Read 35 Books in 2025

Read 35 Books in the year 2025

It was only a matter of time before I impulsively went into the B&N off Union Sq and got Woody Allen's debut novel. This was a quick and enjoyable read and helped bail me out of a reading slump (precipitated by Henry Paulson's memoir -___-). I love Woody and hope we get to read more novels from him

Finished Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Short lil novella about Vampirism and all that sort of stuff. Got it from the NYPL. I'm a sucker for stories set in the deep forest of eastern europe (altho this one was set in Austria)

Drier than the term sheet of an asset backed commercial paper issuance, this memoir by former secretary of the treasury Henry Paulson was an exercise in discipline. Goggins would be proud. I used to work in the securities division at an investment bank and will always have a fondness for and interest in high finance. Henry Paulson is a unique character being the former head of Goldman Sachs and a Christian Scientist. Picked up some details about the crisis that I didn't know about before but overall I'm going to stay away from memoirs written by former government officials. I will eventually read Lloyd Blankfein's new memoir that's coming out though

I read Louis C.K.'s debut novel as my 35th book of the year. There were some ups and downs. It reminded me of the executioners song and terrence Malik's days of heaven. If I had read any Steinbeck I'd probably just say it reminded me of Steinbeck. I liked the parts about the kid learning engine repair. It felt like he was leveling up a skill in Fallout New Vegas or something. This was an odd book. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what his second novel will be which apparently he's already finished writing. I want him to go weirder and darker. Maybe write a book in a medieval setting, add some absurdist humor, slow it down a bit, use complex vocabulary, drop insane references that I'd have to search up, have characters lose their minds, etc. Overall I enjoyed it and am glad I read it.

I read Hamlet twice: 1st reading was to experience the play as it is written. The 2nd was a deeper reading with all introductions, footnotes, and appendices in the Arden Shakespeare edition (600+ pages). Hamlet is obviously a masterpiece and I'm very happy to have finally read it. I prefer the story of Macbeth, but Hamlet has an incredible amount of profound passages and banger quotes, not to mention the timeless themes (some of which were the first of their kind in literature). The graveyard scene with Yorick is beautiful and made me feel a way I haven't really ever felt reading a story.

Finally finished this popular history book about the brutal colonization and exploitation of the Congo by Belgium. Overall very engaging and informative.The western world has perfected the art of committing barbaric atrocities for its own benefit while covering them up completely. King Leopold II was an interesting historical character. He was consumed by his own greed and lived an empty and pathetic life even though he was a billionaire. The amount of useless palaces the guy built made me nauseous. I HATE palaces and every time I go to Europe I'm disgusted by how many decadent 50 million sq mile palaces there are. The guy killed tens of millions of people, compromised his soul, and was at odds with his own family and the entire Belgian population all to build a bunch of gaudy sht around Europe. Also he married a 16 year old prostitute when he was 65 and gave all his money to her when he died. I liked learning about him, but I wish there was more about the geography, culture, and history of the Congo itself. Would have liked to learn more about all these trading companies as well. An interesting period in the development of capitalism where these companies had virtual no costs and infinite profits

I was assigned this book as an undergraduate for an intro history class and remember being really impressed with the few chapters I read back then. I went back to read it cover to cover as my 38th book of this year. It's an exceptional work of history and basically got its author a professorship at Harvard and a bunch of awards. Ulrich takes the diary of Martha Ballard, a midwife in what is now Augusta Maine, and extrapolates a bunch of really interesting and insightful conclusions about life in post-revolution America. By going deep into the crevices of what prior historians thought was a mundane and boring document (her diary), she turns an NPC into a main character. To be fair the entries themselves were boring - it's impressive how interesting Ulrich made them through meticulous analysis and detective work. Her diary was basically Skyrim's Hearthstone DLC. Horticulture, gardening, using all sorts of herbs, etc. Last thing I'll say is that this book was just as much of a spiritually informative work as it was a historical one. A constant theme over the 20+ years of Martha's diary is that she focuses on what only she can control, her little part of the world, and how to make it better any way she could. Ulrich has some beautiful passages about this.

I read 38 books in 2025, most of which are pictured here. I logged an average of 29.7 pages per day and an average book length of about 283 pages. While I did surpass my main goal of reading 35 books this year, I came up short in several subcategories. I wanted to have an average of 30 pages read per day. I also wanted to have finished the Odyssey and a book about Frederich Nietzsche that I had started earlier in the year. I'm currently half way through both volumes and will have to finish them in 2026. Despite this I am counting this goal as completed. This has been my best year of reading yet and I am excited to continue the mission in 2026.