Books of 2025
Jan. 5th, 2026 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
littlerhymesHow many?
128, including comics and manga. Biggest year in over a decade.
I did a lot of buddy reading this year, withosprey_archer and tullycat (separately), as well as a non-fandom friend who wanted to get back into reading.
2024 - 105
2023 - 84
2022 - 85
2021 - 60
How many not by men?
66
Most books by a single author?
13 by Joan Aiken -osprey_archer and I did a read through her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series and it was wonderful.
Longest and shortest?
Shortest was The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard - plays are short!
Longest was Dune by Frank Herbert which was simply too long.
Favourite?
Butter by Asako Yuzuki really stuck with me for how it explored food, murder, and feminism.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jiminez was amazing, an epic fantasy that feels arrestingly original.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic for a reason, who would have thunk it.
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, from the 1960s, I feel this should be way more widely known as a work of feminist speculative fiction.
I liked all the Joan Aiken reads to varying degrees, but special mention to The Stolen Lake which is an absolutely bonkers take on Arthurian legend and alternate history, starring Dido Twite my favourite girl in the world.
Favourite re-reads:
Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Honourable mentions:
Don't Bite The Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee, which were very funny and scarily prescient about the devaluation of art.
The Racket by Conor Niland is an excellent tennis memoir from a journeyman player.
Your Utopia by Bora Chung is a great collection of science fiction short stories.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos scam, made me despair of humanity - but was so entertainingly written!
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures was a lot of fun.
Least favourite?
The Season by Helen Garner - sorry it was not good as a sports book or a memoir.
Oldest?
King John by Shakespeare, which I also saw staged as a read-through by Bell Shakespeare.
Newest?
I don't usually read a lot of new releases but this year was an exception. Emperor of Gladness, Cactus Pear for My Beloved and Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You were all released around the same time. Oh and Kings of This World by Elizabeth Knox.
Any in translation?
Tons! Mostly Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
128, including comics and manga. Biggest year in over a decade.
I did a lot of buddy reading this year, with
osprey_archer and tullycat (separately), as well as a non-fandom friend who wanted to get back into reading. 2024 - 105
2023 - 84
2022 - 85
2021 - 60
How many not by men?
66
Most books by a single author?
13 by Joan Aiken -
osprey_archer and I did a read through her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series and it was wonderful. Longest and shortest?
Shortest was The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard - plays are short!
Longest was Dune by Frank Herbert which was simply too long.
Favourite?
Butter by Asako Yuzuki really stuck with me for how it explored food, murder, and feminism.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jiminez was amazing, an epic fantasy that feels arrestingly original.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic for a reason, who would have thunk it.
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, from the 1960s, I feel this should be way more widely known as a work of feminist speculative fiction.
I liked all the Joan Aiken reads to varying degrees, but special mention to The Stolen Lake which is an absolutely bonkers take on Arthurian legend and alternate history, starring Dido Twite my favourite girl in the world.
Favourite re-reads:
Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Honourable mentions:
Don't Bite The Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee, which were very funny and scarily prescient about the devaluation of art.
The Racket by Conor Niland is an excellent tennis memoir from a journeyman player.
Your Utopia by Bora Chung is a great collection of science fiction short stories.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos scam, made me despair of humanity - but was so entertainingly written!
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures was a lot of fun.
Least favourite?
The Season by Helen Garner - sorry it was not good as a sports book or a memoir.
Oldest?
King John by Shakespeare, which I also saw staged as a read-through by Bell Shakespeare.
Newest?
I don't usually read a lot of new releases but this year was an exception. Emperor of Gladness, Cactus Pear for My Beloved and Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You were all released around the same time. Oh and Kings of This World by Elizabeth Knox.
Any in translation?
Tons! Mostly Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
