I have a friend who tracks her reading manually in a spreadsheet – I’m so glad Goodreads can do it and save me the bother. Not simply for noting a tally, but for giving me time to pause and reflect on my reading, and what that reading meant for me.
2025 was a good reading year. Not necessarily as productive as I would have liked – I didn’t meet my target. But I read some really remarkable and life-changing books. Things that I feel privileged to have found and experienced.
I have also realised looking back over this blog how diligent I have been. How much this practise of writing reflectively about books has taught me about structuring arguments, about editing, about my process. How much it has improved my writing. I’m finding my voice.
How did I Read?
Okay, enough fluff, lets look at the nitty-gritty. I read a total of 69 books, against a target of 80, predominantly across Fantasy, Romance, Mystery and Thriller. The extent of my reading varied wildly, some months I only managed 2 books, others I read 9 (mostly short stories I should say). It has been an challenging year and I can definitely see a change in the intensity and topics of my reading that maps onto the personal changes.
What did I Read?
As before, I’m going to break up my reading by feels rather than boring categories like genre. I will link my reviews where I have them, some you will have to come back for later in the year. Remember these aren’t recommendations, just personal preferences, you can go and work out your own opinion on any of them.
Life Altering
Gentle Writing Advise by Chuck Wendig – the comforting kick up the butt I needed to stop punishing myself and judging my writing.
The Whale’s Last Song by Joanne Fedler – enchanting, as comforting as a mother’s embrace. I cant recommend this enough.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – curious, compelling, intriguing – this is litfic/fantasy done the right way. Absolutely marvellous and totally worth the hype.
A Delight
Circles in a Forest by Dalene Matthee – mixing historical fact with realised people, cultural inequalities and a conservation message that was well ahead of its time. It is a classic everybody should have under their belt.
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera – an extraordinarily clever premise for a romance, and a book that makes every chapter work towards its themes. I cried so hard. Pity about the (numerous) sequels.
Analysis Done Right
Mud, Blood & Poppycock by Gordon Corrigan – this will indeed turn what you thought you knew about WWI on its head. Engaging, relatable writing that acknowledges the mistakes while it looks for the context.
The Devil Made Me Do It by Nicky Falkof – in which a clever author interrogates the question of whether we have occult crime because satanism exists, or whether satanism exists because of crime. Also a locally written book.
Totally Unexpected
Blackmailer’s Delight by David Lawrence – if you want books with clear voice and dripping historical character I cant recommend Lawrence enough.
How to Find a Nameless Fae by AJ Lancaster – I have never liked the Stariel books, but this was a surprising delight. Loved the protagonist’s voice, loved the nuanced view of power dynamics and gender roles within the relationship and the sex. You just don’t see enough of that.
The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening by Noami Kuttner – Quirky, fun and lighthearted but with plenty meat.
Made me want to throw something
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros – leaning too hard into the ideas behind the story instead of focusing on the story itself.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer – A great premise but it chickened out at the ending. Not worth even a fraction of the hype.
Earthflown by Frances Wren – a mess, beginning to end, by an author who thinks they are cleverer than their readers or their editors.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune – using the wrong set of characters to moralise at the reader.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Literary fiction playing dress-up with fantasy. If you are not going to commit then get off the stage.
New favourite Authors
Lucien Burr
- Prince of Lust Series:
- Prince of Lust
- Hell and its Pleasures
- Alter of Flesh
- Lake of Sin
- Throne of Desire
- The Teras Threat:
- The Nutcracker and his King
I am turning into an ultra fan. Some of the steamiest books I have ever read. If you enjoy sexually charged power games, dark and macabre settings, and authority baiting you should explore these. Also deeply complex and subtextual which is what makes them work so well. Except for Teras Triumph – fuck knows what happened there.
Naomi Novik
- Uprooted
- Spinning Silver -read in 2024
- His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire Series) – read years ago
- A Deadly Education
I am well on my way to having an entire shelf just for her books. Adore her stories, really interesting perspectives – like she takes a fantasy premise and turns it on its head and uses it to make you question the structure of our world.
Intriguing Shorts
Amazon Original Shorts – have (mostly) turned out some really engaging works by a wide variety of authors. I haven’t read the entire collections, these are just what I’m working though.
- Intro Shadow Collection
- The Shivers Collection
- Black Stars
- Trespass Collection
Undercover by Tamsyn Muir – for me, the litmus on whether I should read the Gideon the Ninth series – obviously I should. Gothic and macabre and fun. Count me in.
Jackknife by Joe Hill – mysterious and gothic and character driven despite the murder tree. Packed an amazing amount of story into a short.
What did it all Mean?
I can’t say my taste in books has changed (fantasy will always be my first love), but I think it has deepened. I am increasingly learning to see the value in unusual places. It’s becoming easier to understand what it is I am looking for in a book at any given time – what emotional need. And I am increasingly comfortable altering my reading routine to meet those needs.
Maybe I didn’t read as much as I would have liked – but then what is this tally for? What am I trying to prove and who am I proving it to? When I look back on this year I’m really happy, with what I read, and with what I did in the time I wasn’t reading. I made time for reflection, for crafts, for me.
The point isn’t how many books I can knock off a list. It’s how much they collectively filled up my well.
