2025: Year in Review (Staying In -- books read)

[tamaranth]

See them all on LibraryThing

What I read in 2025...

* 211 books, including a couple of scanned books on Internet Archive; including, this year, most rereads, but not re-skims, DNFs or audiobook 'rereads' which I have taken to as an accompaniment to gaming / housewerk / getting to sleep.
* 141 by female writers, 54 by male writers (some collaborations, not all books tagged)
* 36 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags):
* 85 fantasy, 29 SF, 54 historical (predominantly Classical Greek)
* 28 romance (majority non-het romance)
* 25 YA/children's
* 31 non-fiction


My reading challenges:
* The 'Something Bookish' Reading Challenge
* The Speculative Fiction Challenge
* The 52 in 52 Challenge
* The Non-Fiction Menu
* My own rereading challenge

Authors I read most by:
* Victoria Goddard (mostly rereads)
* Megan Whalen Turner
* Mary Renault
* Elizabeth Wein (mostly rereads)

Best five (based on my enjoyment, not their perfection):
*The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
*Pagans by James Alastair Henry
*Slow Gods by Claire North
*The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
*A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H G Parry

Last year's 'books read' post

Comments

[lobelia321]

Adapting your template in riposte (I did a full-length version on Goodreads):

* 234 books (absurd)
* 66 by men writers (28%) (a considerable increase from 2019 when I had gone off men writers completely)
* 37 rereads

My categorisations:
* 19 fantasy, 17 SF, I have nothing to counter your 54 (!) historical (I didn't count them but prob didn't read many), 14 Memoir, 24 How-tos
* 56 romance (of which most in the last 10 weeks of the year; I didn't think to count m/m, het etc but may do tomorrow!)
* 14 children's (I didn't count YAs)
* 60 non-fiction (26%)
* 10 landscape theme books: Rainforest
* 1 in Italian, 1 in French, 20 in German, 27 in translation


My reading challenges:
* The 'Something Bookish' Reading Challenge - also me
* The 52 in 52 Challenge - also me
* My own rereading challenge - also me
Plus other challenges: Diverse Reading; 12 Books of Holiday Romance; Exploring Romance; My own Diversify Your Decades
* I added 10 new countries to my reading.

Authors I read most by:
* KJ Charles (mostly rereads)
* AJ Demas (mostly rereads)
* Ursula K. Le Guin (mostly rereads)
* Lisa Henry and JA Rock (the Lords of Bucknall Club series)

Best five:
Ben Rawlence, City of Thorns
Lee Welch, Mr Collins in Love
AJ Demas, The Boy Bride
Robert Jackson Bennett, Leviathan series
Siddharth Kara, Modern Slavery

[tamaranth]

I am dead impressed by your NF total -- mine was a mere 15%.
I want to reread less this year :) and get through more of the cellar.
Suspect quite a few of your romances were also historical...

[lobelia321]

They absolutely were. I may go back and parse!

[juushika]

I consistently read and appreciate your reviews. Our tastes don't always overlap (you can be a much more generous reader than I am, which I admire!), but your reviews frequently contribute to my TBR. Thank you for putting them into the world, and I look forward to reading you in 2026!

[tamaranth]

Thank you! It's pleasing to know that my reviews are bringing things to your attention, even if we don't agree on the merits of the works! I also read your reviews with interest and yes, occasionally my TBR grows as a result :)