2025 Book Wrap Up

Better late than never

Because I am nothing if not au courant, I thought I would do a 2025 reading wrap up, oh, a good 2-3 weeks after everyone else. But really, is there an expiration date on this kind of thing? I say no. I’m always interested in what people are reading and why and what their libraries look like and how and where they read.

Before I dive in, a few caveats. I don’t do audiobooks. It’s not because I have anything against them, it’s just that I can’t enjoy them for some reason. My brain just doesn’t work like that. It’s the same reason I can’t really listen to podcasts. I know there has been pushback against the whole auditory learner/visual learner labels, but my brain doesn’t hold information when I listen to it the same way that it does when I read it.¹ I space out listening to stuff and the next thing you know I’ve missed several plot points. I wish I did like audiobooks because then I could consume more books, but every time I try I end up giving up.

In case you’re interested in this sort of thing, I don’t generally buy my books. I work for a library and so I check out most of what I read unless it’s already checked out and I really “have” to read this book right now (which happens). Also, if I read a book and really really love it, I’ll buy a copy then.

So, only books I read with my eyes, and in 2025 I set a goal not to read any books on an electronic device. I set that goal because in 2024 I did the majority of my reading on the Kindle app on my phone, which was kind of terrible for a variety of reasons not least of which was that it made my family say things like, “you’re always on your phone!” Also, I find that my attention is still not what it was pre-pandemic and reading books on my phone made it too easy to click out of my book and into social media. My physical books only goal was my attempt to strengthen my attention muscle.

Now, down to the nitty gritty: I read 26 books last year, which is 12 fewer than I read in 2024, which I find kind of distressing if I’m being honest. I already have a nagging feeling that there’s not enough time to read all the books I want to read, therefore I want to read more books each year, not fewer. However, I think the smaller number is because of the no electronic books thing. When I was reading a book on my phone, I could read anywhere and did. I read pretty much any time I had to wait more than a couple of minutes. Now, I could do that with my physical books, too, but I read several big honking books last year and carrying those suckers around in your purse is not always easy or pleasant. I already feel like a pack mule with my giant purse (to hold my laptop) and my lunch bag on the quarter mile I have to walk from my car to my office every day.

I also stopped taking a lunch most days in 2025. In 2024, when the weather was nice, I’d take my book and my lunch and sit outside for an hour. But now I eat lunch at my desk two days a week so I can leave early to go to the gym, and on one day I use my lunch to visit my mentee. So, for the most part, in 2025, I did the majority of my reading before bed, and depending on how tired I am, that usually nets me a chapter or two.

I read four non-fiction books last year, but all were big books: John Lewis: A Life (564 pages), An Army at Dawn² (704 pages), Say Nothing (560 pages) and James Boswell’s Tour of the Hebrides (401 pages). I’ll write more about these in a moment, but while we’re talking about big books, I also finally triumphed over War and Peace in 2025, which clocked in at 1300 pages or so. I finished the year in the middle of reading The Count of Monte Cristo, which is 1300+ pages, but I’m still reading it so I will add it to this year’s tally.

I only did two re-reads this year: Old Filth (before reading the next in the series); and the first book in the five book Cazelet Chronicles series (a favorite series; prompted by reading this article in The Washington Post. That’s a gift link to the article.)

It’s odd to me that though a few years ago I rarely read non-fiction, three that I read this year were among my favorite books this year. And I just realized that all are about people who are living through very challenging times (the Civil Rights Movement, World War II, and the Irish Troubles). When I’m feeling despairing and hopeless about the state of our country, I find solace in thinking and reading about people who have lived during other terrible periods. I’m sure that they, too, felt like everything was terrible and it was never going to get better, but it usually it does.

Fiction favorites this year were: The Ministry of Time, a quick, non-serious read that combined two interests: time travel and the Franklin expedition. Knowing this book started out as fanfic explained a lot, but I still enjoyed it overall. To & Fro, which I loooooved and wrote about here. And Writers & Lovers, which is about a young woman who is trying to get her life together, figure out her love life, and finish her book and it very much reminded me of my early 20s.

A few years ago I made the decision not to slog through books I hate, but I DNF’d fewer books this year than ever and actually did slog through a couple that I didn’t really enjoy. I won’t make that mistake this year.

I’m about 250 pages from finishing The Count of Monte Cristo and I don’t know where I’ll go after that. Usually when I finish a book that’s taken me a long time or a lot of brain power I’ll read something lighter immediately after. And I know it’s all the rage to go analog these days, but I am thinking of going back to reading a little bit on my Kindle app just because it’s so darn easy. We’ll see.

1. This is why listening to someone read board game rules aloud makes me want to run screaming into the night. It’s almost like torture for some reason.

2. An Army at Dawn, the first in a WWII trilogy by Rick Atkinson, was about America’s involvement in the North African campaign at the beginning of the war, about which I knew absolutely nothing, and I have to say that after reading this book it is a miracle we ended up winning WWII. Everything in North Africa that could go wrong, did, and we were completely unprepared to go to war both from a strategic or manpower standpoint. Too many egos and not enough communication = tragedy and devastating loss of life.