2025 In Reading

Looking back on a hectic year

I read fourteen books in 2025 - six short of my goal and five less than I did in 2024. It has been quite the year! I had five different jobs (got laid off once, three weeks after I started), I moved apartments, and I got married. It’s been quite the ride, and though I did not read as many books as I’d hoped, I’m glad to have been able to read the ones I did. I’m looking forward to a calmer, slower 2026 full of many more wonderful stories. So without any further ado, let’s get into my reads!

(Please note that all ratings are based on my enjoyment of the book, not an objective rating of its quality.)

Post Office by Charles Bukowski 6.5/10

Post Office is Bukowski’s debut novel, and is so congruent to his life that the “semi” in “semi-autobiographical” is a stretch. Nevertheless, it was a fun read, a perfect example of Hank’s gritty style. I might try another of his this year.

Animal Farm by George Orwell 7.5/10

I hadn’t read this one yet, and picked it up on a whim from the library. It is everything I’d heard it was. No surprises there. I still enjoyed it, and I’m glad I read it, especially with the growing authoritarian state emerging in the United States.

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg 9/10

Though as a man I find Ginsberg deplorable, Howl is still, to my mind, one of the greatest poetical works of the 20th century. No singular poem, or collection of poems, has so succinctly captured the spirit of an entire generation. I read Howl and Other Poems every year.

Invitation to a Beheading by Vladamir Nabakov 7/10

A beautifully written novel that was about 40 pages too long. It is a surreal, Kafkaesque story of a man imprisoned for a nonsensical crime in a dream-like world. The prose is exquisite, but be warned: this book is currently printed by Vintage International, an imprint of Penguin, and the blurb on the back SPOILS THE MAIN TWO PLOT TWISTS. I should send an email to Penguin. I recommend this read, just don’t read the back!

The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam 8/10

About a year and a half ago I purchased a beautiful copy of the Rubaiyyat illustrated by Edmund Dulac, bound in yellow cloth and decorated with red, green, and blue patterns. This was the version I read.

I adored this work. There’s is a certain joie de vivre in this 800 year old book that resonates today. The eleventh quatrain comes to mind:

“Herewith a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”

Gorgeous. I look forward to rereading and seeing what else I glean from this marvelous work.

Conversations In Sicily by Elio Vittorini 5/10

I found a first edition of this at the library sale in my town. I sadly could not keep it, as I later discovered mold in the binding, but I read it first before disposing of it. Conversations In Sicily was an interesting read. It is an anti-Fascist novel written in 1942 about a man who on a whim returns to his home town in Sicily, meeting a variety of odd characters along the way. It explores grief, war, hunger, and explores who benefits and who is left behind in a Fascist state. Though well-written, there wasn’t much else about it that struck me.

Of Minnie the Moocher and Me by Cab Calloway 9/10

I’ve long been a Cab Calloway fanatic. For those who don’t know Cab Calloway was a jazz artist whose height of fame occurred from the late 1920s until the Second World War. He is known for hits such as “Minnie The Moocher”, “St. James Infirmary”, and “Reefer Man”. Not only was he a great singer, but an incredible showman. To watch Cab Calloway perform was to witness a level of showmanship that is rarely seen today.

His autobiography is a wonderfully honest look into his life, from growing up in New York and Baltimore to his semi-retirement when the book was written in 1973. For any jazz fans out there, I highly recommend.

My Lady Nicotine by J.M. Barrie 7/10

This was one I found at random in my alma mater’s library. It is a humorous collection of stories surrounding pipe smoking and tobacco. It is written in a Victorian style bordering on stereotype. It is in this book that the Arcadia Mixture of tobacco was born, later of Sherlock Holmes fame. In fact, Barrie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were good friends, and Doyle borrowed the Arcadia Mixture that Dr. Watson smokes from this book. As a pipe smoker myself, this was a delight.

Stoner by John Williams - 10/10

Stoner may need its own essay. This was by far my favorite read of the year, and is in my top 5 novels of all time. In the first paragraph, you are told how the story is going to end, yet for 270 pages, I was transfixed by the titular character’s life. A man, doing his best to be prudent at every stage of his life, yet in the end he hardly lived. As he draws his last breaths, he asks the burning question we must all ask ourselves at the end: “What did you expect?”

The Pure and the Impure by Colette 7.5/10

A fascinating glimpse into sex and sexuality in Paris during the turn of the 20th century. This book, half-memoir, half-essay, is told in a series of dialogues and sketches. Through these, we explore the varied and complex sexual lives of artists in Paris - lesbians, Don Juans, and even Colette’s own experience of wanting neither a masculine nor feminine presentation, which today we might call “non-binary”. Anyone who is interested in gender studies or queer studies will enjoy this book.

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway 7.5/10

In Our Time is Hemingway’s first collection of short stories. I’d read some of these stories individually over the years, and some of them I did not quite… “get”. However, reading them in context to their whole let the greater picture form. This collection creates a stark portrait of life after the First World War. The listlessness, the confusion, and the trauma is all laid out bare in this collection of 14 stories and 16 vignettes. I cannot say it is my favorite Hemingway book (that distinction is still tied between A Moveable Feast and The Old Man And The Sea), but it helped contextualize a few of the stories I’d read, and it helped get a better sense of his style. This year, I will be moving on to A Farewell To Arms.

Maigret and the Madwoman by Georges Simenon 4.5/10

This was my second Simenon book. I read The Little Man From Archangel in 2024, an good novel that I initially was not fond of, but nevertheless think about often. Simenon does a very good job at creating three-dimensional characters, with their own personalities, agendas, and motivations that a great writer knows how to do. Alas, I did not find this mystery to be particularly interesting. I will likely read Maigret and the Wine Merchant - his most famous - before I decide whether or not I like Simenon as a whole.

The Clocks by Agatha Christie 5/10

This is the first audiobook I’ve ever completed! I’ve never been able to focus on audiobooks or podcasts, but I took a job in October which required a lot of driving, so I gave it a shot. Let me warn potential readers - the cover says it is an Hercule Poirot mystery, but the famous detective plays only a minor part in the story. I felt a little mislead by that. This story had the feel of a police procedural, and had a lot more to do with interviewing suspects and witnesses than it did with hunting clues. All part of the genre, I suppose. The problem was very interesting, but the solution felt a rushed. I will read more Christie next year, but will likely stick to the more famous titles.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan 8.5/10

For such a short book, it packed a mighty punch. I read this on recommendation from my wife. McEwan’s prose is masterful, and perfectly demonstrates the life and times of the characters. It made me glad to live in the time I do, a time in which we have terms for things like ‘asexuality’ and ‘premature ejaculation’, and in which people are generally more comfortable talking about sex. These are words and conversations that would have likely saved the doomed love of Edward and Florence. Or would it? As Edward’s epiphany at the end of the book demonstrates, perhaps have both love and patience at the same time would have been enough.

After we’d both read it, my wife and I watched the film adaptation from 2017 starring Saoirse Ronin. It was a nice adaptation, but it had its faults. Adapting a story with non-linear storytelling is always difficult, but we enjoyed ourselves. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the film as well as the book.

An so…

It’s been an interesting year, both personally and in my reading. With this year’s reads, I had some disappointments as well as some new favorites. I’ve got a long TBR on the shelves, and I intend to be voracious in 2026.

But now I want to hear from you! Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? Did you like them? Do you have any recommendations based off of the vibes of this list? If you didn’t like any of them, why?

Thank you very much for reading this article, and Happy New Year!