January 7, 2026
DNF and thrive
Reading Without Limits or Expectations
121 Books, Zero Guilt: Mood Readers vs Goal Setters Throw Bookish Shade
TLDR: A blogger read 121 books but stuck to comfort genres, sparking a lively debate about goals, mood reading, and whether to DNF. Commenters split between structure and freedom, with jokes about TBR mountains and library holds—proof that how we read can matter as much as what we read.
The blogger’s confessional hit a nerve: 121 books in 2025, mystery and comfort reads, but not the “different” she’d promised herself. Cue the comments section turning into a cage match. The anti-goal crowd cheered the freedom to wander, with one voice warning that once you treat reading like homework, the magic dies. Goal-setters pushed back, admitting targets can warp choices but swearing a little structure beats endless scrolling and abandoned holds.
The spiciest split? Team DNF (Did Not Finish) vs the finish-or-perish purists. DNFers bragged about the “Goodwill pile” and stopping by page 100; completionists clutched their bookmarks. Multi-book jugglers confessed to reading multiple novels and wondered if fiction needs monogamy. Meanwhile, the author’s Christie/Heyer binge sparked jokes about speedrunning the Agatha universe, and her SABLE confession—Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy—became a meme: “My TBR is a retirement plan.”
Readers loved the phone-to-ebook swap (44% print, 44% ebooks, 12% audio), celebrating it as scroll detox, while library-app hoarders felt seen. Some begged for a 2026 “reading project”; others chanted “mood reading forever.” Everyone agreed on one win: monthly roundups and data nerding, with commenters getting a vicarious thrill from peeking at the full list and swapping recs like trading cards.
Key Points
- •The author read 121 books in 2025, meeting a goal of 120.
- •Despite aiming to read “differently,” they stayed within familiar genres and styles and felt constrained.
- •All 121 books were reviewed in monthly roundups; plans are in place to prevent review backlog.
- •Reading breakdown: 115 fiction and 6 non-fiction; mystery/crime was the top genre, then historical and romance.
- •Formats were 44% physical, 44% ebooks, and 12% audiobooks, shifting from last year due to increased ebook reading.