Books I Read in 2025
What’s going on, Internet? I read fewer books this year, which reflects a shift rather than a slowdown. I listened to more podcasts during the day and read more comic books at night. Audiobooks remained my favourite format, I followed authors I already enjoyed, and I was quicker to walk away when something wasn’t clicking. This wasn’t a year of trying everything. It was a year of reading in ways that fit my day better.
Year in Numbers
Here’s how 2025 shaped up:
35
Books Finished
↓ 10 from 2024
32
Audiobooks
Still my default format
4.0
Average Rating
More consistency, less filler
8
5-Star Reads
The standouts
Reading less made the patterns clearer. When something worked, I kept going. When it didn’t, I moved on.
Audiobooks continued to do the heavy lifting. Based on titles where duration is recorded, I listened to at least 260 hours of audiobooks this year, with Onyx Storm easily the longest single listen at just under 24 hours.
Top Authors
| Author | Books |
|---|---|
| Taylor Jenkins Reid | 3 |
| Rebecca Yarros | 3 |
| Michael Bennett | 3 |
| Catherine Chidgey | 2 |
Ratings Breakdown
| Rating | Count |
|---|---|
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 8 |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 18 |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 8 |
| Unrated | 1 |
Top Categories
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Fiction | 26 |
| Literature | 12 |
| Fantasy | 8 |
| Nonfiction | 8 |
| Romance | 7 |
A note on ratings
My rating scale is deliberately simple.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it a lot
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it
I rarely use one or two stars. If a book isn’t working, I’ll abandon it early and move on rather than finish it just to rate it.
5-Star Highlights
These were the books that really landed for me this year:
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- Malibu Rising
- Iron Flame
- The Axeman’s Carnival
- Northbound
- The Dream Hotel
- Annie Bot
- Gangland
A standout series
Michael Bennett’s In Blood series was a real highlight this year. I read the three Hana Westerman books as back-to-back as the library would let me.
They’re crime novels, and what really worked for me was the setting and perspective. They’re distinctly Aotearoa without leaning on clichés. As audiobooks, they were great to listen to and easy to stick with over long stretches. I finished the last book, Carved in Blood, during the final drive from Wellington to Auckland during our move.
This was a good example of how I read this year. When something clicked, I kept going.
Non-fiction highlights
Non-fiction showed up in a more focused way this year. I wasn’t reading broadly, but when I did pick something up it tended to circle similar themes: power, media, politics, and how systems affect people on the ground. These were the standouts.
- Careless People
- Wars Without End
- Fahrenheit-182
- A Different Kind of Power
- Toxic
- Gangland my favourite
They weren’t comfort reads. Parts of Careless People had me thinking “what the actual fuck”, and A Different Kind of Power had me shaking my head at how many fellow Kiwis disappeared down the alt-right rabbit hole and turned on Jacinda, who saw us through the COVID years relatively unscathed.
This wasn’t a year about reading more. It was about reading in ways that fit my day. Audiobooks for most of my reading. Comics before bed. Weekly, fortnightly, and monthly podcasts in between. A nice variety to keep things interesting.
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