Books of 2025

Continuing the series from last year. Somewhat unexpectedly (although I guess the title should have given it away), the theme of this volume is homosexuality, both in men and women. For the time period in which it’s set, surprisingly accepting.

This marks the end of the volumes of In Search of Lost Time that are in the public domain, so I’m probably going to take a break now. I’m getting annoyed with the narrator’s behaviour anyway!

An interesting story; I liked the weird setting and all the strange twists and turns, but it did kind of bum me out and I was eager to be finished with it by the final third or so.

Fine, a sort of YA, I guess. Better than the sort of thing I read as a teenager. I liked the magic system, but found the story itself pretty on-the-noise and obvious. Oh well.

Short but enjoyable. Good history, told in a passionate but casual style.

Fun little book I got for Christmas. Well researched, well written, short & sweet.

Really neat to read a first-hand history from more than two thousand years ago. A good follow-up to previous read The Education of Julius Caeser which put this in context.

Great little book. Woolf is one of my grandmother’s favourite authors, but I haven’t read much of her fiction. Definitely want to read more, really enjoyed the way this was written, right up my alley.

I’d previously read this as an ebook, but I got a very nice little copy from my grandmother. Enjoyed it immensely, again. Woolf is so great, really love her style of writing.

Started reading this when I realized the author is in the pen slack I’m in, which is very cool. Really enjoyed this; very much up my alley, the same kind of science fiction I’m trying to write myself.

Amazing, definitely one of my favourite novels.

A birthday gift from my grandmother. This is a collection of Woolf’s diaries, edited to just be about her writing. Really neat, very inspirational.

I’d seen quite a few people in the stationery universe mention this book, so I picked it up. Neat, wide-ranging history, very enjoyable and interesting.

Reading again on a physical copy, still so much fun. This one has some notes and annotations stuff in the back, so it doesn’t interfere with reading but was fun to look through afterwards.

Quick YA book my wife was getting for her students that I took a read through. Very sweet story.

Very fun, cool novel by a very cool local video game developer.

Quite a book. Really unpleasant people doing incredibly awful things. One hopes that this sort of shining a light on the situation will make something happen.

Interesting history, but I thought not especially engaging to read.

Very interesting timing for this to be the Woolf book I read after admitting that I’m trans… A novel about a man who becomes a woman, has pretty fluid sexuality, musing a lot about the mutable nature of identity. Great, of course, as Woolf is.

A analysis from a military perspective of the civil rights movement. Partly inspiring, seeing how they did it, mostly heart-breaking. Really good though, feels like it could serve as something of a practical guide.

Another classic. Enjoyable verse, although the first books about Satan and the war in Heaven is really the best part. The bits with Adam & Eve are mostly tedious and wildly misogynistic (as to be expected, I suppose).

Non-fiction collection of essays by the great novelist I grabbed in a used bookshop. Really enjoyed it, interesting and inspiring. Certainly makes me want to read more of his novels too!