2025 proved to be a good year of reading… as distinct from a year of good reading, if you see what I mean.
Not that there wasn’t quality to be found in my numbers, for there was, with 4 books gaining the full 5-stars and 21 with 4-stars; discovering I’d rated 30% of my total reads either very good or excellent is something I’m more than happy to be able to report. Better still, nothing merited below 3-stars (a wide group where I include everything from good enough to unquestionably good), so nothing I read felt like a waste of time, which is one of my primary aims in book selection.
What made it especially good is it felt I got to spend a lot of time with my head in a book; indeed Goodreads confirms I read over 29,000 pages last year. But more than mere statistics – it was a year in which I was able to enjoy much time getting lost in a book and so gain a vast amount comfort at a difficult transitional time, as well as at times of illness and injury throughout the year.
The best ones
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Playground by Richard Powers
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The ones which were a joy to read
Clown Town by Mick Herron
Gaudy Nights by Dorothy L Sayers
The lighthearted and fun ones
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
Out of Time by Jodi Taylor
The thought-provoking ones
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
In The Blood by Arabella Byrne
The comfort reads
There were many, but the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny was the most notable. I picked up the first in the series for my annual wintry books read in late November, and found myself wanting to keep on going. I read 15 before the year ended, finishing the remaining 5 since. Comfort was much required as, at the end of December, I completed the task of winding up the small business where I’ve worked for 25 years, during which time illness was to the forefront – minor (6 weeks of adenovirus for me), serious, long-term (requiring neurosurgery for a colleague) unexpected & suddenly terminal (for one of the directors).
As someone who’s long believed they were an extravert, it’s felt good to pull on the comfortable cardigan of my introverted self. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t read; indeed as a pre- and young teen, I was awkward and socially unskilled, far happier spending time alone reading or listening to music. But socialising was a requirement of life overseas, so I was firmly coaxed out from behind my introverted shell and learned to put on my mask of confidence and extraversion. I still get much joy from the company of friends and loved ones, but my empathic nature also means I tend to attract those who need care and support, so I increasingly need alone time to recover, and reading is my preferred way to do so.
For 2026, my aim is to continue to avoid books which I’ll either DNF or feel were a waste of my time after completion, to up the 4 & 5 star (very good and excellent) books, and to read more non-fiction because I have many excellent offerings remaining unread on my shelves. Finally, to finish the remaining Dorothy L Sayers (one & a bit) I have lurking on my Kindle – I’ve been putting it off, as I hate the idea there will be no more.
Do you read for comfort, for entertainment, for education, or for some other purpose? Do you have a preference for fiction or fact?
© Debs Carey, 2026
debsdespatches.com 
Leave a comment