Readers, help! It's my 2025 Reading Challenge

You choose what I read this year

File under: reading, bibliophilia, Tsundoku

Books I have read, some to be re-read, some I gave up on

I read 38 books in 2024.

I’m not showing off at all – that’s my lowest total in a long time. I usually average around 50 or so, as do many of you reading this.

Almost all of those were read before the end of summer. From September-December, I barely read any books.

Why?

• I was busily writing my own books (3 or 4 of them, all 90% finished in first draft stages)

• I started hanging out a lot more on Substack and my precious reading time was squandered wisely spent discovering new writers and all sorts of fascinating and entertaining new things.

Fellow writers, fret not – I’m not giving you up. But I do desperately want to get back to reading books. I fear my attention span has got worse, I rush too much of my reading, and I’ve struggled to concentrate and give myself over 100% to long reads.

And I want to get back to reading books in a fun way, by doing something different and adding in a challenging element of willpower and chance.

From 2010-2022 on my old blog I wrapped up every year with a rundown of all the books I’d read, which a handful of loyal readers appreciated (I think). I’m a sucker for these wrapups – I love discovering what others have been reading and adding new books to my TBR (to-be-read) list.

The problem? My TBR list has spiralled out of control. It’s an endless, sprawling mess. And it just keeps on growing and growing and shows no signs of ever winding down.

And even though there is value in Tsundoku, a Japanese word referring to the habit of buying books and never reading them, this year I want to read the books I already own without buying any new ones.

Books I have read

I don’t like the idea of ticking books off a list and reading as many as possible for the sake of numbers. I want to impose some self-discipline, rein in my shopping habits, and tackle my ongoing unread book collection, which shows no signs of dissipating.

That’s going to be difficult. I have a terrible habit of clicking on too easy-to-buy ebooks and accumulating physical books. I have books in 4 countries (again, not showing off - it should only be 3. I didn’t expect to leave Ukraine in February 2022, which is why I had 3 lovely bookshelves put into our new flat that we barely got to live in, but anyway, I digress yet again…)

I read every book review I come across. I’m always on Amazon (another bad habit I should break) scrolling through my own wish list and endless shopping basket, adding more and more. When I see an ebook on my wish list for $3.99, I’m probably buying it. Someone recommends a book to me, I’m adding it to my list.

Enough is enough.

Books I have read; books on top and bottom to be re-read

Three goals for 2025

• Make a huge dent in my unread books list.

• Not buy any books at all on my TBR list and not to read a single book review from outside Substack. And if I do read a book review inside Substack, I will NOT be adding them to my TBR list, at least in 2025.

I can’t stress enough what a challenge this will be. My algorithm will need to be reset, because it feeds me tons of book news which I’ll have to use all my willpower to ignore. I’m forgoing all book reviews/recommendations for 2025. That means no more Guardian, New York Review of Books or Atlantic reviews. It won’t be easy.

We’ll come to number 3 shortly – this is where you, the reader, play a big role.

Here’s what I’m facing:

I have 38 unread books here in Vienna. I have 12 I want to reread. I have 54 on my Kindle. Do the math(s) – that’s a lot more books than I’m able to get through in a standard year. That’s what I mean when I say I want to make a huge dent. It might be ambitious, but let’s say I can knock out half of those.

(My books here are a mere fraction of my entire collection.)

Kindle books to be read

A brief 2024 recap

No more listing all the books I read in a year; here are the highlights:

The best

The Liar, Martin Hansen
A Feather on the Breath of God, Sigrid Nunez
Hons and Rebels, Jessica Mitford
American Nations, Colin Woodward
Liar’s Dictionary, Eley Williams
We Always Treat Women Too Well, Raymond Queneau

In her fine book, Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman talks about You-Are-There Reading – “the practice of reading books in the places they describe.” This is something I’ve always done, it’s a wonderful type of alternative guidebook when travelling, and is a subject worth revisiting in more detail in a future post. We Always Treat Women Too Well was so enjoyable because I read it in Dublin just steps away from where the action took place (it’s set during the 1916 Easter Rising).

On a 4-day trip to Trieste in late March, I read 4 Trieste-related books, 3 of which were magical:

Zeno’s Conscience, Italo Svevo
Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, Jan Morris
Last Days of Old Europe, Richard Bassett

The 4^th, A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce, was okay (and was the only one read as an ebook).

On a trip to Dublin in October, I had less time for reading (because the trip was dedicated to drinking and shenaniganising), but I did manage to do a bit:

A Sabbatical in Leipzig and Long Lost Dog are not set in Dublin, but were published by the small independent Lilliput Press. I asked the owner to recommend me one piece of fiction and one non-fiction and these were his picks. Roddy Doyle is, obviously, a classic Dublin writer.

A previous year’s reading challenge

I’ve had different-themed challenges in the past, but 2019’s was the most memorable.

It was inspired by Gary Younge, the former Guardian writer, who penned an article at the end of 2018 titled ‘My year of reading African women.’

For a great many Substack writer, a year of reading women is no big deal. But for me, it was dramatically different. For one, I tend to read far more non-fiction (about 75% of my usual fare). And two, I decided to stick closer to Gary’s idea and tried to focus as much as possible on fiction voices outside the English-speaking world.

The challenge that year was ignoring other books I encountered that I wanted to read that didn’t fit my criteria.

When people asked me why I was doing this, the answer was simple – a challenge like this allows you to discover magical writers you’d otherwise never encounter. Enough of the old white dead dudes, right?

I even decided to limit my non-fiction to female writers.

Here were some of the highlights from 2019, a wonderful year of reading:

The Secret Lives of the Four Wives, Lola Shonyegin (one of Gary’s picks)
The Moor’s Account, Laila Lalami
The Friend, Sigrid Nunez (I got her nationality mixed up, but boy oh boy, am I glad I did – I love her writing and have read 4 of her books now)
The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste, Rose George (a guilty pleasure – I love [literally] shitty books)
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Laila Lalami (I enjoyed The Moor’s Account so much that I had to read another of her books)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (another of Gary’s picks)
Bear in Mind These Dead, Susan McKay (a tough read, about the Troubles in Northern Ireland from the Protestant perspective)
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Imogen Hermes Gowar

An absolute must must read:

Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter

As I wrote at the time, I finished it and immediately decided I wanted to reread it. I have yet to, but I have read a few of Carter’s other books and she’s a tremendously gifted writer. I’ve had mixed results with magical realism. Many of my Ukrainian friends and students love A Hundred Years of Solitude but I’m afraid I gave up halfway through. However, I loved Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie and am shocked that this one seems to be far less well-known than Marquez. If you liked A Hundred Years, then you have to read Midnight’s Children, and you absolutely must read A Night at the Circus.

Books I struggled with and gave up on:

Celestial Bodies, Jokha Alharthi (2019 International Booker Prize winner)
Milkman, Anna Burns (2018 Booker Prize winner)
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (sorry – I know I’ll get shit for this, but I made 2 attempts and just couldn’t)

A surprising (?) dislike:

Beloved, Toni Morrison

I expected to like this one because I love Song of Solomon, but alas…I finished it, but can’t say I enjoyed it.

Books I have yet to read (First up: A Heart So White)

Reading Challenge 2025 – help me readers!

As much as I want to whittle down my unread book list and curtail my profligate spending habits, I don’t want to completely shut myself off to new books.

And this is where the joy of undiscovered pleasures comes into play.

Which brings us to our final goal for 2025:

• Read 12 new books, 1 for each month, recommended solely by you, my fellow readers.

You choose the new books I read.

That means 9 lucky readers get to choose a book for me to read. And I have to read it. One book of your choosing every month.

Wait – why only 9? There are 12 months in 2025, right?

Yes, but I’m cheating a tiny bit here.

I’ve already pre-ordered The Spider by

Hanna Delaney

, arriving wirelessly any day now, so that counts as one book for this year.¹

And for various reasons I won’t get into here (mainly because I’ve already given them first dibs and I trust their impeccable judgement), I will definitely be reading whatever

Alja Brunova

and

Alicia

tell me to read.

marianaownroom

, I’m also eager to get a recommendation from you.

Otherwise, this is what I’m looking for/the criteria:

1 You don’t have to recommend me your favourite book, or the best book you’ve ever read, just the book you think I should read. If you know me, whether through my time as your teacher, friend, colleague or from what you know about me through my posts, let that guide you. Have a look at the pictures of my books to see the kinds of crap I read. You can also read this chapter from my book - Sources, inspiration and loss - to get a comprehensive look at the books that have shaped me the most.

2 If the book is already on my TBR list, I won’t read it. It has to be something new. If I like you, then I might give you another chance: “Sorry, _____, but I’ve already read Metamorphosis and Pride and Prejudice is on my TBR list, can you suggest something else?”

3 It’s not first come, first served. I’ll weigh up all recommendations and decide by the end of January. I’m starting with The Spider.

4 My criteria are undefined and subjective. I’d like to read some non-fiction as well and I’m looking for things that I’d probably not usually consider. Anything goes.

5 Give me a reason – it can be brief but tell me at least a little something. Even a ‘this will change your life’ comment will suffice (another writer asked for recommendations on books that had a dramatic impact on your life when you read it and my example was The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles).

6 There is one author, I will not name him, that will immediately get you disqualified and I will be forced to unsubscribe you if you mention him. Please don’t!

7 No self-help and I’m also trying to limit my self-development books, though I have the latest from two of my favourite authors to be read: Same as Ever, Morgan Housel and Meditation for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman.

8 I want to try more audiobooks. I’m going to listen to Burkeman’s latest, as well as Athenian Murders by

Vicky Randle (V. J. Randle)

. If there is something you enjoyed on audiobook, please share. (I know a few Substackers, including

Soph

, have already recommended me some audiobooks but - egads! - I can’t remember all of them; sorry.)

I can’t wait to hear your recommendations – just pop them in the comments below.

I’d also be curious to hear about any of your 2025 (or past) reading challenges.

Books I have yet to read - will this year be the year? (I’ve started Ukraine Diaries and Politics on the Edge will follow)

1.

Andy Carter

,

Andy Futuro

,

Thomas Norford

- don’t get your knickers in a twist, boys. Your books are awaiting me (Thomas, I’m 2/5 of the way through yours - please tell me it gets better!)