Yearly Wrap

2025 was one of my better reading years - opened many, with over 70 books finished across a mix of authors, ages, geography and genres. Happy :). 

Little to add after the last post, just a couple of points.

• Some of the best discoveries included Halldor Laxness, and Patrick White. To read more from both of them over time. I also enjoyed The Bridge on Drina by Ivo Andric. And Thomas Hardy, his Far from The Madding Crowd was a beautiful read. And Kim. .
• Finally finished reading The Brothers Karamazov after so many starts! Yay for that! Between this and the Idiot, I prefer the Idiot. But quite like reading Dostovesky. The other challenge is to read Crime and Punishment. Demons. and a few other of his novels. But the dark undertones sometimes deter me.

Here's to 2026 and more reading!

*

List of 2025 finished reads below:

1. Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima (SS)
2. The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata
3. Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (The Sea of Fertility - Part 1)
4. Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reumn (A day well spent is a life well lived)
5. The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
6. Orbital by Samantha Harvey
7. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric (loved it *)
8. Kokoro by Soseki Natsume
9. A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi
10. Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
11. What You Are Looking for is in The Library by Michiko Aoyama (explore unfamiliar aisles)
12. The Islands by Albert Alberts (SS)
13. Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas by Ruskin Bond (NF/Memoir/ Personal Essays)
14. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr (loved it *)
15. Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai (novella)
16. Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati
17. The Body - 10 Things You Should Know by Dr Darragh Ennis
18. A Haiku Journey - Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province - translated by Dorothy Britton
19. Independent People by Halldor Laxness (loved it *)
20. Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks (NF/ Journal)
21. Consolations of the Forest (Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga) by Sylvain Tesson
22. Reading & Writing - A Personal Account by V. S. Naipaul (Personal essay)
23. Things That Are, Essays by Amy Leach (Refreshing, interesting)
24. The Pole and Other Stories by J. M. Coetzee (SS)
25. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (loved it *) 
26. Naag Mountain by Manisha Anjali (Prose poems)
27. A Way to be Free by Ben Okri (Essays)
28. The Guide by R K Narayan
29. The Tree of Man by Patrick White (love the writing *)
30. Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgaard (lecture)
31. A Time for New Dreams by Ben Okri (Essays)
32. Dandelions by Yasunari Kawabata (his last, unfinished novel but then it is Kawabata, which is never really finished)
33. Three Early Stories by J. D. Salinger (SS)
34. Christos Tsiolkas on Patrick White (Writers on Writers)
35. Divine and Human and other stories by Leo Tolstoy (SS)
36. Foe by J. M. Coetzee
37. Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
38. Harvest by Jean Giono (in conversation with Independent People and The Tree of Man)
39. Devotion by Patti Smith 
40. Ceridwen Dovey on J.M. Coetzee (Writers on Writers) 
41. The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata
42. Pilgrim of the Clouds by Yuan Hung-tao (translated by Jonathan Chaves. Poems and Essays) 
43. On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle 
44. Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee
45. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
46. The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
47. Geraldine Brooks on Tim Winton (Writers on Writers)
48. Greek Lessons by Han Kang
49. Hojoki by Kamo no Chōmei (short prose-poem)
50. Hill by Jean Giono
51. On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle
52. The Woman from Sarajevo by Ivo Andric 
53. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
54. A View from the Stars by Cixin Liu (mixed views, but then sci-fi and thoughts around it seem to interact with my own thoughts on this space...and I prefer a positive, hopeful, whole-making projection of humanity) 
55. Land's Edge by Tim Winton (Short poetic memoir. Loved it*)
56. Drylands by Thea Astley (a new author discovered. Held me well. Keen to read more from her. A collection of interlinked stories. And about words and reading.)
57. The Simple Act of Reading (collection of various Australian writers reflecting on reading
58. The Last Gift of the Master Artists by Ben Okri (begins with a gentle instruction of 'Read Slowly')
59. The Spare Room by Helen Garner (first of her novels that I've read)
60. Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (SS)
61. One Italian Summer by Pip Williams
62. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
63. Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
64. Daughters of the Vicar by DH Lawrence (Novella)
65. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
66. The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
67. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (quite enjoyed it *)
68. Every Day I Read by Hwang Bo-Reum
69. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
70. Oh What A Paradise It Seems by John Cheever (novella)
71. Travels With a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson (* quite enjoyed this one)