Another annual reading list I’m putting up without much commentary, but there were some bangers in 2025. “The point seems to be this,” Kate Briggs writes, “left to its own devices, the path of reading is very rarely chronologically ordered, thematically coherent, limited by language or respectful of borders. Books open out onto, they cross with and follow haphazardly on from one another. Left to its own devices, the path of reading strays all over the place.”
(Previously: 2024 in Reading, 2023 in Reading, 2022 in Reading, 2021 in Reading, 2020 in Reading)
| Legend | Rough Guide to Ratings |
|---|---|
| 🎭 – Plays 📝 – Poetry 📖 – Books (Fiction) 📓 – Books (Nonfiction) 💬 – Graphic Novels 🔄 – Reread 🎙️ – Audiobook | ❤︎ = Yes ❤︎❤︎ = Oh Yes ❤︎❤︎❤︎ = Oh Hell Yes |
- 📓 A Month in Siena – Hisham Matar ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 🎙️ / 📓 This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed – Charles E. Cobb Jr.
- 📖 Sisters – Daisy Johnson ❤︎
- 📓 Come Together – Emily Nagoski
- 🎙️ / 📖 His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
- 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Sabriel – Garth Nix
- 📖 The Captain of the Polestar – Arthur Conan Doyle
- 💬 / 📖 As the Crow Flies – Melanie Gilman
- 💬 / 📖 Skip – Molly Mendoza
- 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Lirael – Garth Nix
- 📖 The Diary of Mr. Poynter – M.R. James
- 📖 The Morgan Trust – R. Bridgeman
- 💬 / 📖 Sunhead – Alex Assan
- 📖 Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner ❤︎
- 📓 Inciting Joy – Ross Gay ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Across a Field of Starlight – Blue Delliquanti ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 🎙️ / 📖 Abhorsen – Garth Nix
- 📖 Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar ❤︎
- 📖 Memorial – Bryan Washington ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett ❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Squire – Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas
- 🔄 / 💬 / 📖 Giant Days Vol. 3 – John Allison & Max Sarin
- 📓 The Noble Approach – Tod Polson & Maurice Noble ❤︎❤︎
- 🎙️ / 📓 ADHD 2.0 – Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.
- 📖 Madness is Better than Defeat – Ned Beauman
- 📓 The Drummer and the Great Mountain – Michael Joseph Ferguson
- 📖 Return to Sender – Vera Brosgol
- 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch
- 📓 The Creative Act: a Way of Being – Rick Rubin and Neil Strauss ❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Rare Flavors – Ram V & Filipe Andrade ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Saviors of God – Nikos Kazantzakis
- 🎙️ / 🎭 Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
- 📓 I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself – Glynnis MacNicol ❤︎
- 📓 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
- 💬 / 📖 The Many Deaths of Laila Starr – Ram V and Filipe Andrade ❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Boys Weekend – Mattie Lubchansky
- 💬 / 📖 The Jellyfish – Boum
- 💬 / 📓 Offhand – Yuko Ota
- 🔄 / 📖 Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Witchlight- Jessi Zabarsky
- 📓 Gift from the Sea – Anne Morrow Lindbergh ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Sunburn – Andi Watson and Simon Gane
- 💬 / 📖 The Book Tour – Andi Watson ❤︎
- 🔄 📓 Unmastered – Katherine Angel ❤︎❤︎
- 🎙️ / 📖 The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
- 📖 Art & Lies – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📝 The Inferno – Dante (trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
- 💬 / 📖 Fly by Night – Tara O’Connor
- 🎙️ / 📓 Catching the Big Fish – David Lynch
- 📓 Eros the Bittersweet – Anne Carson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 Art [Objects] – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 Power of Gentleness – Anne Dufourmantelle ❤︎❤︎
- 📓 / 💬 / 📓 One Bite at a Time – Ryan Claytor ❤︎
- 📓 A Year in Practice – Jacqueline Suskin ❤︎
- 🔄 📖 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 We Play Ourselves – Jen Silverman ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 Think Little – Wendell Berry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 🎙️ / 📖 The Heart in Winter – Kevin Barry
- 📓 No Bad Parts – Richard C. Schwartz ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📓 Past Tense – Sacha Mardou ❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 Fresh Start – Gale Galligan ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📖 A Girl on the Shore – Inio Asano
- 🎙️ / 📓 / 📖 Pathemata – Maggie Nelson
- 🔄 / 💬 / 📓 It’s Okay That It’s Not Okay – Christina Tran ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 / 📓 Home/World – Ben Hatke ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Light of the World – Elizabeth Alexander ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 🔄 / 📖 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis ❤︎
- 📓 Faith, Hope, and Carnage – Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan ❤︎❤︎
