I’m a reader, but I’m not in the habit of systematically recording what I read. In 2025, thought it might be neat to keep a record so that I could carry out a year-in-review type reflection. So I did, and here are some of the things I learned about the 30 books I read in 2025:
Page Count Stats:
- Average: 335 pages
- Shortest: 138 pages
- Longest: 496 pages
- Total: 10,064 pages
Longest Books
- Empire of AI – 496 pages
- A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – 441 pages
- My Favorite Thing is Monsters – 416 pages
Shortest Books
- This is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered on a Significant Occasion About Living a Compassionate Life – 138 pages
- Persepolis – 160 pages
- Solaris – 204 pages
Most Common Genres:
- Fiction – 20 books
- Science Fiction – 13 books
- Thriller – 9 books
- Humor – 7 books
- Nonfiction – 7 books
A single book can have multiple genres. There were quite a few sci-fi and humor combinations on this year’s reading list.
Most Common Themes:
- Power – 16 books
- Community – 9 books
- Corruption – 8 books
- Courage – 8 books
- Relationships – 7 books
A single book can also have multiple themes. I thought it might be interesting to see which ones appeared together in the same book. The most common themes that appeared together were:
- Corruption and Power – in 8 books
- Community and Relationships – in 6 books
- Power and Technology – in 6 books
- Class Warfare and Power – in 5 books
- Corruption and Technology – in 5 books
The reading method (style?) is also worth mentioning. I read 22 books by myself, but I read 8 books with family. We read aloud, asked questions, discussed characters and plot points, and talked about the ways stories mapped onto real life experiences. It was fun reading this way.
There are so many details that can’t be captured in a review like this, such as: text that made me laugh out loud, passages that gave me goosebumps, quotes I felt compelled to write down, etc. These books also give me new frames for thinking about the world and my experience in it, and thus serve as a crucial input into the way I think and act.
In 2026, I’m going to more intentional about reflecting on each book, capturing my motivation/interest to read, and making connections between my reading list and other things going on in the world (headlines, for example). I’m also taking the opportunity to consider what “good” looks like in terms of annual reading.
A trap I want to avoid falling into is the one that defines good as an increase [in the number of books, the page count, etc.] from one year to the next. It’s an easy trap to fall into when the descriptive statistics index on those kinds of things. If I read fewer books in 2026, how will I feel about it? If I only read 10 books this year, would that make it a failed reading-year? For now these are open questions. Maybe I’ll have some answers in 2027.
Until then, here’s the full 2025 reading list in chronological order: