2025 Reading Challenge Recap

Like it or not, another year has passed.  I have, as you may have noticed, made some headdway on my reading this year.  It wasn't necessarily all part of my 2025 Reading Challenge, but I did increase the number of books I read this year substantially over prior years.

But, specific to this year's challenge, here's how I did:

January: a book you first picked up because of the cover

My World, by Jonny Wilkinson

READ

February: a book about mental health
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
NOT READ

March: a short story collection
In the Gloaming, by Alice Elliott Dark
READ

April: a book published in the year you were born
The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy
READ

May: a sequel
March, by Geraldine Brooks
NOT READ

June: something funny
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, by Adam Kay
READ

July: a beach read
Murder on the Oceanic, by Edward Marston
READ

August: a re-read
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande
NOT READ

September: a book with "secret" in the title
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., by Sandra Gulland
READ

October: a book involving magic, witches, vampires, sorcery, or the like
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien
NOT READ

November: something containing recipes
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town, by Susan Herman Loomis
NOT READ

December: something told from the point of view of the villain or bad guy
The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox
NOT READ

So, what have we learned from this?  That I have very little reading discipline, I believe, is what we have learned.  Because I read more books than usual but still only got through half the books on my reading challenge.  Why?  Obviously because I elected to read other things instead.  Or, maybe what we have learned is that current Me is not a very good judge of what future Me is going to want to read.  

Regardless, I was a solid 50% this year, but that gives me no bonus credit for all my extra reading.  And remember, a couple of those items of extra reading were cleaning up books from prior years' Reading Challenges, so I really do think some credit is warranted for this and this. If we add those in, instead of 6 out of 12, I'm at 8 out of 14, which is a bump up to 57%.  So almost a passing grade at a lot of places!