2025 was a banner year for reading. Ever since I'd moved this website away from WordPress and on to Ghost, I've been posting about my yearly book haul (see: 2024, 2023). I tried to set ambitious goals for myself – 10 books in 2023, 15 books in 2024 - which I was able to hit easily.
After the inauguration in January 2025, I almost completely shut out all legacy media and focused on consuming the kind of content I wanted. Books— hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook— provided a great escape from all the horrible shit happening in America and were a welcome distraction. That, and a heavy dose of Balatro.
This year, I’ve been fortunate to discover a fantastic tool: Hardcover.app. It’s fairly similar feature-wise to Goodreads, but it’s not affiliated with Amazon. I highly recommend this service for tracking your reading progress, discovering new books, and setting personal reading goals.
I was so impressed with the service that I decided to become a supporter of the project. For just $50 per year, I can contribute to the development of a genuine alternative to Goodreads, created by independent developers. It gives me a great sense of fulfillment knowing that I’m helping to make this happen at the expense of Amazon.
As the year comes to a close, here is a list of the books I've read, as well as stats from earlier this afternoon (December 31, 2025):
The Year of the Series
The first part of the year, I skewed heavily towards non-fiction. I read about Grant and the Civil War, Sherman's March to the Sea, and about the English Premier League. The second part of the year, I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl and tore through 7 books faster than I could get them shipped to my house.
I read:
- Dungeon Crawler Carl (Matt Dinniman) - Finished
- Silo (Hugh Howey) - Finished
- The Expanse (James S.A. Corey) - Started
- The Witcher (Andrzej Sapkowski) - Started
I imagine that I'll keep this up throughout 2026, as the eighth Dungeon Crawler Carl book is targeted for a May 2026 release, and I've still got miles to go with The Expanse and The Witcher.
2025 Favorites
Rather than list out the 36 books read, I'll post some of my favorites and a little blurb about 'em.
The World Under Capitalism - Branko Milanovic
This book may have been read right around when "Liberation Day" tariffs hit. It covers a lot of Milanovic's essays and blog posts around the struggle to achieve a more equitable future against deregulation, climate change, and geopolitical headwinds.
Enshittification - Cory Doctorow
It's no secret that everything has gotten worse the more popular it has become. When businesses shift form value creation to value capture, "what got them there won't get them here." When this happens, customers are often the ones left holding the bag for investors and shareholders.
Doctorow does a great job laying this out by using Amazon, Apple, and Facebook as examples.
Dungeon Crawler Carl (Series) - Matt Dinniman
I have pushed this series into my friend group like an overeager drug dealer. "Try the first book – if you don't like it, you can stop."
Nobody has stopped. They all followed my path: blast through the seven books in this whole series in under 2 months. So, if you're reading this ... why not give it a shot?
The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb - Neal Bascomb
Bascomb’s The Winter Fortress recounts the commando effort to destroy the Norwegian Vemork hydroelectric plant, the source of heavy water for Nazi Germany’s atomic bomb program. The book details four major attacks: an unsuccessful British raid, a successful Norwegian raid, a U.S. Air Force bombing, and the final demolition of the remaining heavy water supplies.
This book read like a deep spy novel and was so intense, I could only read it a few chapters at a time. It's a truly remarkable novelization of actual events with an incredible amount of primary sources. You can learn more about it thanks to PBS's NOVA: Hitler's Sunken Secret.
Devil House - John Darnielle
I love The Mountain Goats, so I thought I'd pick up and read Darnielle's Devil House. (I also love Nick Cave, and need to actually get around to finishing And the Ass Saw the Angel.) I went in with no expectations and left completely in awe of how one man could be so talented to have exceptional storytelling abilities across stage and page.
A true crime writer with a grisly success and movie adaptation is offered a chance for a big break: to move into “The Devil House,” where a notorious pair of murders allegedly occurred. His diligent research of the murders leads him into a puzzle that ultimately redefines his work and identity.
