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)

1. 📓 A Month in Siena – Hisham Matar ❤︎❤︎❤︎
2. 🎙️ / 📓 This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed – Charles E. Cobb Jr.
3. 📖 Sisters – Daisy Johnson ❤︎
4. 📓 Come Together – Emily Nagoski
5. 🎙️ / 📖 His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
6. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Sabriel – Garth Nix
7. 📖 The Captain of the Polestar – Arthur Conan Doyle
8. 💬 / 📖 As the Crow Flies – Melanie Gilman
9. 💬 / 📖 Skip – Molly Mendoza
10. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Lirael – Garth Nix
11. 📖 The Diary of Mr. Poynter – M.R. James
12. 📖 The Morgan Trust – R. Bridgeman
13. 💬 / 📖 Sunhead – Alex Assan
14. 📖 Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner ❤︎
15. 📓 Inciting Joy – Ross Gay ❤︎❤︎❤︎
16. 💬 / 📖 Across a Field of Starlight – Blue Delliquanti ❤︎❤︎❤︎
17. 🎙️ / 📖 Abhorsen – Garth Nix
18. 📖 Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar ❤︎
19. 📖 Memorial – Bryan Washington ❤︎❤︎
20. 📖 The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett ❤︎
21. 💬 / 📖 Squire – Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas
22. 🔄 / 💬 / 📖 Giant Days Vol. 3 – John Allison & Max Sarin
23. 📓 The Noble Approach – Tod Polson & Maurice Noble ❤︎❤︎
24. 🎙️ / 📓 ADHD 2.0 – Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.
25. 📖 Madness is Better than Defeat – Ned Beauman
26. 📓 The Drummer and the Great Mountain – Michael Joseph Ferguson
27. 📖 Return to Sender – Vera Brosgol
28. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch
29. 📓 The Creative Act: a Way of Being – Rick Rubin and Neil Strauss ❤︎
30. 💬 / 📖 Rare Flavors – Ram V & Filipe Andrade ❤︎❤︎❤︎
31. 📓 The Saviors of God – Nikos Kazantzakis
32. 🎙️ / 🎭 Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
33. 📓 I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself – Glynnis MacNicol ❤︎
34. 📓 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
35. 💬 / 📖 The Many Deaths of Laila Starr – Ram V and Filipe Andrade ❤︎
36. 💬 / 📖 Boys Weekend – Mattie Lubchansky
37. 💬 / 📖 The Jellyfish – Boum
38. 💬 / 📓 Offhand – Yuko Ota
39. 🔄 / 📖 Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson ❤︎❤︎
40. 💬 / 📖 Witchlight- Jessi Zabarsky
41. 📓 Gift from the Sea – Anne Morrow Lindbergh ❤︎❤︎
42. 💬 / 📖 Sunburn – Andi Watson and Simon Gane
43. 💬 / 📖 The Book Tour – Andi Watson ❤︎
44. 🔄 📓 Unmastered – Katherine Angel ❤︎❤︎
45. 🎙️ / 📖 The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
46. 📖 Art & Lies – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
47. 📝 The Inferno – Dante (trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
48. 💬 / 📖 Fly by Night – Tara O’Connor
49. 🎙️ / 📓 Catching the Big Fish – David Lynch
50. 📓 Eros the Bittersweet – Anne Carson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
51. 📓 Art [Objects] – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
52. 📓 Power of Gentleness – Anne Dufourmantelle ❤︎❤︎
53. 📓 / 💬 / 📓 One Bite at a Time – Ryan Claytor ❤︎
54. 📓 A Year in Practice – Jacqueline Suskin ❤︎
55. 🔄 📖 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon ❤︎❤︎
56. 📖 We Play Ourselves – Jen Silverman ❤︎❤︎❤︎
57. 📓 Think Little – Wendell Berry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
58. 🎙️ / 📖 The Heart in Winter – Kevin Barry
59. 📓 No Bad Parts – Richard C. Schwartz ❤︎❤︎
60. 💬 / 📓 Past Tense – Sacha Mardou ❤︎
61. 💬 / 📖 Fresh Start – Gale Galligan ❤︎❤︎❤︎
62. 💬 / 📖 A Girl on the Shore – Inio Asano
63. 🎙️ / 📓 / 📖 Pathemata – Maggie Nelson
64. 🔄 / 💬 / 📓 It’s Okay That It’s Not Okay – Christina Tran ❤︎❤︎
65. 💬 / 📓 Home/World – Ben Hatke ❤︎❤︎❤︎
66. 📓 The Light of the World – Elizabeth Alexander ❤︎❤︎❤︎
67. 🔄 / 📖 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis ❤︎
68. 📓 Faith, Hope, and Carnage – Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan ❤︎❤︎