Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a restful festive season and are reinvigorated to start 2025 with a bang!

 

January is a time of renewal, for starting new things, for making resolutions (which I’m sure you’ll keep…) and for thinking about the year ahead. What are your goals this year? Are you studying for exams? Looking for a promotion? Or how about you’re saving money for a European road trip?

 

Whatever your goals for 2025, we at Olympia Publishers are rooting for you all the way – because setting a goal is one thing, supporting yourself through to the end is a challenge all in its own!

 

As a book publisher, you’d expect for our 2025 goals to be literary leaning… and you’d be correct! Our first day back in the office featured a meeting about our Christmas presents and when we were looking to read them! As individuals, we’ve settled on the appropriate figure of completing twenty-five books over the next twelve months, meaning we’ve got to start planning our libraries for the year.

 

Have you set yourself a reading goal? It could be as simple as “read more” – with no number attached and therefore no hard-and-fast rule to abide by. If you do have a reading goal in mind, do you feel adequately prepared to face the challenge? Whether you’ve been a bookworm for decades or are just starting from page one, here are a few suggestions from the Olympia Publishers team that’ll help you conquer your TBR pile this year:

 

 

Don’t Work It All Out Now

 

If you caught my blog post in November about my 2024 reading challenge, you’d know things didn’t go very well for me. Due to the sheer size of the list I wanted to complete, I found myself overwhelmed by the mountain ahead of me and ultimately buckled under the pressure. That was until late in the year, when I shifted away from the mountain and instead adopted a molehill approach.

 

Each month, I chose a handful of titles that were seasonally appropriate, inline with current word-of-mouth or simply books that I couldn’t wait to start reading. This monthly ritual was so joyous, that I took great care and effort in selecting my list – falling in love with each of my picks in the process.

 

Taking a step back, reassessing your challenge on a monthly basis, will mean you stay aware of your progress, you can build a narrative for your year of reading and hopefully you’ll cherish each of your chosen titles that little bit more.

 

 

 

Find Light In The Darkness

 

Apologies to our readers in the southern hemisphere, who are currently basking in the sweet summer sun, for this suggestion won’t be particularly useful for you. Although, all things considered, you are lucky enough to currently be basking in the sweet summer sun.

 

Outside our UK office, we say goodnight to the light around 4:30PM - we drive home in the dark! With such dull surroundings, evenings are often spent in-front of the TV or scrolling on a mobile. This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

 

The festive havoc of Christmas is last year’s problem; the present is waiting for a comfortable reading nook. Turn off the phone light and flick on a warm lamp. Put down the remote and pick out a bookmark. Stay seated on the coach but not without a book alongside you. The night is yet young!

 

 

Spring Clean This Winter Instead

 

January 1st is a reset: buy a new calendar, restart your annual trackers and try not to write the year wrong! Whilst Spring is often the season of choice to declutter and reorganise your home, why not too reset the house come New Year’s Day?

 

This year, I’ve simply reshuffled my bookcase - mainly out of necessity, following a bundled arrival of new titles under the Christmas tree. What this now means is my regular reading space is just that little bit different, the books on show are slightly altered and therefore I personally feel invigorated to do something new.

 

Spring cleaning in January also allows you to look through your bookshelves, linking back to the benefits of our first suggestion, which encourages you to cherish each of your books. Basically, we’re encouraging you to take time, enjoy this reading challenge and do what most bibliophiles love to do – admire their beautiful collections.

 

 

 

Book Buddy Bonanza

 

Reading may be a solitary experience for the majority of us but theorising, discussing and fawning over stories and characters is very much a communal activity. Remember how we pointed out that setting goals for yourself is one-part actually achieving them, another-part supporting yourself through to the end? A book buddy, who is reading alongside you, is the greatest support strut you could ask for!

 

The beauty of completing this challenge alongside someone else is that it connects you, all year long, with someone else, through a medium that will enrich and enhance your livelihoods. You will grow together!

 

If your book buddy is a significant other, have fun with the challenge: make reading date nights or literary days out! With a fellow bookworm climbing the mountain beside you, the support to conquer your goal is right there, all year long.

 

 

Cut All Communication To Everyone Who Might Take You Away From Your Reading Nook

 

To completely contradict myself, January is a month in darkness (unless you’re lying on Bondi Beach) where the finances are stretched to their limits. Who needs to go outside and socialise with other people, at expensive bars and restaurants?

 

I recommend that you become a book-hermit. Find the cosiest corner and pad it with cushions, blankets and string lights. Give yourself a much-needed break from the Christmas break – you know, a holiday to recover from your holiday? – and stay inside with your book. If anyone tries to approach you, snap back like a bulldog defending its territory. This is your book cove! Nobody else allowed!

 

Committing all this time to the challenge up-front will definitely pay off in the long run. When the starting pistol blows, you’re often full of adrenaline, raring to start the race – we say use that energy to blast through the first 100m (or rather first month) and then start to get into a rhythm. Read, read, read!

 

 

 

2025 is shaping up to be another excellent year for Olympia Publishers! We can’t wait to share our upcoming titles with you, perhaps adding fuel to your reading challenge fire later this year.

 

Whether or not your challenge involves some Olympia titles – and we do hope they do! – I’d like to wish you the best of luck with your endeavour, and hope to see a happy bookshelf, full of read and completed books, come December 31st.

 

Ready, set, go!

 


 

Article written by David, Social Media