"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, December 27, 2025

2025 Survey of Books




My Head Is Full of Books: 

The 2025 End-of-Year Survey of Books


 


  • Number of books read and completed:  162
  • Number of re-reads: 4
  • Genre you read the most: Literary fiction, 49
  • Number of books started but not finished: 1
  • Number of YA books: 13
  • Number of poetry books: 21
  • Number of memoirs, biographies, and nonfiction books, including children's:  38
  • Number of graphic or illustrated books read, not children's: 16


(Hyperlinks provided if you want to read more about specific books.)

 1. Best books read in 2025:

·  Fiction: Antidote by Karen Russell

2. Book(s) I thought I'd love, but didn’t:

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book: 

·  Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Mayhem in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Good)


4. Book(s) I "pushed" many people to read:

5.  Best series--

  • Starter: How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon #1)
  • Sequel: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Amgash #3)
  • Ender: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games #5) [Pending]

6. Favorite new author I discovered in 2025:

  •  Patrick Radden Keefe

7. Best book from a genre/type I don't usually read:

·  Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones -- Horror


8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year:

9. Favorite book club selection(s) based on the discussion(s):

10. Favorite book cover: 

11. Most memorable characters of the year:

12. Most thought-provoking/ life-changing books of the year:

13. Most beautifully written book read in the year:

14. Book I've never read UNTIL 2025:

15. Shortest and longest book read in 2025, not counting children's books:

16. Favorite passage(s) or quote(s):

  • “You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.”
    ― Lily King, Heart the Lover
  • “It is a strange miracle to be able to trace your own aging, your own mortality through someone who's living alongside you, someone who has survived eras at the same time as you have in some of the same places.”
    ― Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
  • "The Golden Rule of Dragon Training is to ... YELL AT IT! (The louder the better,)"  --- Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon
17. Book which shocked me the most:

18. Best audiobooks of the year:

19. Favorite novella/short book:

·   A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean


20. Favorite book by an author I’ve previously read

21. Best book I read this past year based SOLELY on a recommendation or peer pressure:

·  Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

    22. Favorite classic book read during the year:

    23. Best 2025 debut: 

    24. Best world-building/Most vivid setting I read this year:

    25. Book which put a smile on my face/was FUN to read:

    · How to Read a Book by Monica Wood


    26. Books which made me cry:

    27. Hidden Gem of the Year? There are several:  

    28. Anything odd about this year's reading list:

    · I read 22 memoirs. The most ever.

    29. Most unique book(s):    

    30. Book which made me angry (due to the topic):

    ·   One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad


    31. Favorite short story collection -- 

    32. Favorite re-read of 2025: 

          


    33. My year in books at Goodreads.     A visual of all the books I read this year and a few stats. 




    1. Favorite Book Club selections of 2025.

    2. Best Audiobooks consumed in 2025. (Pending)

    3. Best Nonfiction of 2025 (Pending)

    4. Favorite novels (fiction) read this year:
    Antidote by Karen Russell
    Heart the Lover by Lily King
    Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
    Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
    The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
    Sandwich by Catherine Newman
    The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
    How to Not Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
    A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean


      

     


    1. Favorite reviews written in 2025

    2. Most popular reviews of the year based on stats:

    • Sandwich by Catherine Newman -- 4671 page views, 6 comments
    • The Wedding People by Alison Espach -- 3670 page views, 11 comments
    • Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar -- 2656 page views, 17 comments
    • The Names by Florence Knapp -- 2063 page views, 13 comments

    3. Best discussion/non-review post:   

    4. Best bookish event that you participated in?

    · Our community got three new bookstores after over a ten year hiatus. We lived in a book desert and now we can drink up books again!


    5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2025

    •  Participating in "Paris in July" Challenge. I had so much fun implementing French-related events in to my life, including making Coq au Vin (delicious) and watching the Tour de France several days. Check out everything I did for this challenge here and here.

    6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

    • Staying up for blogging. Blogging takes time and effort, and it is hard to keep going when I get few page views and even fewer comments. But I have joined some supportive on-line communities and the other book bloggers I’ve “met” keep me going.

    7. Most meaningful posts for me:

    8. Posts I wish got a bit more love:

    • Banned Books Week. Are You Ready? October 1, 2025 -- Every year I make a post like this, encouraging my readers to read banned books and support efforts to maintain our freedom to read/ stop book banning. This post had only 105 page views, and 3 comments.
    9. Favorite photo used on a blog post this year:

    My grandsons at church camp, playing with fire and making s'mores. Sunday Salon -- Family, Football, and Fun. September 28, 2025




      1. Bookish goals for 2026

      • Read a minimum of 100 books.
      • Write reviews for all book club selections.
      • Complete "My One Book" challenge: Moby-Dick
      • Read two of the five National Book Award winners. (Announced in November)
      • Read the Pulitzer Prize 2026 winner for literature (announced in March or April) plus read two past winners or finalists. 
      • Read the Booker Award winner or a finalist.
      • Read two Women's Prize winners or finalists (announced in April)
      • Read at least five classic books from my list. (See list here.)
      2. Books I didn’t get to in 2025 are now top priorities in 2026:
      • So Far Gone by Jess Walter
      • Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
      • Replaceable You by Mary Roach
      • Wreck by Catherine Newman
      • Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
      • The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

             

      3.  How did I do on my reading challenges or goals for 2025?

      • Read 100 books this year. ✔ (160+ books)
      • My Own Personal ‘National Book Award’ Challenge to read two of the five winners or finalists each year. ✔
      • Read the Pulitzer Prize winner and past winners:   ✔
      • Completed all books I listed as books I wanted to read in 2025: ✔- 
      • Read 5+ Classics ✔
      • Big Book Summer Challenge. Six completed ✔ 
      • I completed my 2025 'One Big Book' Challenge:  Brothers Karamazov ✔
      • Read 4+ novellas for Novellas in November: ✔


      -Gratefully turning the page on 2025.

       

      -Anne



      -Anne
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