Farewell 2025! The challenges, the stats and my favourite reads of the year!
Helllooo!
Another year passes and I have to say this was a bit of hard one. We lost our beloved dog Maisie, I had a parent in hospital, work had a number of unexpected challenges and I even caught a fairly horrible stomach bug for a month which was very alarming. These things do not help my reading and safe to say my energy levels were hit hard. The number of boos read was far lower than normal, you may notice I stopped interviewing people the back half of the year and there was even a great podcast I as enjoying and planned to review and as a lot of bad things happened while listening to it I put that and quite a few books I was reading at the time down. But nothing ever last forever. My reading slowly picked up, my health is so much better (I’ve just had my lowest diabetes score for 15 years), work is always busy but settling into a pattern (I may have some actual team members next year!) and my Dad is much better. This was not an easy year but I think I ended up focusing on the right things at the right time so lets have a quick look at how I’ve done
The Challenges
Pretty much a fail across the board due to the above! But
1 - Wombling Along I think is finally the actual version of the Newsletter I wanted to do and for me works better as a Saturday blog. Huge thanks to Renay and their amazing Intergalactic Mixtape for showing how we can talk about books in a different fashion. I definitely think as a community we need to highlight what others are doing and the way blogs and reviews are actually in a slow dialogue with one another and have so many ways of talking about books I find a lot of fun each week. I’ve heard great feedback so that Experiment is here to stay
2 - The Short Shelves - ooh it has been in out and out. I’d almost got to a regular speed then in the latter half of the year but this bug really sapped my energy. This will be back next month very soon
3 - And all readalongs, projects and more - a big that did not happen is all I can say. I made a choice to stop putting pressure on this year and just amble as my reading speed was far less than normal. When tomorrow I do the blog challenges expect some to be picked back up
The stats
By 31/12 I’ve read 179 books this year, far less than I normally have which does not surprise me
49% by women
34% by men
17% by multiple authors/creators
16% by non-white authors
Disappointed I’ve not read as many books by non-white authors as I have the past few years and while I know I was very much drifting though a lot of the year that’s something I need to improve next year. I think it is always important for a blogger to check the voices they are highlighting are not all looking the same as the blogger. Work to do!
Intersting this year I’ve looked at the genre stats and
Science Fiction - 26%
Fantasy - 32%
Horror - 31%
The rest - 11%
This year I’ve read far less Fantasy and a pleasingly great level of Horror and Sf which I think are genres really hitting their stride this year. I’m intrigued if this trend continues.
But lets move onto the fun bit - which books did I love this year?
The Why By Great Uncle Bulgaria Have I Not Read This Before
I really was impressed by The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin but I also have to shout out The Big Book of Cyberpunk Volume 1 and The Big Book of Cyberpunk Volume 2 edited by Jared Shurin for an impressive and huge set of tales spanning sixty years of science fiction. I loved watching how the stories evolved over time in technique, theme and diversity of voices. A very cool collection
The Tomsk - Scream If you Want to Go Faster
For horror I have two . The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is a fantastic and surprising historical tale that takes the form of a confessional but shines a light on so much american history we rarely see get talked about. It will linger in the mind a lot. As does Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou - in some ways we could say this is another retelling of Bluebeard but one that takes no prisoners in watching how a human becomes a monster and the violence he shows towards women. Horror is often about making us look at what we want to avoid. This makes us look. I said its mesmerising at the time and I still get chills when I hear it discussed.
The Orinoco – Novellas Has I Told You Lately How I Love You
A book that really had a beautiful use and quality of language and storytelling that was a pure pleasure to read is The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. It was SO what I needed to read at the time and contains much depth
The Alderney – Mix Tapes Just For You
For this Horror knocked it out of thr park with two anthologies Roots of My Fears edited by Gemma Amor — Runalong The Shelves has such a great theme but its the use of voices across the globe to expand on how our past shapes us that for me made this a anthology I think is essential horror reading. My second choice has an excellent refreshing take on the haunted house and Unquiet Guests edited by Dan Coxon is another collection I think everyone should get a copy of.
The Madame Cholet – It’s the End of The tastiest Series As We Know it
Technically the series has just jumped a little bit in time with a fourth book but ending the original trilogy is The Land of the Living and the Dead by Shauna Lawless ending The Gael Song trlogy is a brilliant mix of Irish history and folklore with excellent compelling characters and one anti-heroine I feel guilty about how much I enjoy reading what they get up to. Lawless is a talent to continue to watch out for. That fourth book is now calling me…
The Wellington – Let Me Be Your Fantasy
Two books have really stood out for me Once Was Willem by MR Carey - if you told me a tale of 11th century small English village would grip me I’d had been surprised but the unqiue voice of our resurrected and changed narrator and the way we see a period where for everyone magic exists and is part of normal life (as it was for people in the actual time) means this is a story that really will show you a very different world. Remarkable storytelling!
The other book is a debut and A Song of Legends Lost by M H Ayinde a story with a facsinating blend of magic and technology, the ruling, criminal and working classes ands in terms of storytelling Ayinde makes a lot of choices that are brave and importantly makes them all pay off. One of the most exciting and impressive stories I’ve read in ages and I am very intrigued where this series goes next.. If you’ve not read this you NEED IT.
The Tobermory – Together in Electric Dreams
Two great books linger for me in the memory Project Hanuman by Stewart Hotston — Runalong The Shelves is a space opera that has a political edge that really does remind us it can do more than simple fantasy quests in space. Its inventive, funny, provocative and can when it wants to be is devastating. The other sits my beloved borderlands of science and fantasy but for me is very much looking at the ethical choices of science and that is The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson which uses nature and location to create a subtle pressure cooker of a story combined with Wilson’s trademark use of language.
For my last choice I used to call it The Runalong but going forward I name it after our beloved pet
The Maisie - The One I Loved The Most
There is one book that stood out for me not just as a great read but one that captures the uncertain times we live in and dares to say we can do better. It is a science fiction novel that reminds us winning is not easy but it is possible and it also uses two amazing characters over fifty years to explore how Britain could change for the worst and the best. It jumped easily into one of my all time favourite reads. My best read of 2025 is the remarkable When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift. Everyome should read this and american publishers you are missing out on a treat.
I wish you gentle readers to have an even better 2026. I leave you once again with these words from the novel Far From Uncommon Stars
“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Over there is over there. And here and now is not a bad place and time to be, especially when so much of the unknown is beautiful!”
I hope you get beautiful surprises next year and fear not I’ll have something new for you to read in due course! Keep reading!
