2025-12-26
I read a ton of books in 2025. For the first half of the year, I didn't have a lot going on outside of work and surfing, and I filled my time with reading. In the back half, life got way more interesting but I redoubled my efforts to squeeze in reading time on the train, at lunch, on flights, and a million other places.
In total, I read 60 books this year. I set out to read a book a week (52 total) and came in a little above. I tended to knock out a couple extra when I traveled, and skip reading when I locked in at work. I don't usually read super fast, so this was a pretty decent time commitment. I'm glad to have spent so much time reading.
I can't rank books. They affect me in different ways, all of which I value. But here are three that stood out this year that I feel comfortable recommending to basically anyone:
A memoir translated from the original Italian that recounts the author's experience living in the foothills of the Alps as a partisan rebel during the Second World War.
Somehow not a brag sesh or a trauma dump. Afternoons in the grass with the lads get way more words than gunfights. A relaxing Sunday afternoon, low-key Moomin-core document. Meneghello's prose was a pleasure to read. On top of that, the story was interesting, and it subverted a lot of my expectations of a war memoir.
A detective novel set in 1970s LA. Specifically in a hazy, nasty comedown from the 1960s. What's the mystery we're trying to solve again?
I found it darkly funny, engaging, and requiring a lot less work than Gravity's Rainbow. Still has some of that Pynchoniness that I love, but mercifully few musical numbers recounted in text. A California treat. Cadillac Desert without all the boring facts and stuff.
A Western with a bit of a critical slant set in the last days of the American frontier. An excited little fella has a big outdoor adventure that goes a little too far.
I read this when I was still in peak American West Mode. Really enjoyed Williams' descriptions of the scenery. I have no sense for whether his reproduction of the setting is faithful, but it is compelling. It might be grandiose to say this, but I relate to the story of an excited little fella on an outdoor adventure that goes a little too far. I haven't read Stoner so I can't compare it. I came back to this after reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for a book club and rolling my eyes through the whole thing. I appreciated it even more with Williams' target fresh in my mind.
Nonfiction: Death is our Business, by John Lechner. A history of the very model of a modern private military, with bonus Africa context for my rare-earth-metal-heads.
For boys: The North Water, by Ian McGuire. Cormac McCarthy goes on a whaling expedition and isn't as chudly or annoying to read.
For girls: The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. A New England college novel that gets a little spooky!
Health and Fitness: Leave Society, by Tao Lin. This will make you sicker and crazier.
For history buffs: Libra, by Don DeLillo. 100% accurate and riveting. My only DeLillo of the year but I love his driving, dark style. I feel that he's very similar to Nick Land in a spiritual sense. They're both students of the inevitable.
Quit while I'm ahead. If I don't like a book, I'm gonna try dropping and not soldiering through.
More nonfiction. I went fiction mode this year and got my nonfiction from oops podcasts.
More fun with my friends! More reading things they recommend, more recommending, more dialogue about books we read together.