How late is too late to post yearly wrap-ups? Well, I’m always late to the party so it should be appropriate to put mine out in January! 😀

In addition to travel year reviews, I like to write about the books I read the year before. So, here’s how much and what I read in 2025. Super self-indulgent, but if it inspires at least one person to read something in the new year, I’ll be delighted!

Psychology and Self-Help

Sigmund Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was always on my list, but for some reason, I never got around to reading it. Which is shocking as I work in a mental health library, where I have it within an easy reach!

It wasn’t a light read, written in an academic language from over a century ago, but it’s essential for anyone interested in Freud’s somewhat progressive (for his time) views on sexuality, particularly LGBT+ topics.

Whiling away my commute with Sigmund F.

I also read the motivational short story Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson and Deepak Chopra’s spiritual guide Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.

Art

I spent most of the spring with On Not Being Able to Paint by psychoanalyst Marion Milner (but released under pen name Joanna Field). As the title suggests, it’s something you’d read to release a creative block. For the same reason, I reached for Lisa Congdon’s Find Your Artistic Voice immediately after.

To feed my fascination with Antarctica, I went to see the exhibition Painting the Poles at the Polar Museum in Cambridge. I loved it so much that I came back with two books, one of them was Breaking Ice by Nicholas Romeril. His icy artworks helped me cool down during the early-summer heatwave!

Reading for inspiration at my favourite local café, Taggs

Biographies

I began 2025 listening to volume 1 of Cher’s memoir, partly read by her. Even though (auto)biographies are in my top 3 of favourite genres, somehow I don’t enjoy reading about childhoods and teenage years of famous people. Cher’s life never had a dull period, but the book ended just as her career was about to enter its most interesting phase. I sure will enjoy part 2 much more!

Last summer in Poland, I read the biography of singer Urszula Kasprzak, written in the form of a long interview complemented with LOTS of photos, and Karuzela z madonnami by journalist Tomasz Raczek, about 57 influential international women.

In Italy, I finally got hold of Patty Pravo’s autobiographical photobook Minaccia bionda. I’d just been to her concert, and before I flew back, I snatched the last remaining copy at a bookstore in Milan. I savoured the elegant, glossy hardback throughout autumn, learning new Italian vocabulary as I went along.

Fiction

October is usually reserved for something spooky to time it with Halloween. And this year, I decided it’s finally time to read Frankenstein, a proper classic of the horror genre. It was quite complex and deeper than I thought, with so many ways to interpret the gruesome story… I wish the 1931 adaptation followed the book faithfully – sadly, it doesn’t. But it’s still a great film!

Ali Akbar’s Artuş və Zaur is one of those elusive books that haven’t been published in English, so I had to resort to an unofficial automated translation that circulates online. Yes, the quality was as poor as you’d expect from a robotic job, and the messy formatting didn’t help. Still, I was able to get the gist and appreciate this groundbreaking novel. It’s a gay love story between an Armenian and an Azerbaijani.

I ended the year on a thrilling note with two gripping crime stories. As temperatures in London were plummeting, Patricia Wolf’s serial killer story Outback transported me to the scorching Australia. Then, I took a leap to another extreme, reading Tom Hindle’s twisted murder novel Death in the Arctic. This time, it couldn’t have been in a more suitable setting as I was sat on a train from Germany to Poland, looking out the window at frosty landscapes. The unexpected post-Christmas snowfall only added to the ambiance.

From Australia’s outback……to Norway’s Arctic!

Stats

I did a quick count and… was a bit shocked. Yes, I knew I read slightly less, but didn’t expect it to be just over HALF of what I read last year!

So, in 2025, I consumed 14 books: 9 in paper form, 4 electronically, and one through my ears. I bought 7 of them and borrowed 6 from libraries (and let’s ignore that one questionable PDF).

I never set up any reading challenges as I read for pleasure, NOT pressure. But I meticulously update my reading progress on Goodreads, so add me on there. The more the merrier!

Looking for the secret to an ageless body and a timeless mind…