{"id":52649,"date":"2025-12-31T18:35:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=52649"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:35:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:35:40","slug":"2025-reading-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2025\/12\/31\/2025-reading-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Reading Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' 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02:34:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:134,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.uncannymagazine.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260206135320\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.uncannymagazine.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-01 03:07:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 23:11:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-25 10:26:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 02:34:38&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 20:55:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 20:55:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:135,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/clarkesworldmagazine.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260217233657\\\/https:\\\/\\\/clarkesworldmagazine.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-01 03:07:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-19 07:49:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-25 10:26:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 02:34:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 20:55:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 20:55:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:136,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/app.thestorygraph.com\\\/wrap-up\\\/2025\\\/djwudi&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Every year, I set myself a goal of reading at least 52 books over the course of the year \u2014 an average of one a week. This year I made it to <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books-read\/djwudi?year=2025\">67 books<\/a>. Here&#8217;s a quick (not really) overview\u2026<\/p>\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.53.31-PM-1024x344.png\" alt=\"Screenshot from The Storygraph showing my reading goal of 52 books at 129% complete with 67 books, exceeding my goal by 15 books.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"344\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-52657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.53.31-PM-1024x344.png 1024w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.53.31-PM-300x101.png 300w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.53.31-PM-768x258.png 768w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.53.31-PM.png 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>And again, <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2024\/12\/31\/2024-reading-round-up\/\">the trend of the last few years<\/a> holds true, with another year of primarily escapist fluff. Surprised? I&#8217;m not. Have you <em>seen<\/em>\u2026everything? <em>Still<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-fiction<\/strong>: Four books, counting for 6% of my reading, but I liked all four of them. On a historical bent, there was the World War II-era United States Office of Strategic Services <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/99209d49-9341-436c-aaee-a0b201ba1087\"><cite>Simple Sabotage Field Manual<\/cite><\/a> and Lucy Worsley&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/a8f4e702-e0cd-4e12-8eac-756d31c7492d\"><cite>A Very British Murder<\/cite><\/a>, John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/eb360938-4805-4f54-8f7f-3d2ffd319cba\"><cite>Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: The Making of the Classic Film<\/cite><\/a> bridged the non-fiction world with my <cite>Star Trek<\/cite> fandom, and on a technical bent, Thom Hogan&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/5096d44d-4cf9-444c-945d-c54114a4260f\"><cite>Complete Guide to the Nikon Z5II<\/cite><\/a> is a deep dive into the intricacies of my new camera.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-genre-fiction<\/strong> (where &#8220;genre&#8221; is shorthand \u2014 though not that short, if you include this parenthetical \u2014 for science fiction, fantasy, and horror): None, or perhaps <em>almost<\/em> none; the Nick Mamatas-edited anthology <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/aa179741-6167-4e1a-875c-dba2b34d9059\"><cite>120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era<\/cite><\/a> has a few speculative fiction entries, but as a whole probably wouldn&#8217;t be classified that way, so can count for this category.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quality genre fiction<\/strong>: About the same as last year; primarily <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/philip-k-dick-award-reading\/\">the Philip K. Dick nominees<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/hugo-reading\/\">my Hugo project<\/a>, with a few others added here and there.<\/p>\n<p>As usual, I read all of the books nominated for this year&#8217;s Philip K. Dick awards. However, I&#8217;m no longer posting my thoughts or review on the nominees, as I am the coordinator for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.norwescon.org\/con\/p-k-dick-award\/\">Philip K. Dick award ceremony at Norwescon<\/a>. While I have no input into selecting any of the nominees or the eventual winner, I don&#8217;t want to give any appearance of impropriety. So, I&#8217;ll just read and enjoy each year&#8217;s nominees, and you all will have to make your own judgements as to your favorites.<\/p>\n<p>I only added four books to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/hugo-reading\/\">my Hugo reading project<\/a>, and one was somewhat accidental. Only getting through four was due to a few factors, including deciding to read the entirety of Martha Wells&#8217;s excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/series\/12\"><cite>The Murderbot Diaries<\/cite><\/a> series before attending <a href=\"https:\/\/seattlein2025.org\">this year&#8217;s Worldcon here in Seattle<\/a> where she was a guest of honor (this also accounted for my &#8220;accidental&#8221; read, as I&#8217;d forgotten that <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/a3ee505b-b3ee-4de5-bb05-e87755d11720\"><cite>Network Effect<\/cite><\/a> was a Hugo Best Novel winner), and slogging my way through Susanna Clarke&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/f7a719a2-e615-4dd8-9a93-dfd0025f342e\"><cite>Jonathan Strange &amp; Mr Norrell<\/cite><\/a>, which took slightly over a month. Of the four I read this year, <cite>Network Effect<\/cite> was my favorite.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of those two categories and in addition to reading all of the aforementioned <cite>Murderbot<\/cite> series, I also finished Lois McMaster Bujold&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/series\/5050\"><cite>Vorkosigan Saga<\/cite><\/a>, read two of the books in Bujold&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/series\/1238853\"><cite>World of the Five Gods<\/cite><\/a> series (one of which, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/97057bdf-ab43-48d5-a731-27fad4aa80ea\"><cite>Paladin of Souls<\/cite><\/a>, is another Hugo Best Novel winner), and read both books of Catherynne Valente&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/series\/112755\"><cite>Space Opera<\/cite><\/a> series. All of those were good. Apparently it was a series binge sort of year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fluff genre fiction<\/strong>: Unsurprisingly, this once again ended up being the strong majority of this year&#8217;s reading. Lots of <em>Star Trek<\/em> novels, with a few detours here and there. And given everything that was going on in <del>2020<\/del> <del>2021<\/del> <del>2022<\/del> <del>2023<\/del> <del>2024<\/del> 2025, it was very nice to have a bookshelf full of options that wouldn&#8217;t take a whole lot of brain power for me to disappear into. As I&#8217;ve now read most of the TOS books that have been released, most of this year&#8217;s reads were TNG-era, but I&#8217;m closing out the year with the TOS-era six-book &#8220;New Earth&#8221; series (again with &#8220;series&#8221; being something of a theme this year). That series will also start my 2026 reading, as I only got through four of the six before the end of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still subscribing to two SF\/F magazines (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncannymagazine.com\"><em>Uncanny<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/clarkesworldmagazine.com\"><em>Clarkesworld<\/em><\/a>), though I&#8217;ve slacked off on actually <em>reading<\/em> them for the past few months &#8212; not due to anything with the magazines themselves, but just because I&#8217;ve been more in the mood to work on emptying out my physical &#8220;to read&#8221; shelves. I&#8217;m not sure how much magazine reading I&#8217;ll do this coming year, but I will be continuing to subscribe, as I want both of these magazines to continue publishing, and it&#8217;ll be nice to have some back stock to dive into when I&#8217;m ready (or when I&#8217;m traveling, since these are both electronic distributions).<\/p>\n<p>Finally, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/wrap-up\/2025\/djwudi\">Storygraph&#8217;s stats on my year&#8217;s reading<\/a> tell me:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ve read 18,822 pages read across 67 books, with August and December being my reading-est months<\/li>\n<li>Format: 67% print, 33% digital<\/li>\n<li>Longest book: Thom Hogan&#8217;s <cite>Complete Guide to the Nikon Z5II<\/cite> (1,246 pages)<\/li>\n<li>Shortest book: Martha Wells&#8217;s <cite>Compulsory<\/cite> (9 pages)<\/li>\n<li>Longest time reading: Susanna Clarke&#8217;s <cite>Jonathan Strange &amp; Mr Norrell<\/cite> (39 days)<\/li>\n<li>Most read authors: Neil Clarke, Martha Wells, Lois McMaster Bujold<\/li>\n<li>Most shelved book: Susanna Clarke&#8217;s <cite>Jonathan Strange &amp; Mr Norrell<\/cite><\/li>\n<li>Least shelved book: Thom Hogan&#8217;s <cite>Complete Guide to the Nikon Z5II<\/cite><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.52.58-PM.png\" alt=\"Graph of my books and pages read over the year. I read the most in August and December, the least in April and November.\" width=\"896\" height=\"406\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-52658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.52.58-PM.png 896w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.52.58-PM-300x136.png 300w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-2.52.58-PM-768x348.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>On to 2026!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, I set myself a goal of reading at least 52 books over the course of the year; this year I read 67. Here&#8217;s a quick (not really) overview\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036],"tags":[4243,4244],"class_list":["post-52649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-reading","tag-year-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52649"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52665,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52649\/revisions\/52665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}