Tag: reading list

Every year I share details of the books that I have read over the past twelve months.

In 2025, I apparently read 28 books – up from 22 in 2024. I have no idea why the graph shows 28. It’s wrong.

According to Goodreads… that means a total of about 8274 pages. Up significantly from the previous few years…

The full list from 2025 is as follows:

1. Run – Blake Crouch (2011)
2. Pines – Blake Crouch (2012)
3. You’re Doing It Wrong – Michael M (2024)
4. Wayward – Blake Crouch (2013)
5. Last Town – Blake Crouch (2014)
6. Four Thousand Weeks – Oliver Burkeman (2021)
7. Careless People – Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025)
8. Adults in the Room – Yanis Varoufakis (2017)
9. Talking to My Daughter About the Economy – Yanis Varoufakis (2013)
10. May You Have Delicious Meals – Junko Takase (2022)
11. El Infierno – Pieter Tritton (2017)
12. Little Eyes – Samanta Schweblin (2020)
13. Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career – Kristi Coulter (2023)
14. Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust (2017)
15. 52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn’t Get Taught At School – James Felton (2019)
16. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold – Stephen Fry (2017)
17. Corker – Hannah Crosbie (2024)
18. We are the Nerds – Christine Lagorio-Chafkin (2018)
19. Cultish – The Language of Fanaticism – Amanda Montell (2021)
20. The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work – Simone Stolzoff (2023)
21. Anyone Can Do It: My Story – Duncan Bannatyne (2008)
22. Fluent On The First Try – Federica Lupis (2020)
23. Mania – Lionel Shriver (2024)
24. I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom – Jason Pargin (2025)
25. John Dies in the End – David Wong (2007)
26. Rumours of my Demise – Evan Dando (2025)
27. The Let Them Theory – Mel Robbins (2024)
28. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain (2000)

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This year started off with me reading and re-reading a number of Blake Crouch novels. I had recommended a list of dystopian books to a friend, and needed to refresh my memory so we could speak about them, and I also finally read through the Wayward Pines series – something I had initially put off, as I had already watched the TV show.

Things started to slow down a bit in February and March – at least in terms of completed novels – as I ended up reading a number of books simultaneously.

For more thoughts on the specific books, click through to read more.

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How are we already four months into 2025?

Every year I publish a list of the books that I’ve read throughout the last twelve months. In 2023, I read a total of 29 books, which isn’t bad… but not quite as many as I would like. The total for 2024 was a shameful 22. However, I was pretty close to the number of pages read, with a total of 7,066 in 2024, versus 7,210 in 2023.

The full list is as follows:

1. Abandon – Blake Crouch (2023)
2. The Cliff House – Chris Brookmyre (2022)
3. A Mango Shaped Space – Wendy Mass (2005)
4. Why Scots Should Rule Scotland – Alasdair Gray (1997)
5. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius – Donald J. Robertson (2019)
6. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions – Randall Monroe (2014)
7. Fluent in 3 Months – Benny Lewis (2014)
8. Three Body Problem – Liu Cixin (2006)
9. The Dark Forest – Liu Cixin (2008)
10. Death’s End – Liu Cixin (2010)
11. The Stranding – Kate Sawyer (2021)
12. The Measure – Nikki Erlick (2022)
13. The Secret DJ – The Secret DJ (2017)
14. Early Riser – Jasper Fforde (2018)
15. The Trial – Franz Kafka (1925)
16. Shades of Grey – Jasper Fforde (2009)
17. How to Find the Right Words: A guide to delivering life’s most awkward messages – The School of Life (2021)
18. Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia – Richard E. Cytowic, David Eagleman (2009)
19. The Concise Mastery – Robert Greene (2014)
20. Strong Female Character – Fern Brady (2023)
21. Smith Happens – Sammy Horner (2017)
22. Oxygen – Seth Rain (2022)

Overall, a pretty solid offering. I especially enjoyed the Three Body Problem series – something I was turned on to after watching the Netflix show, though the last book was pretty bonkers. Jasper Fforde was another great discovery, with uniquely surreal dystopian novels. I re-read The Trial by Kafka after being inspired by a trip to Prague, and devoured Scottish comedian Fern Brady’s auto-biography. This year there was a clear shift away from non-fiction or work related books, which wasn’t strictly intentional, but something I had loosely wanted to see happen.

For more thoughts on the specific books, click through to read more.

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One of my annual traditions is to compile a list of books that I have read throughout the year, excluding things like academic texts or instruction manuals and the like, because… well, I say so.

I track these using GoodReads – something that I was initially skeptical of – but which I have come to appreciate. It helps give me a gentle nudge to make sure that I am not slipping into the trap of thinking I am a big reader, when I’ve barely finished a book in months. It also highlights patterns across time, and helps me reflect a bit, which can be a good thing.

Last year (well, in 2022), I read 32 books. That was a marked improvement on the 13 I managed in 2021 – but not quite up to the 40 I got through in 2020. Interestingly enough, it was the same figure as 2019. Okay, I’ll stop now.

The total for 2023 is (drum roll, please)… 29. According to GoodReads, that comprised of 7,207 pages (down from 8,110 in 2022).

The full list is as follows:

1. Controller – Jesse Kellerman (2018)
2. The Way the World Ends – Jess Walter (2018)
3. Boca Raton – Lauren Groff (2018)
4. There’s No Place Like Home – Edan Lepucki (2018)
5. Famous – Blake Crouch (2010)
6. Retired Teenagers – John D. McGonagle (2022)
7. Good Behavior – Blake Crouch (2013)
8. Bedroom Beats and B-Sides: Instrumental Hip Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century – Lauren Fintoni (2020)
9. The Creative Act – Rick Rubin (2023)
10. Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon (2012)
11. The War of Art – Steven Pressfield (2002)
12. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin (2022)
13. Elsewhere – Gabrielle Zevin (2016)
14. Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (2019)
15. Hell Bent – Leigh Bardugo (2023)
16. Shampoo Planet – Douglas Coupland (1992)
17. Why I Killed My Best Friend – Amanda Michalopoulou (2003)
18. The Art of Noticing – Rob Walker (2019)
19. When Strangers Meet – Kio Stark (2016)
20. The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle (2018)
21. The Four Tendencies – Gretchen Rubin (2017)
22. The Art of Witty Banter – Patrick King (2020)
23. Creative Quest – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (2018)
24. Dilla Time – Dan Charnas (2023)
25. The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys – J. Fadiman (2011)
26. The Culture Playbook – Daniel Coyle (2022)
27. Entangled Life – Merlin Sheldrake (2020)
28. The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene (1998)
29. It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy – D. Michael Abrashoff (2002)

Looking back over it now, it’s interesting how many non-fiction books there are in this list. There’s a marked increase in the number of work-related entries compared to previous years, which hopefully isn’t a marker of my increasing age. It’s kind of ironic, because these are the types of entries that often take me much longer to get through. Perhaps in 2024 I will make more of a conscious effort to return to non-fiction.

The full list of books with my comments on each are after the jump.

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