What are your new year’s reading resolutions? 6 dedicated readers share theirs
- Written by Jo Case, Senior Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation
When we think about new year’s resolutions, we often think about changing our habits or new setting goals around food, exercise and work. But why not take our reading seriously too?
Social media reading platforms often ask us to set annual reading goals based on the number of books we plan to read. But there are all kinds of reading resolutions worth making. They might be diving deep into one author, books instead of phones before bed, or finding ways to support local writing culture through what you read.
These are just some of the ideas six of our experts came up with when we asked them to share their new year’s reading resolutions.
More reading, less phone
My reading resolution is to finally leave my phone at the front door. My phone is the one thing thwarting my reading goals. I’ve gone to great lengths to neuter its effect on me. I’ve deleted my Facebook account. I’ve installed content blockers. I’ve turned on “sleep focus”. But, I’m astounded how my tired brain can outsmart my best intentions.
Swipe, tap, dopamine. The little pile of books on my bedside goes untouched, like Miss Havisham’s wedding cake.
So, I’ve removed the chargers from the bedroom, bought a $5 reading light, and for accountability, professed my intentions to my wife and the internet. No more phones in bed.
Michael Noetel is an associate professor in the school of psychology at the University of Queensland.
More music memoirs
In 2026, I’ll be reading a lot of music memoirs and relevant books on writing craft to support my next project: unpacking my life as a rock journalist in London during the 1990s.
This year was a Janet Malcolm year. Her longform nonfiction is known for tackling complex ethical questions relating to journalism, biography and the tricky business of representing real life in sharp, compelling prose. I didn’t always agree with her, but I always find her work worth reading.
I think 2026 will be a Rebecca Solnit year. She is a longtime favourite — her exquisite 2013 hybrid memoir, The Faraway Nearby, is a big influence on my current work-in-progress — but she’s so prolific that I still have plenty of gaps to fill in her bibliography.
Gemma Nisbet is a lecturer in professional writing and publishing, Curtin University.
More literary journals and zines
My resolution is to subscribe to more literary journals (RIP Meanjin) and to seek out the weird and small.
A favourite recent read was a 2023 essay by Chelsea Hart called With Love, and Labour (Rosa Press) about sex work and capitalism. I picked up this slim, grey, staple-bound pamphlet at Sticky Institute’s Festival of the Photocopier.
In 2026, I’ll continue to look for writing that stages a quiet resistance to the status quo, through material form as much as content. I’m here for the zines, chapbooks, literary magazines: treasures that bear the traces of their making.
Penni Russon is a senior lecturer in writing and publishing at Monash University.
More books, fewer online articles
No reading plan survives contact with reality. My 2025 plan to read more fiction, including classics, went well enough. But as the year wore on, I gravitated towards short form nonfiction, particularly on Substack, which provides an endless stream of intelligent articles and opinion-pieces: catnip for the intellectually curious.
But the sheer convenience of online articles can pull reading time away from book-length works and the depth, breadth (and sometimes grandeur) they offer. As a fiction author and philosopher, both my imaginative and intellectual muscles require constant exercise.
My reading plan for 2026 includes some contemporary novels (like Atlantic journalist George Packer’s latest novel, The Emergency) and a recent scholarly work on a favourite topic: Persuasion in Parallel re-examines how political attitudes change in response to information.
And I’m planning a few ergonomic changes to better safeguard my reading space and help build those muscles.
Hugh Breakey is deputy director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University.
Authors: Jo Case, Senior Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation
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