My 2025 Reading
As usual, the list of books is below. You can sort the table by the order read (the default), title, author, and date written* by clicking on the headings. After only reading 44 books last year, I didn’t know how this year would turn out. In the end, I read 58 books this year, although that includes six science fiction books that averaged only about 169 pages each (1,012 pages total) and six more of O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin books which are quick relatively reads (though they are a bit longer, averaging just under 300 pages each, 1,790 total for the six books).
I read the first two of the four volumes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s March 1917 and now have the other two on my shelf to be read in 2026. I read Spymaster, by Oleg Kalugin, which isn’t really my style of book but he lives around the corner from us (and I got him to sign it for me). I read and thoroughly enjoyed James Fenimore Cooper’s five Leatherstocking Tales books, the best known of which is The Last of the Mohicans. I enjoyed reading The Quark and The Jaguar by Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. They were freshman roommates at Yale and I had Gell-Mann sign this copy and gave it to my dad for Christmas when it came out.
My 2025 Reading In The Order Read
Probably the most contriversal book I read this year was Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. This goes under the heading of ‘read books by people you think you will disagree with’ and I certainly do. That’s the book in a plain, brown wrapper. I’m definitely not a fan.
In case you are interested, here are links to my reading posts from prior years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.
| Order Read |
Title | Author | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Chuzzlewit Martin Chuzzlewit | Dickens, Charles (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) | Serialized between January 1843 and July 1844 | This story chronicles the lives of two men named Martin Chuzzlewit and their extended family and assorted friends. It’s a relatively light story and I found it enjoyable. |
| 2 | Far Side Of The World The Far Side Of The World | O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1984 | The tenth of the Aubrey–Maturin novels, where Jack and Stephen sail around Cape Horn into the South Pacific. This novel provided some of the plot-structure for the 2003 film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. |
| 3 | Quark and the Jaguar The Quark and the Jaguar | Gell-Mann, Murray (September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) | 1994 | Subtitled “Adventures In The Simple and The Complex”. The blurb from Amazon says, “From one of the architects of the new science of simplicity and complexity comes an explanation of the connections between nature at its most basic level and natural selection, archaeology, linguistics, child development, computers, and other complex adaptive systems. Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann offers a uniquely personal and unifying vision of the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world.” Gell-Mann was dad’s freshman roommate at Yale in 1944, arriving there shortly before his 15th birthday. |
| 4 | English Romantic Poetry English Romantic Poetry | Appelbaum, Stanley (editor) | 1789 through 1835 | This is an anthology with selections from the six major romantic poets:
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| 5 | Framley Parsonage Framley Parsonage | Trollope, Anthony (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) | 1861 | This is the fourth of six books in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. I’ve skipped over number three (Doctor Thorne, 1858) but will plan to read that as soon as I come across a copy in a used book store. Quite an enjoyable story. |
| 6 | Taras Bulba and Other Tales Taras Bulba and Other Tales | Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich (April 1, 1809 – March 4, 1852) | 1831 to 1836 | This includes the following seven short stories:
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| 7 | How Not To Get Sick How Not To Get Sick | Bikman, Benjamin, PhD (Born September 25, 1977) and Diana Keuilian | 2024 | This is the sequel to Why We Get Sick, published in 2020 and which I read last April. It is a “Cookbook and Guide to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance, Lose Weight, and Fight Chronic Disease.” I lost seventy pounds and I believe I am considerably healthier having followed Bikman’s advice. I recommend it highly. |
| 8 | Reverse Of The Medal The Reverse Of The Medal | O’Patrick, Brian (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1986 | This is the eleventh book in the Aubrey–Maturin series. Our well-known crew return to England and Aubrey gets himself into trouble with authorities. I don’t want to give any spoilers so I’ll leave it at that. |
| 9 | Persian Expidition The Persian Expidition | Xenophon (circa 430 – 354 B.C.) | 4th Century B.C. | Sometimes titled with the transliterated Greek Anabasis (Ἀνάβασις meaning an “expedition up from”), this chronicles the expedition of the ‘Ten Thousand’, an army of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to help him seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II, in 401 B.C. |
| 10 | Bleak House Bleak House | Dickens, Charles (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) | Serialized between March 1852 and September 1853 | Although the story has quite a few sub-plots, the main story concerns an interminable probate case in the Court of Chancery named Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which a testator has written several conflicting wills. The main story deals with the lives of potential beneficiaries of the wills. |
| 11 | Sacred Wood The Sacred Wood | Eliot, T. S. (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) | 1920 | This is a collection of 20 essays by T. S. Eliot, first published in 1920. Topics include Eliot’s opinions of many literary works, including William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and poets and authors such as Richard Brome, Gustave Flaubert, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Philip Massinger, Baruch Spinoza, Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), Algernon Charles Swinburne, and William Makepeace Thackeray. I enjoyed it more than I might have although the fact that some of his opinions are based on passages quoted in French makes it hard for me to form an intelligent opinion at times. It’s obviously targeted at an more linguistically literate audience. |
| 12 | Letter of Marque The Letter of Marque | O’Briank Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1988 | This is the twelfth book in the Aubrey–Maturin series. |
| 13 | Spymaster Spymaster | Kalugin, Oleg Danilovich (September 6, 1934 – ) | 2009 | The first edition was published in 1994. The copy I have was a reissue in 2009, which has an additional chapter at the end that brings things up to a more recent date. This isn’t normally the sort of book I’d read, but the author lives near me, so I was intrigued. I even got him to sign my copy. |
| 14 | Poems From The Old English Poems From The Old English | Raffel, Burton (Translator, April 27, 1928 – September 29, 2015) | Second Edition, 1964 | The poetry translated in this book dae from between the seventh and eleventh centuries, in a language called either Anglo-Saxon or Old English. |
| 15 | Mein Kampf Mein Kampf | Hitler, Adolf (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) | 1924 and 1925 | With all the current use of the ‘fascist’ epithet, I thought I’d read what an architypical fascist had to say. I was also interested in learning how early in life the author’s racial hatred was established. Earlier than I’d have guessed. As I said above, I’m definitely not a fan. |
| 16 | Truffle Hound Truffle Hound | Jacobsen, Rowan | 2021 | This is an interesting book about truffles, truffle hunting, and truffle farming. |
| 17 | Thirteen Gun Salute The Thirteen Gun Salute | O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1989 | This is the thirteenth book in the Aubrey–Maturin series. |
| 18 | King Edward III King Edward III | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | Printed anonymously in 1596 | Possibly written—in whole or in part—by Shakespeare. The play starts with Edward wooing of the Countess of Salisbury. After he fails in that, the action shifts to the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, including the Battle of Crécy (August 26, 1346), the siege of Calais (September 4, 1346 to August 3, 1347), and the Battle of Poitiers (September 19, 1356). |
| 19 | Journal The Journal | Fox, George (July 1624 – January 13, 1691, Julian dates) | First published posthumously in 1694 | I found this book told me much less about the Quakers than I had hoped. It does illuminate some significant issues of mid-seventeenth century England. |
| 20 | Nutmeg of Consolation The Nutmeg of Consolation | O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1991 | This is the fourteenth book in the Aubrey–Maturin series. |
| 21 | Henry VIII Henry VIII | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | 1613 | The last of the plays about English kings, this is widely believed to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher (December 1579 – August 1625). |
| 22 | Deerslayer The Deerslayer | Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) | 1841 | This was the last of the five Leatherstocking Tales books to be published but the first by internal chronology, the others being The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), The Pioneers (1823), and The Prairie (1827). |
| 23 | Imitation of Christ The Imitation of Christ | Kempis, Thomas à (circa 1380 – July 25, 1471) | Published anonymously in Latin in the Netherlands c. 1418–1427 | I found this to be fairly interesting, if a bit repetitive. Like the lives of many in a monastic setting, it’s not always easy to emulate in today’s world. Still, worth considering. |
| 24 | He Knew He Was Right He Knew He Was Right | Trollope, Anthony (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) | 1869 | For the most part I enjoyed this, although the part of the story dealing with Louis Trevelyan (the ‘He’ referred to in the title) were my least favorite parts of the story. There are some lovely passages and some really nice characters, as well as one ‘villain’ (Colonel Osborne) who is simply malicious. Sir Marmaduke Rowley isn’t particularly likeable, but fortunately plays a relatively minor role in the action. There are plenty of characters to like: Nora Rowley, Hugh Stanbury, and Dorothy Stanbury stand out. It isn’t going to rank among my favorite stories, but I enjoyed it, well enough. |
| 25 | Last of the Mohicans The Last of the Mohicans | Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) | 1826 | Subtitled A Narrative of 1757, this is probably the best known of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. It was the second of the five to be published—after The Pioneers—and is also the second by internal chronology—after The Deerslayer. |
| 26 | Cymbeline Cymbeline | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | before 1611 | I enjoyed Cymbeline and am sort of surprised it isn’t more well known that it is. The king (Cymbeline) isn’t really the main character, even though he’s in the title role. It’s really more about his daughter (Imogen), her husband (Posthumus Leonatus), the queen, and her son (Cloten). |
| 27 | Truelove The Truelove | O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) | 1992 | This is the fifteenth book in the Aubrey–Maturin series. |
| 28 | Supper of the Lamb The Supper of the Lamb | Farrar Capon, Robert (October 26, 1925 – September 5, 2013) | 1969 | My copy is from the Modern Library Food series from 2002. The recipes are a bit dated and even some of the main text. I can’t say I learned a lot I didn’t know, but it got me thinking about food and about life, which isn’t a bad thing. |
| 29 | Ehrengard Ehrengard | Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen, April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962) | 1963 | This is a nice short story with a pretty good twist at the end. |
| 30 | 84, Charing Cross Road 84, Charing Cross Road | Hanff, Helene (April 15, 1916 – April 9, 1997) | 1970 | This is “an epistolary memoir composed of letters from the twenty-year correspondence between the author and Frank Doel, chief buyer for Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at the eponymous address in London. It was later adapted into a 1975 television play, a 1976 radio drama, a 1981 stage play, and a 1987 film.” |
| 31 | Henry Esmond Henry Esmond | Thackeray, William Makepeace (July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863) | 1852 | I didn’t really love this story, although it was fine. It’s set in a period I’m unfamiliar with, late 1600s through early 1700s, William and Mary, Queen Anne (1665–1714), which I found a bit interesting. |
| 32 | Rudin Rudin | Turgenev, Ivan (November 9, 1818 – September 3, 1883) | 1856 | I’m not sure I really got the point of the story. I guess if it was just about a type of character, that would be fine. It did illustrate that. The ending was a little odd and made odder by the fact that part of it was in French, which I find both amusing and annoying. On the one hand, it presumes a level of education in the reader that isn’t borne out in reality, at least in my case. Occasionally I get editions that have translations in the footnotes, but that is generally not the case. |
| 33 | Restoration Plays Restoration Plays | 1671 through 1707 |
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| 34 | Pathfinder The Pathfinder | Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) | 1840 | This is the third of the Leatherstocking Tales by internal chronology and the fourth to be published. It follows The Deerslayer (1841) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and if followed in turn by The Pioneers (1823) and The Prairie (1827). |
| 35 | Last Tales Last Tales | Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen, April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962) | 1957 | Most of these stories have some sort of twist at the end. A fair amount is also left to the imagination. As is usual with this sort of thing, I enjoyed a few of them more than others. |
| 36 | Elric of Melniboné Elric of Melniboné | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1972 | There was a time when science fiction and fantasy was all I read. It’s been many years since I read anything by Michael Moorcock, but I thought I’d go through these for a break. |
| 37 | Sailor on the Seas of Fate The Sailor on the Seas of Fate | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1976 | These stories chronicle the tale of Elric of Melniboné, the ruler of a mythical kingdom. |
| 38 | Weird of the White Wolf The Weird of the White Wolf | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1977 | Elric is an albino, who draws his strength from drugs and his enchanted sword, which drinks the souls of those it kills. |
| 39 | Vanishing Tower The Vanishing Tower | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1977 | Elrik, Book Four |
| 40 | Bane of the Black Sword The Bane of the Black Sword | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1977 | Elrik, Book Five |
| 41 | Stormbringer Stormbringer | Moorcock, Michael (December 18, 1939 – ) | 1977 | Elrik, Book Six |
| 42 | March 1917, Book 1 March 1917, Book 1 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) | 1989 in Russian (English translation 2017) | This is the first of four volumes that cover the February Revulution. Although the dates were February 23 through March 3, 1917 on the Julian calendar then in use, they run from March 8 through 16 on the Gregorian calendar and the book uses Gregorian dates throughout. This volume covers March 8 through 12, with more than half taking place on March 12. |
| 43 | Fear and Trembling Fear and Trembling | Kierkegaard, Søren (May 5, 1813 – November 11, 1855) | 1843 | I have this in a single volume along with The Sickness Unto Death. It was published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio (Latin for John of the Silence). I read this last when I was in college but I think of it whenever the story of Abraham and Isaac comes up, so I thought I’d read it again. It probably raises more questions than it answers, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. |
| 44 | March 1917, Book 2 March 1917, Book 2 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) | 1989 in Russian (English translation 2019) | This is the second of four volumes that cover the February Revulution. This volume covers the Gregorian dates March 13 through 15. |
| 45 | Timon of Athens Timon of Athens | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | circa 1606 | Timon lived, according to the Plutarch, during the era of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.). There is some suggestion that Shakespeare worked with another writer on this play but there does not seem to be complete consensus on that. I sometimes wonder if it’s just folks thinking, Shakespeare is so good, anything that’s bad must have been written by someone else. But maybe that’s just me. |
| 46 | Pioneers The Pioneers | Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) | 1823 | This is the first of the five so called Leatherstocking Tales books to be published, although it’s the fourth in terms of internal chronology, following The Deerslayer (1841), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), and The Pathfinder (1840) and followed by The Prairie (1827). |
| 47 | Christian Apologetics Christian Apologetics | Van Til, Cornelius (May 3, 1895 – April 17, 1987) | 1976 | It was not exactly what I expected, but I found it very interesting. It was much more about the underlying foundation for apologetics than about the specifics of apologetics themselves. It is much denser than many books dealing with theology of any kind. By that I mean that he didn’t go off on long, rambling discussions but stuck to the point. Sometimes I read a book and the author makes a point in the first paragraph of a chapter and then spends the rest of the chapter defending or amplifying that point. In this book, Van Til just makes his point and then moves on to the next one. I found that refreshing, although the book is probably aimed at folks much smarter than myself. |
| 48 | Father Sergius And Other Stories Father Sergius And Other Stories | Tolstoy, Leo (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) | 1852 through 1903 | The stories in this book are:
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| 49 | Prairie The Prairie | Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) | 1827 | This is the last of the five so-called Leatherstocking Tales books, although it was the third to be written. It is set in the autumn of 1804, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. |
| 50 | Kellys and The O’Kellys The Kellys and The O’Kellys | Trollope, Anthony (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) | 1848 | This is set in Ireland in 1843-4 and although current events are mentioned they don’t really play a significant part of the story, which is a dual Victorian romance with two couples in mind. |
| 51 | Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories The Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories | Twain, Mark (Samuel Clemens, November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) | From 1865 to 1909 | The stories are:
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| 52 | Celtic Miscellany A Celtic Miscellany | Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone (translator) (November 1, 1909 – February 20, 1991) | Up through the 19th Century | This has excerpts and complete works, translated from the six Celtic languages: four continuously living languages Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, and two revived languages Cornish and Manx. |
| 53 | Mary Barton Mary Barton | Gaskell, Elizabeth (September 29, 1810 – November 12, 1865) | 1848 | Subtitled “A Tale of Manchester Life,” I enjoyed this book, although I can see why it’s not as well known as other books from the same period. Cathy often asks me if a book is sad or happy. Usually the answer is ‘both’ and that’s definitely true here. |
| 54 | Carnival Carnival | Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen, April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962) | Up through 1962 | This collecion of short stories was published posthumous in 1979 and includes the following stories:
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| 55 | Lilith Lilith | MacDonald, George (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) | 1895 | A few of the characters in the story fit with the Lilith of the Talmud. At least that’s what I’ve been led to believe. I have no first hand experience with the Talmud. The name Lilith may come from the Hebrew word lîlîṯ (לִילִית) found in Isaiah 34:14. The Authorized (i.e. King James) Version translates the word as screech owl and the ESV has it night bird. How you go from that to a primordial she-demon banished from the Garden of Eden for disobeying Adam is beyond me. Still, an interesting fairy story. |
| 56 | Our Mutual Friend Our Mutual Friend | Dickens, Charles (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) | 1864–1865 | I particularly liked the characters Bella and her father, Reginald Wilfer, who is called Cherub more often than Mr. Wilfer. Bella’s sister, Lavinia, is often named as Irrepressible. The mother doesn’t get a specific epithet but is described quite boldly. She speaks, “in her Act-of-Parliament manner” or similar. But it’s mostly the relationship between the girl and her father that I like. |
| 57 | Two Noble Kinsmen The Two Noble Kinsmen | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) and John Fletcher (December 1579 – August 1625) | circa 1614 | This play was first published in 1634 and probably written and originally performed in 1613 or 1614, making it William Shakespeare’s final play. This also completes my reading of all 39 plays written by or attributed, in whole or in part, to The Bard. |
| 58 | Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women | MacDonald, George (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) | 1858 | This is another fairy story by MacDonald and I enjoyed it, although it’s quite different to Lilith. I’m not sure I ‘understand’ it, if that’s the right word, but then that probably says more about me than about the story. |
* Note about dates: Not all dates—either publication dates or birth/death dates for authors—are known with any certainty and some of them are not much more than educated guesses. If the work or collection of works was written over a period of years, sorting by date will use the latest reasonable and relevant date.