Reflecting on 2025’s Favourite Reads (Which Turned Out to Be One Very Long One)

It’s perhaps no surprise by now that I love books and reading. Prime reading time for me is before bed, but occasionally I get a few extra hours in over the weekend, when I am stuck on trains or when I’m in at the hairdressers. There’s nothing like reading a casual Stephen King horror while sitting in the salon. The point is: I usually get through a couple of books a month without trying very hard.

In fact, already this year (2026) I’ve got a Jack Reacher novel, a Tess Gerritsen and a Richard Montanari novel under my belt with another one half finished. You get the idea, getting through books, not normally an issue. 2025 however, was a totally different year for reading.

And that gets us to this point in time. The point when I thought, wouldn’t it be lovely to reflect on my favourite reads from 2025. It would, wouldn’t it? Except for two things: first, I didn’t think about this before, so I can’t actually remember everything I read. A couple I can remember, Mindhunter of course was a firm favourite. Written in Blood by Chris Carter was another. I almost finished The Handmaid’s Tale. Almost. Why, because it was so riveting I took this one into the bath to carry on reading, promptly dropped in, and then had to spend two weeks drying the whole thing out, by which time I’d moved on.

A year of reading, mostly spent in Middle-earth.

And this is where the momentum of book consumption slowed down. After reading the trilogy many years ago as a teenager, and repeatedly reading The Hobbit in between then and now, I finally decided to reread J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). I can’t even claim the incremental gains of reading them as separate books either. The edition I have, and love, is the three novels in a single volume. It’s a doorstop of a book. So thick it wouldn’t be a bad thing to pick up in self-defence.

I started this undertaking just before we headed off to Dronfield to stay in Oak Tree Pod for five days. I packed the book, and I read for over an hour most days. It’s since been to several hair appointments, a few sleepovers at friend’s houses and a holiday to Switzerland. Importantly no bath trips though. And finally, and happily, I completed the journey with Frodo and Sam in November 2025. Seven months later!

What I will say though, is that there’s something different about living with a book for seven months. It stops being the-thing-you’re-reading-right-now and becomes a place you return to. The characters start to feel like old acquaintances. The places become familiar haunts. Reading moves beyond being a thing to do, the book becomes a place to go.

Admittedly I didn’t read it every day. I read other books concurrently. That being said, I didn’t think “a little” Lord of The Rings would dominate my literary year. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Time and cinema have not changed my love of the story. And film will never replace reading in my life regardless. More than anything, though, 2025 became a rediscovery of the value of rereading. Just as travel can soon become an exercise in bucket list ticking, so too can reading become an endeavour in ticking off titles. 

Rereading is a joy, not just a small one.

In a world that celebrates reading goals and annual book counts, there’s something quietly rebellious about reading slowly. For me, the first read is motivated by discovery. A drive to meet the characters, see what happens and arrive at the conclusion. The second read is about deepening the relationship. Uncovering subtleties, recognising nuance and unwrapping deeper layers of meaning. The third read is a revisit to old friends. Familiar, comforting and wholly enjoyable. The undeniable peace that comes from knowing, in every sense.

The only things I’d do differently, after reflecting on my year of reading in 2025, are: first get through more of my book backlog before taking on LOTR again, and two, stop buying more books to read whilst reading it. My flat is bursting at the seams with fact and fiction I still need to get through.

On the plus side, being in a state of tsundoku is a state I’m happiest in.