My 2025 Reading Recap

It’s been a weird year, both in my reading life and in the world beyond. I felt pulled in too many directions at once, and wound up feeling less productive than usual—both in terms of how many books I read and in general. That said, I still had some good times and some great reads. And I’m aiming to be more intentional and more focused in 2026. 

As of this writing, I have read 43 books out of my stated goal of 50 books for the year, with maybe time to squeeze one or two more in before the year ends. This will be the first time since 2022 that I haven’t met my numerical goal—though if we were counting books I started rather than books I finished, I’d have hit the mark! Aside from one or two that I intentionally DNFed (did not finish), there are at least five books that I got partway through and was enjoying but wound up inadvertently abandoning. This happened largely because I’ve been reading to a lot of deadlines—either book club meetings or something work-related—and not giving myself enough time. Then when those deadlines passed, I set the half-finished book down in favor of something else that felt urgent. This also happened with books that I was excited to read and brought on vacation with me, but then felt that I had to return to my obligation-books when my trip was over. I’ve been trying to finish as many of these as I can before the end of the year, but I definitely want to try to avoid ending up in this situation in the future. To do that, I think I need to give myself more time to start a book ahead of book club meetings and also try to avoid spreading myself too thin. 

I’m still enjoying using the Notion app to track my reading, which I discussed in last year’s roundup. Though like nearly every piece of software these days, it’s now got a giant, intrusive “AI” button in the middle of everything, which I hate. I’m also still using StoryGraph to track my reading (you can see my full list of books read in 2025 here), and I appreciated that they’ve redesigned the review page to put the text box at the top and de-emphasize the multiple-choice questions that I found unhelpful. I want to get better at adding books to StoryGraph right away rather than building up a backlog that I have to sit down and enter all at once. It might also help to start tracking when I start a book instead of just the date that I finish, so that I can keep a better eye on what I’m in the middle of. I’m also finding that StoryGraph is harder to use when I’m reading books for work way ahead of when they come out (I count anything I read in galley form, but not books I’m editing), but I haven’t figured out a better solution than just adding those books manually. Oh, and I still haven’t finished crocheting my 2024 book snake….

I joined one new book club in 2025, despite already feeling like I’m in too many: The Read Herring Book Club, hosted by MysteryManon, as she is known on Instagram and TikTok. This book club focuses on crime fiction, both newer and classic, and was launched back in August, when we read a 1940 mystery novel, Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher, leading up to BoucherCon, an annual mystery & thriller writers conference named after this author. I’ll probably dip in and out of this book club as I try to juggle my obligation-reading and pleasure-reading next year, but it feels like a great way to get more of a foundation in a genre I work in, and to form community with other mystery readers. 

Fittingly for such a weird year, I found that my favorite reads tended to be some real weird books. One of those was the genre-defying Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell, a brilliant reimagining of the twelve labors of Hercules that turns the classic Greek myth on its head and will make you see this familiar story in a whole new light. I also really loved Monika Kim’s surreal debut horror novel, The Eyes Are the Best Part, which explores feminine rage through cannibalism. And an honorable mention for Weirdest Book I Read This Year probably goes to Spread Me by Sarah Gailey. Apart from leaning into the bizarre, I also found myself seeking comfort in a lot of cozier reads this year. That included some cozy sci-fi like Becky Chambers’s The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory, as well as cozy fantasy like Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop. These cozy stories seem to have filled the same niche as romance in my reading, since I read far fewer romance novels than in past years. Lastly, my favorite book specifically in its audio format was The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, which beautifully incorporates folk music and murder ballads

As usual, I only picked up a couple of nonfiction books this year, but they were both winners. One, I loved so much I wrote a blurb for it: America’s Most Gothic by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes. The other was a total surprise favorite that I picked up on a whim toward the end of the year: The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon. This book is an in-depth examination of a famous shipwreck that occurred in Lake Superior in 1975. It is brilliantly researched, providing all sorts of context and background leading up to the tragedy, but also takes a very human approach to the story, as it delves into the hopes, dreams, and daily lives of the twenty-nine crew members who were killed. Highly recommend picking this one up, especially if you’re not normally much of a nonfiction reader!

I also read a ton of short stories this year, and I’m toying with the idea of finding some way to track them next year. Perhaps a spreadsheet? But there’s always the challenge of not making tracking too much of a burden. If you have any suggestions, please put them in the comments! Another goal for the new year, as I mentioned, is to stop putting myself in a position where I am pausing multiple books partway through. I want to give myself more time to read my book club books and not overcommit. I think I’d also like to return to more romance and some light, fun books in between my heavier reads. And I’ll be lowering my numerical goal to 45 books, which will hopefully be more feasible.

How did you do on your reading goals? What were some of your favorite books? And what goals do you have for 2026? Let me know in the comments!