2025 Reading Wrap Up

OK I know I’m a bit late posting this, but better late than never. 2025 has come and gone, and we’ve started the 2026 week – so let’s look over how it went in terms of books, for me.

First of all, I do have to say that I read far more this year than I expected and I think that’s because of a number of things. I joined an active book club, I kept a reading journal, and I was motivated and inspired by the books I had available. I also read a LOT of books from the library this year and that really helped to save money and keep costs down. If there was two ‘factors’ that really helped me read more in 2025, I would have to say it was the reading journal and the library. I’ll (of course) be taking advantage of both in 2026.

My goal was to read 25 books in 2025, and I read 51. I marked 5 books DNF because life is too short to read bad books (they are not included in the 51 books read). I avoided things like BookTok after attempting to dive in because it turns out that those types of books, those influencers, are NOT for me. That’s OK.

I spent around $300 on books this year, and read most of the ones I purchased (the rest I hope to finish reading in 2026). One of my biggest purchases was a 1-6 box set of Witch Hat Atelier, which came to $120 and I admit right off the bat this was for a ‘I want to collect it’ reason – though I did read and enjoy it a huge amount. I also saved more than $300 by borrowing books from the library, and this also afforded me the opportunity to explore authors I had not heard of before, along with browsing through a lot of Canadian authors which is something that I actively strive to incorporate in my reading each year.

In 2026, I want to be mindful of consumption. I’ve created some TBR lists and they include many books that I own that I have yet to read (a lot of them were gifts) and I want to continue to make use of the library. I am also participating in a few challenges this year, I’ve joined a second book club called Books Out of the Blue, (quite casual, I’m not too worried about the reads in this one) along with returning to the Goobers who Read book club. I love having communities of people to talk books with, and they are just good people.

My TBR pile has 11 books on it, a mixture of digital and physical books that I’ve had in my collection for a while. I did also pick up an art resource book, so I’m making my way through that. I am going to continue with my reading journal, though I haven’t quite gotten it set up the way I want, yet, that’s a future project. I did finish off the 2025 reading journal, and I really like how it turned out. I’ll also have to go and back date a bunch of posts for the December reading statistics and all of that good stuff. As far as ‘goals’ go, I’ve kept it simple. I’d like to read 26 books in 2026. I’m not sure if the 51 books read was an anomaly or not, but I also know that this is meant to be fun, and low pressure. I’m looking forward to sharing my 2026 reading journal once I get it all set up, and I’ll be sure to take some pictures and share more statistics in my 2025 one next week.

December 2025 Wrap-Up

A lot of books made their way to me this month, as I tried to round out the year. I picked up Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas because it is constantly suggested to me, over and over again. On BookTok, on Facebook, on Twitter. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I had avoided it so far because I had a feeling that it just wasn’t for me, but I wanted to validate that feeling so that I wasn’t simply judging what might be a good book, on feeling.

Nope. I was right. This is not a book for me. It was awkward and difficult to read the first few pages, the story didn’t connect, I felt like we (the reader) was tossed into a book that was part way completed with no context. I feel good about my decision to leave this one in the DNF pile.

Along those same lines, a free book called ‘Dragon his Heels’ came to my TBR pile, and since I am a fan of romance, I figured why not.

Another DNF from me. There were some personal triggers within the first few pages that I was just not willing to see past. I’m sure this book is good for someone, it’s just not for me.

Two amazing reads for the month were ‘When Among Crows’ which is a trilogy that I hope to continue, and ‘Piranesi’ which is a stand alone novella. Piranesi in specific really caught me off guard, and I found it fascinating, I really enjoyed it (it was also a library read, yay). Automatic Noodle also came highly recommended by mutuals, and it was on sale so I picked that up (another Novella, I don’t imagine this one will take me too long to read). For Christmas I received the Art of Witch Hat Atelier, which is just absolutely gorgeous. I spent the day just lost in the images, it was so inspirational. I love the details. I did not make much progress on the Emily Wilde book, but that is not the fault of the book, I simply wasn’t in the mood this month. I hope to continue it and finish it off in January, but if not, that’s OK too.

Happy reading!

November 2025 Wrap-Up

November was a pretty good month as far as reading went, and it tends to be that way as we approach the end of the year and I look for ways to relax and ‘get back to my roots’ as it were. I managed to complete 5 books this month, though some were very long reads that I had been working through for quite some time. I will do a more in-depth look at each of these books and they’ll be post dated to the day that I completed them on.

The best read of the month was discovering Witch Hat Atelier. This is a manga, and I dove into it head first – reading a few chapters for the first volume, and then promptly buying a box set of the physical books to begin my new collection. The manga does currently go to volume 13, but I couldn’t find an english box set for the volumes after 6, yet. I hope they release it in the future.

I am having a difficult time getting through Primal of Blood and Bone even though I devoured the first 6 books in the series. I’ll talk about this in depth once I complete the book but it’s taking a back seat right now so I have no idea when that might be. Maybe December, if I give it a push. I’m about half way through it at the time of this post.

I can’t believe we’re almost to the end of 2025! That means new goals starting for 2026, and I’m pretty excited about it.

October 2025 Wrap Up

Another month passes where there wasn’t all that much reading going on – well, not exactly true, but looking at my stats, I only completed one book. Still, I did manage to get some reading done each day, even if it wasn’t much. What I tend to do is head to bed with my kobo for a few pages each night, instead of bringing my phone. That way I don’t spend the night scrolling. I do often fall asleep while reading, but that’s not a big deal.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was a fantastic choice for my October read, and I’ve got some great books by friends on the go right now, including Midwinter’s Heart, and The First Sin. I’m hoping to finish those up in November, but it will depend on how real life is going. Look here for reviews on all of these reads in the future!

4/5 Star Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

This book by Grady Hendrix came recommended to me by a good friend, and I’m so glad that I decided to pick it up even though it’s not my usual genre of choice. This book was absolutely brutal and graphic – but also well written. I think if people who read it couldn’t relate to the book, they might have a difficult time seeing it as ‘horror’. It was moving in a way that I can’t really put into words, and the author took some obvious pains to learn their subject. It really showed (I know this all sounds quite cryptic, but I don’t want to give away the plot of the book). I did feel that there were some ‘over the top’ moments, but it didn’t feel like it was ‘too much’ considering the subject. It was a fantastic read.

4/5 stars

September 2025 Wrap Up

It feels like I never read as much as I want to these days, but I did get through a few books in September, and started some new ones. I picked up Strange House when it was on sale from Kobo, this book started out on YouTube and was originally in Japanese, but has been translated. I’ll make sure to post the details about each book when I do the reviews, but coming as no surprise – This Inevitable Ruin, book 7 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. 5 stars. Absolutely. It was a heavy read, but so well done.

I’ve re-started Onyx Storm a few times now, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the other books in the series that I have read, but I’m glad I finished it. I am hoping to get back to making more time for reading soon, but the next few weeks are incredibly busy and don’t leave me with a lot of free time. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

3/5 Star Review – Strange Houses

This book by Uketsu was a YouTube sensation a few years ago, and a friend suggested I read it, so I did. The translation to English makes it a bit awkward. It was not my favourite genre, but it was interesting to see where it went. I think I was expecting it to be a more interesting story, but I found it pretty tame, with a lot of build up for nothing. The telling of the story was the most interesting part, and then once you knew the details the story lost interest (at least for me). I probably will not read any more of the series though I do really want to read their other book, Strange Pictures.

3/5 stars

August 2025 Wrap Up

There were some FANTASTIC reads for the month of August, mixed in with some not-so-great (for me) reads. I know I might take a little heat for my views on The Enchanted Greenhouse, but maybe I’ll give it another go in a few months, I’m a big mood reader, and it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Of course we see my usual favourites, there was some Dungeon Crawler Carl (I’m finally on book 7) along with some T. Kingfisher (a huge favourite of mine) and I finally stepped back in to Melissa Caruso’s worlds. Plus, a new to me author that was apparently a big thing on tiktok a few years back that came highly recommended by a good friend. I was also looking for a casual cozy book in the middle of the month that popped up at my library (finally) because sometimes that’s just exactly what we’re looking for.

July 2025 Wrap Up

It doesn’t look like I got a lot of reading done this month, but the books I did read were fantastic – plus I have a few more on the go that are amazing.

July is the month where I realized that the book club I was participating in was just not for me. Out of 7 months of reads, I only completed two, and I had missed out on a bunch of the in-person discord chats about some of the books, too. I’d like to continue looking for a book club that will appeal to me a bit more. I love reading outside of my preferred genre, but I’d like one that at least leans in the general direction. We’ll see how that search goes.

So my DNF (did not finish) for the month was “The Dose Effect” and that was a book club read. Honestly I just had such an issue trying to find this book in a non-Amazon location. For those unfamiliar, I stopped purchasing books from Amazon and using my kindle earlier this year, and I swapped over to Kobo, where I’ve been ever since.

I finished the audio book to the next Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and started the next one. I love Princess Donut, what can I say.

4.5/5 Stars – The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

I finally finished book 6 (audio book) of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series – first, it was VERY LONG. Such a good listen though, probably one of my favourites so far. The adventurers are on a new floor, which of course means new mechanics. This floor involves cards almost like Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, and they’re used in combat.

There wasn’t enough Princess Donut in this book, and I wasn’t especially engaged in the card fight mechanic for the floor. Carl goes through some brutal memories and scenes involving his step brother and Dad. The AI is messed up. Mordecai was OK. The nun was creepy.

This book was completely off the wall in a way that I’ve come to expect from Matt Dinniman, except I have NO IDEA how he does it. The entire book is filled with action, horror, humor, and drama. The more you listen to it, the more everything that seems over the top and ‘too much’ clicks exactly into place, and you’re just left standing there thinking “woah, holy shit.” and the amazing (to me) part of it is – IT MAKES SENSE. Matt Dinniman has created an incredibly over the top messed up world that logically makes sense in my brain when he describes it, despite the fact that it is completely made up bonkers nonsense.

This book held more emotional scenes than the previous ones (IMO), and I was there for it. I can’t wait to start the 7th book.

4.5/5 stars