are officially over in 2026. I don't think that means I am not qualified to keep training libraries, but I do want to start monitoring this part of my work. How much longer will I offer training programs to libraries? I know I am closer to the end of this time than the beginning. But that is all I know for sure. I have a very busy training schedule for the first quarter of 2026. This is common for the new year. These training programs were booked back in the late Summer and Fall of 2025. I am confident in the programs I have available and in keeping them updated for the time being. However, so that I have time to pursue the next three goals, I will not be creating new programs in 2026. I will update the ones I have, but I will not create custom one off programs for anyone this year. And, I am going to try to not actively promote the training side of my work as well. I would say I get about 50% of my work via word of mouth right now. I am interested to see what I get if I do no formal promotion. Maybe that will lead to the right amount of work for me to pursue new projects or maybe it will mean I am not busy enough. I will not know until I give it a try. I do know that the next 3 goals will not happen at all if I don't take away something, and for now, this is that something.

One step I took toward this goal happened in 2025, but I think it should be mentioned here. I purposely did NOT submit a single program proposal for ALA Annual in June of 2026. This resolution has been percolating since summer and I thought this step-- planning to attend ALA Annual without submitting a single program-- was a good idea. Please note, I am doing this with intentionality and chose this year to try it because ALA Annual is in Chicago and I d not have to travel to attend. Let's see what happens and how many things I end up getting asked to do without formally applying. It is the right time to give this a try.

2026 Resolution: Dive Deeper Into New Projects: And this is what I will use some of that non-training time for in 2026. Some of these are things that I have already started. For example, last year I focused on the academic journal Robin and I are working on ( out November 2026) and the Foundation for my local library, which I am also in the beginning stages of setting up. But toward the end of 2025 I also started a formal strategic planning process for the HWA Libraries Committee with a deliberate growth strategy. That already has a timeline set to culminate in late summer. 2025 also saw me get paid for many more moderating gigs for all genres. I really love moderating conversations with authors be it one-on-one or panels. I know I do a good job because people ask me to return and do more. This is an area I could consciously grow and promote from a professional standpoint. I have proven myself to be worth the money and I like the creativity and challenge of these more spontaneous events (compared to my very methodically planned out training programs). Finally, while I knew that my book tour would be fun, I did not realize how much opportunity it opened for me to moderate more conversations and do more of my own traveling. Why I Love Horror is a book that has a long tail, I can do events for it indefinitely. I can appear with authors for events that pair my book with their releases and even other horror related activities (like the one I have planned for late January in the Boston area-- details coming soon). I am also beginning to be asked to come to book clubs. If can keep traveling to libraries and conferences just on my book, do I even need the librarian part of the equation to justify where I go? Some of this connects to the above resolution as well. Selling books at events now makes me money. These are all things I will be devoting more of my time to than the more traditional training I focused on for the last 10 years. (Note: The biggest portion of my paying work is still reading and writing reviews; that will not change)

2026 Resolution: Allow Time for the Success of 2025 To Be Thoughtfully Applied: I made a goal in 2025 to double down on myself and well, as I discussed yesterday, it worked better than I could have ever expected. But what comes next? Well at this specific moment, nothing much different. As I said above, I have a busy schedule of trainings coming up in the next few months, but after that? Doors are being opened all over the place-- which ones do I go through? I need to really think about this in a vacuum. I think change will come to me but I need to be ready to embrace or reject it with more to go on than my current vibes. I need to be in a place mentally where I can think about each opportunity and make thoughtful decisions. The most comparable moment in my life to this moment is back in 2015 when I made the decision to leave library work and focus on providing training to libraries full time. That was not a decision I made all at once, or even in the same calendar year. It came at me incrementally and required I spend serious time contemplating it from every angle. That was 10 years ago but I still remember the time and research I put into taking this step. I am using that model from 2015 to help me through this exciting and scary time in my career. 

One concrete thing I am planning to do in order to give myself the serious time to think about where I am  now and where I should go next is to set a time to take a walk each week where all I do is think about the bigger picture. I take a walk a few times a week already but often I use it to listen to books or podcasts. And I don't schedule every walk. Starting now though, I will be serious and thoughtful about this. I will put a "thinking walk" on my calendar at the start of each week and honor it like any other business appointment. 

2026 Resolution: Explore Another Major Writing Project: This is one I have to do. I refuse to just do Why I Love Horror 2. It has to be something different. It has to be something that only I could write. And maybe it isn't another book. I really have no idea. That has not stopped well meaning people from giving me ideas all the time. I am thankful for those ideas, but I do need to schedule some of the time from the resolution before this one (including some of those walks) to just think about what I want my next major writing project to be. I will not work on something that I don't believe is needed out in the world. I want to come up with what that next something is before the end of 2026 (if possible) so that I can devote 2027 to working on it. Why plan this far ahead? Well it is necessary. Take the academic journal, Robin and I agreed to this publication last year around this time-- January 2025-- and we have been working on it since March 2025. It will not be out in the world until November 2026. If there is even a chance that I will be working on another major writing project in the near future, I need to commit now to leaving 2027 open from saying yes to anything else.

And that's a wrap on my annual 2 part series on resolutions. I will have my January reviews in Booklist and Library Journal up later this week. I will also be focusing on more year in review think pieces and reports as we lead up to my February 11th year in review program for PCI. My goal is to have everything I refer to I that program also accessible with commentary here on the blog, so that you do not need to see the program in order to have some benefit form the work I am doing to take everything from 2025 in RA Service and help you move into 2026 with confidence.

Reading Resolutions for 2026: Part 1-- Assessing How I Did in 2025

Today I am back to work for 2026, and as I like I do each new year, I am kicking off 2026 on the blog with my annual 2 part Reading Resolutions posts. First up, I am looking back at the year I just completed by taking an honest assessment of how I did on my 2025 goals. 

I like to lead by example. As the author of this blog, one that I know is used by thousands of library workers all over the country as a trusted resource, I also understand that I must not only hold myself to a very high standard, but also, I need to model the behaviors I think all of you should also try.

This is why every single year, before I set out my own reading resolutions, I publicly assess my resolutions from the previous year. Here is last year's post where I kicked off my 2025 goals by assessing my 2024 resolutions.

Before you run headlong into a new year, any year, I advocate for taking a step back to assess not only the goals you set for 2025, but also taking a hard look at where the goals you set at the start of the year met reality, making those goals harder or even invalid. This is NOT an exercise in feeling bad that you didn't keep resolutions or complete goals. No one ever gets everything done.

Rather the exercise of setting goals is about learning from the past and making adjustments moving forward. I have learned this by living it. This two step process of assessment before goal setting has saved me from burn out by forcing me to look at long held practices and make real changes, changes that have improved this blog and my professional life in general. In fact, if you have not done an assessment before, I highly recommend going back and looking at mine. I just went through the past 5 years of assessments before writing this post and it made me appreciate how much this process has helped me. I can literally see my growth and improvement. It is clarifying and quite honestly, inspiring. And honestly, when you can inspire yourself, that is a win.

But even if you have never done this before, please considering starting now. It is extremely important to look back at the year that was BEFORE you plan for the year to come, otherwise you are simply making goals in a vacuum, which helps no one. I will demonstrate why this is necessary for you today by using myself as your example. You cannot learn from the past without taking a moment to reflect.

But, before I get to myself, I want to make my annual plea to NOT make resolutions about the number of books you will read in a year. Many people set goals based on a number and in my experience this is never a good idea. It makes many anxious and leads to choosing books based on how quickly you can finish them. It is quality not quantity. Sometimes a book that takes you a month to finish will help you more [whether professionally or personally because it nourished your soul] than 5 that you could have rushed through in that same time frame. I have more to say on this topic here. 

Do what you want, of course, but that is my opinion on this issue.

Now on to the leading by example part. Here is the full post where I laid out my 2025 Resolutions with details. As a reminder those resolutions were:

2025 Resolutions: Read More Nonfiction

2025 Resolution: Update My Signature Presentation

2025 Resolution: Actively Promote Others Who Can Do This Work

2025 Resolution: Start Officially Training Trustees

2025 Resolution: Begin To Think Bigger

Now as I aways do, I will take all 5 goals together and assess what I did well and what I need to work on.

What Went Well:

• As I mentioned in my post to end 2025 here, I have figured out how to make sure I am reading more widely and especially in the genres I enjoy for fun. The key for me is the listen to the books I am reading for enjoyment since all the books I read for review (work) are in print. I easily read more nonfiction this year because of this. Like a lot of goals, this one was around for a few years and I figured out more about myself by intentionally trying to hit the goal. And the results of this goal will make a return tomorrow in my 2026 goals as well.
• I did make some big changes to my signature presentation in what I emphasize, the examples I use, and how I go about delivering it. I think it is a better experience for all who are a part of the training especially those in person. I already have a handful of chances to keep this momentum going in early 2026 as well.
• I have worked to help other trainers expand their programs and helped them to find more jobs. Librarians in adult, schools, and children's. I also have continued to mentor a newer library director as well as my more informal mentoring of those who reach out for advice. While I will not make this a goal next year, 2025 definitely marked the point in my career when I went from saying yes to all the training jobs to thinking about who else could do them just as well as me and maybe even better.
• Well thinking bigger kinda exploded. I never thought my book would do as well as it has. I thought it would be popular with the people I knew. I did not anticipate how big the book tour would be, or how many people came for me and not just to meet the famous authors (there were many for the authors, don't get me wrong). I did not think would be in almost every Barnes and Noble -- that part has been weird. I was in People Magazine (online) and in the Wall Street Journal. The cover reveal was on CrimeReads. I have signed a contract for Spain to release an edition and a specialty version is in the works. And I definitely never thought an honor like Chicagoan of the Year for Books was something I would even be considered for. This is on top of the work I have done to start a foundation at La Grange Library (still on-going) and co-edit an Academic Journal with Robin (articles are beginning to roll in). I have moved very far outside of my normal library consultant lanes faster and it a wider swing than I would have thought possible 12 months ago. I am happy about this, but as I will mention below, I need to be cautious about how it affects me. 

What I Still Need to Work On:

• Spending the year trying to promote others to take on some of my training work and updating my RA for All presentation has led to new questions for me and my work. How much longer do I want to be doing this training thing. As I get further removed from working in a library, and the world in which I have influence expands, I do not know how my presentations to library workers on RA will fit in going forward.
• I had to abandon training trustees due to giving my book tour the time and space it deserved. And I think being over half a year removed from my 24 years as a trustee has made me LESS inclined to train trustees. I will say it also helps that the state of IL is doubling down on mandatory trustee training as the rule, not the exception, so I know others are already trying to make that happen. I am fine letting others step in. This is a great example of a goal that was there for me to explore but in the end, it is better for me to abandon it than pursue it. Others can do this better and with more enthusiasm.
• I am thinking about not setting a reading goal for the first time in a long time. But if I do that, I might need to add something that makes sure I check in with myself. In many ways this seems like such an unimportant goal to worry about and yet, I know it actually is very important both to me  as a professional in the book world and as a human who loves reading. And since I think I unlocked the problem this year, I 100% need to hold myself accountable there.It easy to declare victory, but it is much harder to keep the success going without conflict.
• In a similar vein, while my commitment to "thinking bigger" in 2025 paid off in ways I never could have imagined, I do not want my success in 2025 to lead to me making decisions that move me too far into a direction I might not be ready to go yet or even want to go. This is an example of when success without contemplation of what the success means could be a bad thing. I am going to cautiously test new waters in 2026 and continue to see if how I feel about making some larger changes in the future, but I need to take baby steps.

Okay, that's a wrap on 2025's goals and how I did. Back tomorrow with 2026's goals.