2025 recap

Author: devalog

_posts/2025-12-21-recap.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "2025 reading recap"
+date: 2025-12-21
+tags: recaps books
+---
+
+I finished **72 books** this year, my highest year since I started tracking back in 2020. (And by a substantial amount––in 2024 I read 52 books and that was my highest year at the time as well), I wasn’t working Jan-June, but my reading was actually consistent the entire year (no spike for those months). I have a toddler and a slightly-more-than-half-time job, so I’m really proud I was able to carve out time for reading despite more non-negotiable obligations than I’ve ever had.
+
+Now for some stats:
+- 8 books from the 1800s. Last year it was 9. It’s usually around this amount, but less percentage-wise this year. 
+- 31 books published in the 1900s (up from 15 last year). Of those 31, 15 were published before 1950. 
+- 3 nonfiction books. That's typical for me, as I really have to gear up for a nonfiction book. I finally read *Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power* and loved it. It sat on my shelf for almost five years.
+- The oldest book I read this year was *Pride and Prejudice* (1813), a reread. Close behind that was *Ivanhoe* (1819). 
+- The newest book I read this year was *Palaver*, published in November. I read 4 other books published in 2025. 
+- 5 rereads this year
+- March, May, and November are a three-way tie for most books read in a month (8)
+- No 1-star books, three 2-star books: *Wineburg, Ohio*, *The Turmoil*, and *City of Night Birds*.
+
+25 5-star (not counting rereads). It was a good year for good books! Of those 25, the five I loved the most were:
+*Cold Comfort Farm* (1932)––girl moves in with cousins she's never met after her parents die. She proceeds to meddle in everyone's lives. Written in 1932 but set around a decade in the future, a future where there is no WWII (wild to read now). Tone and characters remind me somewhat of *I Capture the Castle*, one of my favorite books of all time (I'm due for a reread). 
+*Heart the Lover* (2025)/*Writers and Lovers* (2020)––impossible not to discuss these together. I read *Writers and Lovers* first, an excellent love triangle set in 1990s Boston. *Heart the Lover* is fascinatingly both a prequel and a sequel to *Writers and Lovers*. The titles are bad. The books are great. 
+*Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder* (2017)––I was full-on obsessed with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a kid. As an adult, I've read a lot of Western and indigenous fiction. This book pulled together those things, providing the historical and family context behind the novels. 
+
+Looking ahead to 2026. I don't like to set number goals because it makes reading less enjoyable for me. But next year I'd like to read at least a couple of books from my backlog shelf. Maybe 2026 is the year for *Comanche Empire*?