---
aliases: ["Read 20 Books in 2025"]
Is A: Goal
Belongs to: "[[2025]]"
Status: Open
---
# Read 20 Books in 2025

Reading remains the highest-leverage input for content quality and original thinking. The 2025 target of 20 books is calibrated to be ambitious but realistic based on the [[2024-read-24-books]] experience, where the 24-book target was missed at 18. The adjusted goal accounts for the increasing demands of a growing business while preserving [[responsibility-learning]] as a non-negotiable priority.

## Success criteria

- Read 20 books by December 31, 2025
- Maintain at least 1 book per month, even in the busiest months
- Track monthly progress via [[measure-books-per-month]]
- At least 60% should be non-fiction relevant to content, engineering, or business
- Create at least 3 newsletter essay ideas per quarter sourced from reading

## Key milestones

- Read 5 books by end of Q1 to build early momentum
- Integrate audiobooks into cycling training to boost volume (learned from 2024)
- Reach 10 books by mid-year
- Maintain pace through the busy Q3 podcast and community launch season
- Close the year at 20 by protecting reading time in Q4

## Notes

- Currently at 14 books as of Q3. On pace to hit 20, but Q4 needs to deliver 6 books which matches the best quarterly performance in 2024.
- Audiobooks during cycling continue to be the most reliable reading channel. 8 of the 14 books so far were consumed via audio during rides.
- The shift to 60% non-fiction is working well. Recent reads on platform economics and community building directly informed the [[25q3-community-launch]] strategy.
- The biggest risk to this goal is the Q4 crunch: [[25q4-reach-85k]] and year-end sponsor renewals tend to consume all available bandwidth.
- Linking reading notes to [[measure-evergreen-notes-created]] helps ensure books translate into lasting knowledge rather than forgotten highlights.
