At the start of 2025, I decided to track what I’d been reading, month by month. Here’s the full list, including books I re-read (what can I say, Ann Leckie is amazing).

Important note: these books do not necessarily reflect my own personal views or beliefs. I believe it to be important to learn from a variety of different perspectives, including those with which I disagree.

• January (4 books, 5 chapters, 1 poem):
  • The Relentless Legion, by J. S. Dewes (finished)
  • John Brown, Abolitionist, by David S. Reynolds (finished)
  • A Voice From Harper’s Ferry, by Osborne P. Anderson (finished)
  • Google SRE book chapters 1-5 (finished)
  • The Girl on the Fridge, by Etgar Keret (finished)
  • Collected Poems 1909-1962, by T. S. Eliot (I only re-read Prufrock—I should really get around to reading the rest)
• February (1 book, 1 play, 4 chapters):
  • Google SRE book chapters 6-7 (finished)
  • The Book of Matthew, NKJV (finished)
  • On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder (finished)
  • Surah Yusuf, tr. Mustafa Khattab (finished)
  • Office Hour, by Julia Cho (Re-read; finished)
• March (3 books):
  • The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton (finished)
  • Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, the Novel, by Tomoco Hanemaki (finished)
  • The Deadly Dinner Party, by Jonathan A. Edlow (finished April 2nd, counting it as March)
• April (3 books):
  • Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (finished)
  • Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie (finished)
  • Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie (finished)
• May (3 books, 1 paper):
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol 20, by FUSE (finished)
  • Provenance, by Ann Leckie (finished)
  • Norrbottnian congenital insensitivity to pain, by Jan K Minde (finished)
  • Translation State, by Ann Leckie (finished June 1st, counting it as May)
• June (2 books):
  • The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (finished)
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones (finished)
  • Psychopharmacology: Considerations in the Acute and Postacute Disaster Settings, by Kristina Jones, in Disaster Psychiatry (2nd ed.), by Stoddard et al (never finished)
• July (5 books):
  • Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Return, Brian’s Hunt, by Gary Paulson (Re-read; finished)
• August (Nothing):
  • Pym, by Mat Johnson (never finished)
• September (Nothing):
  • Nothing (continued dry spell)
• October (14 books, 4 short stories, 1 chapter):
  • Using Text Data Mining to Assess Historical Trends in Archival Desceiption, by Lia Warner, in Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians, by Kramer et al (finished)
  • The Shattering Peace, by John Scalzi (finished in 3 days)
  • Old Man’s War, Questions for a Soldier, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, After the Coup, The Human Division, Hafte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today, The End of All Things, by John Scalzi (re-read; finished)
  • The Girl Who Owned a City, by O. T. Nelson (finished)
  • Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke (re-read; finished)
  • Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Provenance, Translation State, by Ann Leckie (re-read; finished)
  • She Commands Me and I Obey, by Ann Leckie (finished)
  • Muscle, by Alan Trotter (finished)
• November (8 books, 1 novella, 1 short story):
  • The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, tr. Diana Burgin and Katherine O’Connor (finished)
  • You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible, by Margaret Eby (finished)
  • Heart of a Dog, by Mikhail Bulgakov, tr. Mirra Ginsburg (finished)
  • The Exiled Fleet, The Relentless Legion, by J. S. Dewes (re-read; finished)
  • Sniping in France, by H. Hesketh-Prichard (finished)
  • Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper, by Lyudmila Pavlichenko, tr. David Foreman (finished)
  • Night’s Slow Poison, by Ann Leckie (finished)
  • Pontypool Changes Everything, by Tony Burgess (finished)
  • My Disillusionment in Russia, by Emma Goldman (finished; my edition also contained My Further Disillusionment, which I read but am not counting as a separate book)
• December (6 books, 1 short book):
  • Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture, by Sudhir Hazareesingh (finished)
  • War is a Racket, by Smedley Butler (finished)
  • My Just War: The Memoir of a Jewish Red Army Soldier in World War II, by Gabriel Temkin (finished)
  • Kronstadt, 1921, by Paul Avrich (finished)
  • Everything Flows (Всё Течёт), by Vasily Grossman, tr. Robert Chandler (finished in 3 days)
  • Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, by Catherine Merridale (finished)
  • Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy After Socialism, by Eliot Borenstein (finished; thanks, Dad!)
• 2025 Total:
  • 49 books
  • 1 short book
  • 1 novella
  • 5 short stories
  • 1 play
  • 1 poem
  • 10 chapters
  • 1 paper

I must confess, I’m slightly disappointed at myself for having almost reached the pace of one book per week, only to fall slightly short; I’ll try to do better this year. I’m starting things off with Alexander Werth’s account of the Siege of Leningrad, and at some point I plan to throw in a re-read of Blood Meridian. We’ll see to what extent I stick to that plan.

If anyone has any recommendations for books, feel free to send them to me. I’m always open to suggestions.