Books read in 2025
- More, More and More by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz
- Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
- Shogun by James Clavell ⭐
- Las Indignas by Agustina Bazterrica
- Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker
- Deep Response by Tyler J. Disney
- Your Money Your Life by Vicki Robin
- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Ciencia Ficción Capitalista by Michel Nieva
- Less by Patrick Grant
- 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. J. Parker ⭐
- The Death of Grass by John Cristopher ⭐
- Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- Las Malas by Camila Sosa Villada
- Mugre Rosa by Fernanda Trias
- Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod ⭐
- Invention and Innovation by Vaclav Smil
- Inconmensurable by James Vincent
- Exactly by Simon Winchester ⭐
- La Guerra de las Plataformas by Carlos A. Scolari
- The Running Man by Stephen King
- The List of 7 by Mark Frost ⭐
- The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas ⭐
- I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
I'm probably missing one or two. Overall I'd say it was a pretty good year of reading, I feel like I reestablished the habit to the level I want (reading for at least half an hour every day). In terms of quality it was a bit hit and miss, I read some really great books (Shogun, Montecristo, Exactly) and some the were a bit meh, I could have abandoned them pretty early on. My main takeaway from the year is that I discovered some new genres and authors I really loved:
- Turns out I love chunky historical fiction. Shogun and Montecristo were both 1000+ pages and I absolutely loved every one of them. I think I'm really drawn to really vivid world building, nautical stuff (this makes sense, I grew up with pirate novels, shout out Emilio Salgari) and a bit of swashbuckling. Bonus points if the book contains technical descriptions (that's why I also love hard science fiction (Project Hail Mary was a bit meh)). Although it's not technically historical, 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City is the perfect example of this, it had great descriptions of siegecraft and catapult mechanics. It felt kind of like a medieval The Martian.
- A bit late to the party, but Alexandre Dumas is a fantastic writer, I already have The Three Musketeers queued up for next year.
- Craig Mod's Things Become Other Things reignited my love for travel books and pilgrimages. I love reading about just a dude walking in nature. I got given 7 Years in Tibet for Christmas, will read that soon. I also have somewhere The Snow Leopard and a Rebecca Solnit book on walking I should read.
- Simon Winchester's Exactly was my favourite non-fiction book of the year. It was so interesting and written with such passion for the topic that it really made me want to read more by him. My wife gifted me Land by him for Christmas, will get on it soon.
- I didn't expect to like Mark Frost's The List of 7 as much as I did. Arthur Conan Doyle investigating paranormal activity in Victorian London? Give me more! It also works as a Sherlock Holmes origin story and it has some pretty crazy cameos (that ending! chills!).