Alright, let's do it. Last day of the year!
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| 2025: In Books |
Last year was a little tough. Lots of life stuff. This year, despite everything, I somehow managed to do way better in terms of reading. I think having a regular pattern helps, making sure I prioritised reading helped, but also I read some really fucken cool stuff this year. I experimented with Scandi-noir, I read some things I'd been meaning to read for years, yeah. Good things.
Rules
Only physical books count - the rare audiobook or ebook do not - and neither do graphic novels, nor any re-reads. A 'book' is defined as the thing between two covers - so an omnibus of three novels and two short stories still only counts as one book.
I think that for 2026, I'll drop the graphic novels not counting part. Not counting them means that I have a small but growing unread pile - and they take about as long to read as a short novella anyway, and those count.
For the past couple years, I read in a pattern:
- No more than 1-in-5 books can be a franchise tie-in novel.
- At least 1-in-5 books must be authored, co-authored or edited (for anthologies) by a woman.
- At least 1-in-5 books must be in translation.
This results in a cycle of Woman-Translation-Franchise-Free Square-Free Square. It's fun to have a pattern - and ensured I read at least 20% of female authors, something that's challenging when you read books with dragons on the cover - but this year, I did something a little different.
Because January 2025 had accidentally had a theme of 'women and books in translation', I decided that each month would have a theme, mostly with really stupid and painful pun titles. I'm going to put each month below the cut, if you want details.
2025 Results
Everyone loves an analysis. How did we do in 2025? Did dropping the cycle rule make a difference?
Total: 83 books (up from 35 in 2024)Women: 34 books - 41% (up from 37% in 2024) [+1 NB]In-Translation: 25 books - 30% (up from 20% in 2024)Tie-in: 6 books - 7% (down from 20% in 2024)Works in translation: 1 Arabic; 1 Danish; 3 French; 1 Old French; 1 German; 1 Greek; 1 Hungarian; 4 Icelandic; 6 Japanese; 1 Russian; 1 Serbo-Croatian; 1 Sumerian; 1 Swedish; 1 Yoruba; and 1 anthology with various languages of Africa.
So... pretty good. I read more women, I read more translated works (although having a 'noir' month combined with 'get into Scandinoir' made that pretty easy), and I read fewer Warhammers. An excellent result.
Unfortunately, my shelves are now groaning with unread books that either didn't fit into their monthly categories or otherwise have been deprioritised, so I have a feeling that for 2026 I may drop the rules... we'll see...
Okay, who wants to see some truly stupid monthly themes?
Accidental January
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| January - Women and in-translation |
I realised at almost the end of January that I'd read entirely women, books in translation, or both. This made me decide to drop my usual rules entirely and focus instead on themes. I intended to start with Black History Month for February (i.e. African and diaspora authors or works on that theme) - and then got so excited that I finished Medieval Africa before the end of January. Oops.
Standout: The Employees, Olga Ravn. (though Weil is amazing, of course)
Black February
It's Black History Month in the United States and that's as good a theme as any, so let's do it. This also let me finally get around to ready Half of a Yellow Sun, Open City, and Brown Girl in the Ring, all books I'd had for years and years.
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| February - African and diaspora works |
It's Black History Month in the United States and that's as good a theme as any, so let's do it. This also let me finally get around to ready Half of a Yellow Sun, Open City, and Brown Girl in the Ring, all books I'd had for years and years.
Standout: Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter's Saga, DO Fagunwa et al.
Lenten March
Every year, I do a Lenten fast. This year, I finally added 'reading religious texts' to the Lenten period. Because I'm not actually Catholic, this was mostly an excuse to finish Greene's Catholic novels and finally get around to Kazantzakis - which -- fuck me sideways, what a fucking novel holy fucking shit.
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| March - religious books for Lent |
Every year, I do a Lenten fast. This year, I finally added 'reading religious texts' to the Lenten period. Because I'm not actually Catholic, this was mostly an excuse to finish Greene's Catholic novels and finally get around to Kazantzakis - which -- fuck me sideways, what a fucking novel holy fucking shit.
Standout: The Last Temptation, Nikos Kazantzakis.
Arthurian April
April is Arthur's birth month, so I'm reading Arthurian literature in his honour. I didn't quite finish a collection of Chrétien de Troyes's romances, so this list wound up a little thin. And yeah, can you believe I had never read TH White? Here's my secret: I haven't actually read much Arthuriana!
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| April - Arthuriana for Arthur's birth month! |
April is Arthur's birth month, so I'm reading Arthurian literature in his honour. I didn't quite finish a collection of Chrétien de Troyes's romances, so this list wound up a little thin. And yeah, can you believe I had never read TH White? Here's my secret: I haven't actually read much Arthuriana!
Standout: The Once and Future King, TH White.
More Like Guy Gavriel May amirite?
I have this insane half-memory from when I was an early teen of a novel. It had a scene where someone woke up and couldn't move their limbs, they were so tired - just told their arm to move and it didn't. It had a scene where a woman (a queen?) drank and drank but her willpower was so iron-hard that she didn't get drunk. I think it had a map with a coastline, and invaders from the north? And it was about resistance, maybe?
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| May - Guy Gavriel May right right |
I have this insane half-memory from when I was an early teen of a novel. It had a scene where someone woke up and couldn't move their limbs, they were so tired - just told their arm to move and it didn't. It had a scene where a woman (a queen?) drank and drank but her willpower was so iron-hard that she didn't get drunk. I think it had a map with a coastline, and invaders from the north? And it was about resistance, maybe?
I also have the feeling that it's a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, so I keep buying them and then, because they're so big and fat, I never get around to reading them to check. So, finally, this year I read these two.
It wasn't either of them. But a very excellent time was had. You can really tell he served as an apprentice to Christopher Tolkien (complimentary).
PS if you know the book I mean please please please tell me
Standout: Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay.
Djune
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| June - like, djune because it's desert books right do you get it |
I have had Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange for like a decade? I think. I got it when that lovely hardcover edition was brand new. I had to buy myself a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but I'd also been wanting to read that for years.
Very technically, I finished Pillars on 1 July, but if you won't tell then neither will I.
Standout: Can't decide. Draw.
Pulp July
Gotta have a fun easy month, and I do have (probably literal) tons of pulpy SF books across all periods and subgenres in my unread pile. I didn't want to continue reading the Vance series I'm partway through (talk about disappointingly overrated), so I finally picked up Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser - and damn fuck yes hell yeah. Brackett, too. What a fun month.
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| Pulp July - SF/F of any kind |
Gotta have a fun easy month, and I do have (probably literal) tons of pulpy SF books across all periods and subgenres in my unread pile. I didn't want to continue reading the Vance series I'm partway through (talk about disappointingly overrated), so I finally picked up Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser - and damn fuck yes hell yeah. Brackett, too. What a fun month.
Standout: The First Book of Lankhmar, Fritz Leiber.
Y-august-slavia
I have been getting into reading about Yugoslavian history and the theory of Titoism lately because I'm a very weird nerd, so I wanted a chance to knuckle down and focus on some books. I then very accidentally finished some books intended for Femmetember early - you know when you pick up a book expecting it to take several days and finish it in a few nights? Twice?
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| August... Yugoslavia - shut up, you're laboured |
I have been getting into reading about Yugoslavian history and the theory of Titoism lately because I'm a very weird nerd, so I wanted a chance to knuckle down and focus on some books. I then very accidentally finished some books intended for Femmetember early - you know when you pick up a book expecting it to take several days and finish it in a few nights? Twice?
Standout: The Bridge on the Drina, Ivo Andrić (although this is another hard one)
Femmetember
An easier title, yeah. Books by women. I also had a bunch of horror by women ready to go for October, in case I finished early - which I did. I'd been looking forward to Floating Coast since reading some smaller pieces and listening to some podcasts by/guest-starring Demuth in late 2024, and that was worth the wait. I also loved Black Flame and CJ Cherryh is always a treat (that's why I am reading so much of her!) but...
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| September - yeah okay this one makes more sense right |
An easier title, yeah. Books by women. I also had a bunch of horror by women ready to go for October, in case I finished early - which I did. I'd been looking forward to Floating Coast since reading some smaller pieces and listening to some podcasts by/guest-starring Demuth in late 2024, and that was worth the wait. I also loved Black Flame and CJ Cherryh is always a treat (that's why I am reading so much of her!) but...
Standout: Chernobyl Prayer, Svetlana Alexievich
Halloween
Hell yeah fuck yeah. This was a great month, everything excellent as hell. My partners both read the Uketsu books and got me to buy 'em at the same time; Spores of Doom had "Fall of the House of Usher", so I could read that alongside Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead (see above); The Only Good Indians is as good as everyone says it is. I love Peter Fehervari, so I finally got to read the handful of novels/short stories in The Dark Coil: Damnation that I hadn't read before. (Anthologies like this - I just read the 'new' bits and count the whole book.)
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| October's gotta be the horror month |
Hell yeah fuck yeah. This was a great month, everything excellent as hell. My partners both read the Uketsu books and got me to buy 'em at the same time; Spores of Doom had "Fall of the House of Usher", so I could read that alongside Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead (see above); The Only Good Indians is as good as everyone says it is. I love Peter Fehervari, so I finally got to read the handful of novels/short stories in The Dark Coil: Damnation that I hadn't read before. (Anthologies like this - I just read the 'new' bits and count the whole book.)
A fucking great month. I recommend everything here, although The Undesired and the two Strange books turned out not to be as horror as expected, and are closer to dark crime. Still great, though.
Standout: Old Soul, Susan Barker. (I wouldn't shut up about this for a week afterward)
Noirvember
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| Noirvember is barely even a play on words for November |
September through November got me on a roll, although a big factor here is that I hurt my back (doing nothing, of course) and couldn't paint, so I suddenly had a bit more free time. Another incredible month, with even the fairly ordinary The Village of Eight Graves being fun and light.
I've been Scandinoir curious for a while, and specifically picked up a few to try at the Lifeline Book Fairs during the year, so that's fun. I'm also working through the Smiley novels (and this one was really fun), but the standout was The Riddle of the Sands. I picked this up out of a sense of historical curiosity, but it's a genuinely riveting read, with a protagonist who noticeably improves through the course of the narrative. Plus, who doesn't love a book where the author goes on about his weirdo hobby?
Standout: The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers. (look him up on wikipedia btw...)
Leftovers December
December was intended to be the 'catch-up' month, where I read anything I didn't get to in the other eleven months of the year. Except, as you can see at the top of the Noirvember pile, I did that in like the last two days of Noirvember. Now, to be fair, I had been poking at The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes throughout November, reading a romance in between full books, but it still caught me by surprise. Now what was I going to for December?
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| December: The Other Month |
December was intended to be the 'catch-up' month, where I read anything I didn't get to in the other eleven months of the year. Except, as you can see at the top of the Noirvember pile, I did that in like the last two days of Noirvember. Now, to be fair, I had been poking at The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes throughout November, reading a romance in between full books, but it still caught me by surprise. Now what was I going to for December?
Well, while my reading plans have always been to try and eliminate the frankly mountains of unread books in my house, this year I... um... bought a lot of these. Mostly not even second-hand, which is worse. So for December, I decided I would try and read through anything purchased (or given to me!) in 2025. I have quite a few that I didn't get to (also I have bought several more this month, I am weak), and as a chunk of them were published this year, that may well be January 2026's theme. If I keep the themes. Oh, I don't know.
Anyway, these were all lots of fun. Very hard to pick a stand-out, especially as they're all very different kinds of things.
Standout: I was Dora Suarez, Derek Raymond.
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| bedside table shelf - a tiny fragment of unread books... |
Who knows what next year holds. I've sketched out some ideas for Just Published January, Black History February, Lenten March, Arthurian April, and Guy Gavriel May -- but I don't know, I have so many to read. Maybe I'll just go hog wild? I do have half a shelf of tie-in literature... maybe I should glut myself on Warhammer and Battletech novels until I make myself sick...
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