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Last January, as I have for the past few years, I challenged myself via the Goodreads app to read 40 books over the course of 2025, a reasonable goal that was similar to what I’ve done in past years.
My actual total was 75 (thanks in no small part to a handful of zippy romance novels devoured in a day on the beach), and while I have no need to gamify reading in order to enjoy it, I do recognize that my competitive spirit does mean I sometimes choose a book over mindless scrolling if only to get my numbers up; that can only be a good thing.
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This year I tried for more non-fiction and succeeded, including several memoirs, a compelling look back at Capt. Cook’s final voyage, two terrifying books about the deterioration and monetization of our attention and John Greene’s fascinating Everything Is Tuberculosis, which is required reading.
Twelve on the list were audiobooks, which further cemented my belief that, in the main, authors should not read their own work; Claire Cameron’s memoir How to Survive a Bear Attack was nigh unlistenable (though actor Jenny Slate’s quirky and delightful Little Weirds can only be heard in her voice).
Standouts in 2025 fiction were Heartwood by Amity Gaige, about a woman who disappears on the Appalachian Trail and Caroline Palmer’s Workhorse, about a would-be fashion editor in the magazine world of the early 2000s.
I will say that reading more books also meant I was disappointed by more books. This year’s letdowns include the latest from John Irving, a dreadful doorstopper rife with repetition, and Tracy’s Chevalier’s The Glass Maker, which never succeeded in whisking me into its historical world.
On the upside, I will be eagerly awaiting anything new from Kaliane Bradley, whose The Ministry of Time was my top read of the year (it came out in 2024). I had never heard of Ron Carlson, but I will be seeking out more of his work after listening to the austere masculine masterpiece Five Skies (read by the author, so my rules are made to be broken.)
Let me know your recommendations (paper or audio, fiction or non) and why you loved them.
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