2025 is the year that I really became a reader. Before this year I'd never read more than 12 books in a year. I read 42 books in 2025 and, more importantly, I actually really enjoyed it. I looked forward to getting to read.

My main takeaways from this have been:

Reading multiple books is a good thing

I've found that having more than one book on the go at any one time means that I can read with my moods. If I'm not in the mood for some non-fiction I'll just dip into whatever fiction I'm reading at that moment. The alternative is forcing yourself through something you're not in the mood for, or not reading at all, neither of which is enjoyable. I think that 3 books seems to be the sweet spot for me.

Habit forming makes a huge difference

Like every other male roughly my age that's ever thought about self help, I've read Atomic Habits. I know that making a habit makes things stick and makes it much easier to just do them. I now read every night before bed, and it feels automatic. This year there's only been 14 days that I didn't read at all.

A good series will really suck you in

The Red Rising and Dungeon Crawler Carl are two very popular book series that I discovered this year. Both of them completely sucked me in. It feels like I spent half the year reading books from these series. Both series have huge worlds with interesting characters that have had me looking forward to reading more and more about them.

E-Readers are a game changer

I've never owned an e-reader of any sort before this year (phones and iPads don't count because the screens are terrible for reading), it's been one of the most used devices for me this year and has gone everywhere with me. Taking multiple books on a trip is harder to do when they're physical copies, with my Kindle I have a library worth of books available to me all the time!

Book clubs are fun

Me and 3 of my friends started a book club because none of us read enough. Now it's not only a chance to read something I wouldn't necessarily pick myself, but a good way to chat about books and an excuse to catch up. One of the picks this year was Jessica Knoll's Bright Young Women- a book I never would have chosen for myself, but really enjoyed.

Favourite Books of the year

It's hard to narrow it down, but my top five of the year would be:

  1. Apple In China by Patrick McGee - a must for any Apple nerd, and an interesting insight into manufacturing.
  2. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - a mind-bending wonderfully weird short story
  3. The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson - an interesting insider story of the world of banking
  4. Light Bringer by Pierce Brown - The Red Rising books[1] get better as they go and Light Bringer is the best of them.
  5. Project Hail Mary - There's a reason that everyone raves about this one. Read it before the movie comes out!

Going into 2026 I don't want to set a number of books to read. I know myself well enough to know if I do that it'll incentivise me to read shorter books to pad the stats. What I do want to do is keep up the momentum and keep reading what I enjoy.

  1. Mostly ↩︎