Wow, what a bumper year 2025 was! I thought reading thirty-one books in 2024 was big but this year I smashed it by 10! I mean I still bought more books than I read but that is par for the course I think. I can’t be the only one with a TBR pile big enough to choke Unicron (for you young people he is a giant planet eating robot from the OG Transformers show).
I must be getting soft in my old age because this year I had eight books which scored a perfect 5/5, including three graphic novels, two non-fiction books, two fantasy and one sci-fi. Let’s look at the runners and riders:
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Son of a Silverback by Russell Kane
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A Bit of a Stretch: The Diareis of a Prisoner by Chris Atkins
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What Doesn’t Break by Cassandra Khaw
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Dragman by Steven Appleby
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Trashed: A Graphic Novel by Derf Backderf
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Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town by Li Chen
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Reflections on the Anniversary of my Descent by Kell Shaw
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All Systems Red by Martha Wells
And the winner is… *drum roll*
Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town by Li Chen
I bought the first oof these books for my little girl, but read it before I gave it to her and really enjoyed it (5/5). She really liked it too btw…
Anyway, when she said she wanted the second one I was made up that I’d have a chance to buy it. Buy it I did and it had me in stitches from start to finish. So much so that when my daughter finished it I… took it back and put it in my office so it didn’t get wrecked. Am I a bad father?
Maybe.
But it is a brilliant book.
Aaaaaaand… that’s a wrap for another year. I’m not expecting to his 41 books in 2026 but I’m sure there will be some good ones to talk about next year regardless. Until thenHere’s to discovering what 2025 has to offer and, hopefully, reading more new books and not just plugging away at my favourite authors’ back catalogues.