2025: A Year in books

 

Hello, Readers! Happy New Year's Eve! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday. I don't do things on NYE, so I figured I'd go ahead and be a good little blogger and write up my end-of-year post. The picture of the cats is from a few weeks ago. Aren't they adorable?

I have some good news today: my final paper has been passed! So I am officially done with degree #4 and now hold an MBA. I'm hoping that means that things will calm down a bit and I can get back to reading as well as writing. I really want to start sharing the little fictional worlds I've created with the public. We'll see if 2026 is the year I finally stop talking about it and actually do it. Anyway, that's all for future me to talk about. 

Because life got so crazy this past year, I was really lax on posting reviews of books. I tried, but I just couldn't bring myself to commit to it. I'll try to give some thoughts on books in this post, if I remember any details about what I read. As I predicted, most of my books were audiobooks. It was a lot easier to listen to a book than find the time to sit down and read it. I ended up reading 33* books this year, and a significant portion of those were LITRPG. A lot of Wandering Inn, He Who Fights With Monsters, and a dash of Beware of Chicken. 

I always find it fascinating to write these end-of-year posts, as I tend to forget most of the books I've read throughout the year. I'm giving my read number a * this year because Goodreads says 33, StoryGraph says 31, and my own records indicate 29. I'm pretty sure the discrepancy is due to He Who Fights Monsters, as I've burned through half the series this year. Anyway, I was looking at my list, and I completely forgot I reread Scythe. I am going to do this Tier by Tier for my own sanity, which is probably terrible for yours. Sorry. The books I read will be blue; the ones I bothered to do posts about are hyperlinked. 

Level 1: Book of the Month Club

1 Read a book you got for free - Dune by Frank Herbert

2 Read a book that is under 350 pages- The Rule of Three by Sam Ripley

3 Read or reread a book you consider to be an 'easy read' - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

4 Read a book with a green cover

5 Read a cozy mystery

6 Read a book that was recommended to you on social media/by a friend- Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

7 Read a book with a person's name in the title - Pushing Daisy by Scott Baron

8 Read a book that takes place in the future- Daisy's War by Scott Baron

9 Read a book published in 2020 (5 years ago)

10 A book suggested by https://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

11 Read a book by Jules Verne

12 Free Space! Pick any book - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet- Becky Chambers

Tier one thoughts: I watched the Dune movies before reading the book, and I'll be honest, I lost interest in the latter part of the book. I have no clue if I'll ever finish the series. If I do, it'll probably be because of peer pressure. I really liked The Clockwork Chimera series by Scott Baron. It was my first real dive into that type of Science Fiction. Similarly, really enjoyed Becky Chaber's Sci-Fi series. Mistborn has been on my brain a lot lately, so I'll probably dive back into that series this year.

Level 2: Casual Reader Club

13 Read a book listed on The Greatest Books of All Time List https://thegreatestbooks.org The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri 

14 Read the book that's been on your TBR the longest- The Lines We Leave Behind by Eliza Graham

15 Read a Young Adult novel

16 Read a book with a three-word title- Garden of Sanctuary by Pirateaba

17 Read a book with a cantankerous main character- Monster by A. Lee Martinez

18 Read a book that has books on the cover

19 Read a book by an author who shares your initials- Mother Rome by Lauren J.A. Bear

20 Read a Standalone Novel

21 Read a book involving a detective or police officer

22 Read a self-published book

23 Read a book that takes place somewhere warm - He Who Fights with Monsters Book 1 by Shirtaloon

24 Free Space! Pick any book Grave Song by Pirateaba

Tier Two thoughts: I think with The Divine Comedy, I only read Dante's Inferno. I'm really glad it was a short audiobook because, wow, do I have a hard time with "classics". I remember nothing about The Lines We Leave Behind, other than it was on my Kindle for a long time. If you'd like to learn my thoughts on that one, I actually wrote a review about it. I enjoyed Monster by A. Lee Martinez quite a bit, but I have yet to meet a book of his that I haven't enjoyed. Mother Rome was beautiful, and you can read my thoughts about it in that post. And given I'm on a LITRPG kick, I burned through He Who Fights With Monsters 1-6. I also just about drop what I'm reading when a new Pirateaba book comes out. I'm currently listening to Book 17. Lady of Fire? I think is the title.

Level 3: Dedicated Reader Club

25 Read book 1 in a trilogy

26 Read book 2 in the same trilogy

27 Read book 3 in the same trilogy

28 Read a book you meant to read on last year's challenge - Scyth by Neal Shusterman (Meant to use for a reread prompt)

29 Read a book by an author named Joe/Joseph/Josephine or a variant

30 Read a romance novel - A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

31 A book that you judged by its cover (either positively or negatively)

32 Read a book set in a country you've been to

33 Read a book with a title that starts with the letter "N." -Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

34 Read a book that has a war or battle in it - Daisy's Gambit by Scott Baron

35 A book from Publisher's Weekly's Best Books of 2024 https://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2024

36 Free Space! Pick any book -He Who Fights With Monsters 3

Tier Three Thoughts: I had intended to use the Hades X Persephone series for the trilogy, but I believe it now consists of more books. I don't know. I live under a rock most of the time. I enjoyed it and will probably read more of the books. Before the interwebs freaks out at me, I read Norse Mythology before I knew about Neil Gaiman's controversies. It's also the only one of his books I've read and actually liked.

Level 4: Speed Reader Club

37 A book with the word "song" in the title - Huntsong by Pirateaba

38 The Great Taylor Swift Category - read a book about Taylor Swift *or* a book with the same title as one of her songs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_by_Taylor_Swift

39 Read a book by an author you've met or spoken to online - Pawn's Gambit by Darin Kennedy

40 Read a book with an animal in the title - Beware of Chicken by CasualFarmer

41 Read a book written from the villain/antagonist's perspective - The Asylum Confessions: Patient 974 by Jack Steen

42 Read a reluctant hero story - He Who Fights With Monsters 6 by Shirtaloon

43 Read a book by an author using a pseudonym - The House Witch 2 - Delemhach

44 Read a book that references a TV show or movie - Daisy's Run by Scott Baron

45 Read a book that involves a game (board, card, video game) - King of Duels by Pirateaba

46 Read a Fantasy novel - Blood & Steel, by Helen Scheuerer

47 Read a book with a secret society trope

48 Free Space! Pick any book - A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Tier Four Thoughts: Pawn's Gambit was a really interesting concept, and that's without me knowing anything about Chess. Also, Darin is just a genuinely awesome person. I met him at JordanCon a few years ago, and he asked me to show off his second book in the Trilogy Queen's Peril when I was dressed up as the Evil Queen. So we ended up talking a bit for the weekend. I actually had really wanted to get a lot of the amazing folks from JordanCon on the Challenge this year, but alas. I did not.

Level 5: Overachiever Club

49 Read a book that is over 500 pages long

50 Read a book published in 1985 (40 years ago)

51 Read a book that has the word "begin" or the word "end" in the title

52 Read a book with a mask on the cover

53 Read a book by Lawrence Block (or one of his pseudonyms) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Block_bibliography

54 Read a book with a title that contains the letter "X."

55 Read a book that involves amnesia or memory manipulation- Chasing Daisy by Scott Baron

56 Read a cursed object story

57 Read a book by an author named Pat/Patrick/Patricia or a variant

58 A book that takes place in a school setting

59 Read a book with a bear on the cover

60 Free Space! Pick any book - He Who Fights with Monsters 2 by Shirtaloon

Tier Five Thoughts: *Cricket Noises* 

So yeah. That was what I read in 2025. We've released the 2026 challenge, so feel free to check it out here. I love receiving comments on my posts, and please let me know which prompts you've enjoyed the most. I'm really hoping that for the 10-year anniversary of the challenge, we can create a fan favorite list.