My 2025 in books

In 2019 and 2020 I kept note of all the books I read, arriving at a total number that frankly shocked me. I’ve decided to do the same again for 2025. I go through books at a ridiculous rate, and easily forget what I read earlier in the year, so it’s interesting (I hope) to see how my tastes and moods change throughout the year: and to see what familiar titles and authors I revisit.

(R) means a re-read

January

  1. Klastorin, Michael: Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Ultimate Visual History
  2. Checkhov, Anton: Plays
  3. Poe, Edgar Allen: The Murders in the Rue Morgue (R)
  4. Dunt, Ian & Lynskey, Dorian: Fascism – The Story of an Idea
  5. Schnitzler, Arthur: Casanova’s Return to Venice
  6. Paasilinna, Arto: The Howling Miller
  7. King, Stephen: The Green Mile
  8. Schnitzler, Arthur: Selected Short Fiction
  9. Clarke, Susanna: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (R)
  10. Roth, Joseph: The Radetzky March
  11. Rankin, Ian: Midnight and Blue
  12. Barrows Bennett, Gertrude: Claimed!
  13. Anderson, Brett: Coal Black Mornings
  14. King, Stephen: Pet Sematary (R)

February

  1. King, Stephen: Nightmares and Dreamscapes (R)
  2. Clarke, Susanna: The Ladies of Grace Adieu
  3. King, Stephen: You Like It Darker
  4. King, Stephen: Skeleton Crew (R)
  5. Khaw, Cassandra & Kadrey, Richard: The Dead Take the A Train
  6. King, Stephen & Chizmar, Richard: Gwendy’s Button Box (R)
  7. Chizmar, Richard: Gwendy’s Magic Feather
  8. French, Sean: The Terminator (BFI Film Classics)
  9. Chizmar, Richard: Memorials
  10. King, Stephen: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (R)
  11. King, Stephen & Chizmar, Richard: Gwendy’s Final Task

March

  1. Smee, Sebastian: Paris in Ruins – Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
  2. King, Stephen: IT (R)
  3. Chizmar, Richard: Chasing the Boogeyman
  4. Asterix Annual 1980
  5. Cockburn, Patrick: Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied – Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism
  6. Lethem, Jonathan: As She Climbed Across the Table
  7. King, Stephen: ‘Salem’s Lot (R)
  8. Billson, Anne: The Thing (BFI Film Classics)
  9. King, Stephen: Carrie (R)
  10. King, Stephen: The Dead Zone (R)
  11. King, Stephen: Four Past Midnight (R)

April

  1. King, Stephen: On Writing (R)
  2. Hill, Joe & Rodriguez, Gabriel: Locke & Key – Heaven and Earth (R)
  3. Gaskill, Malcolm: Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-century English Tragedy
  4. Reynolds, Simon: Futuromania – Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines & Tomorrow’s Music Today
  5. Johnson, Jeremy Robert: The Loop
  6. Hill, Joe; Hendrix, Grady; Jones, Stephen Graham; Ward, Catriona; King, Owen : The Shivers collection
  7. Hill, Joe; Hendrix, Grady; Baker, Chandler; Tremblay, Paul; Malerman, Josh; Mott, Jason: The Creature Features collection
  8. O’Collins, Gerald: Catholicism – A Very Short Introduction
  9. Rushdie, Salman: Knife – Meditations After An Attempted Murder
  10. Tremblay, Paul: A Head Full Of Ghosts
  11. Shelley, Percy Bysshe: The Major Works

May

  1. Bruce, Scott G. (ed.): The Penguin Book of Hell
  2. Tremblay, Paul: The Pallbearers Club
  3. Lynskey, Dorian: Everything Must Go – The Stories We Tell About The End Of The World
  4. Luckhurst, Roger: Alien (BFI Film Classics)
  5. Myrone, Martin & Concannon, Amy (ed.): William Blake
  6. Paglia, Camille: Vamps and Tramps
  7. Paasilinna, Arto: The Year of the Hare
  8. Freeman, Brian James & Chizmar, Richard (ed.): Dark Screams, volume 4
  9. Freeman, Brian James & Chizmar, Richard (ed.): Dark Screams, volume 10
  10. Hill, Joe; Immonen, Stuart; Stewart, Dave: Plunge
  11. Harris, Robert: Conclave
  12. Rodley, Chris (ed.) Cronenberg on Cronenberg
  13. Lovecraft, H.P.: Supernatural Horror in Literature
  14. Barker, Clive: Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, volumes 1-3 (R)
  15. Huxley, Aldous: Time Must Have a Stop
  16. Vaughan, Brian K; Guerra, Pia: Y – The Last Man, Deluxe Edition, Book One (R)
  17. Barker, Clive: Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, volumes 4-6 (R)
  18. Huysmans, Joris-Karl: Against Nature (A Rebours)
  19. Oor Wullie Annual 2025
  20. Robertson, Angus: Vienna – The International Capital

June

  1. Huxley, Aldous: Brief Candles
  2. Tremblay, Paul: Disappearance at Devil’s Rock
  3. Barker, Clive: The Damnation Game (R)
  4. Moore, Richard: In Search of Robert Millar (R)
  5. Barker, Clive: The Hellbound Heart (R)
  6. The Penguin Poets: John Donne
  7. Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World Revisited
  8. Appelfeld, Aharon: Badenheim 1939
  9. Miller, John (ed.): Weird Woods – Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain (British Library Tales of the Weird)
  10. Barker, Clive: Weaveworld (R)
  11. Leary, Timothy; Metzner, Ralph & Alpert, Richard: The Psychedelic Experience
  12. Barker, Clive: Cabal (R)
  13. Barker, Clive: The Great and Secret Show (R)
  14. Zweig, Stefan: Six Stories
  15. Harvey, Samantha: Orbital
  16. Millar, David: Racing Through the Dark – the Fall and Rise of David Millar (R)

July

  1. Hannigan, Tim: The Granite Kingdom – A Cornish Journey
  2. Tremblay, Paul: Horror Movie
  3. Passey, Joan (ed.): Phantoms of Kernow: Classic Tales of Haunted Cornwall (British Library Tales of the Weird)
  4. Colquhoun, Ithell: The Living Stones (R)
  5. Jones, Dylan: Shiny And New – Ten Moments of Pop Genius That Defined The 80s
  6. Soar, Katy (ed.): Return of the Ancients: Unruly Tales of the Mythological Weird (British Library Tales of the Weird)
  7. Herbert, James: The Secret of Crickley Hall
  8. Moorcock, Michael: The Knight of the Swords – The First Book of Corum
  9. White, Tim: Chiaroscuro
  10. Richardson, Joanna: Keats and His Circle – an Album of Portraits
  11. Moorcock, Michael: The Queen of the Swords – The Second Book of Corum
  12. Moorcock, Michael: The King of the Swords – The Third Book of Corum

August

  1. Leslie, Ian: John & Paul – A Love Story in Songs
  2. Trelawny, Petroc: Trelawny’s Cornwall – A Journey Through Western Lands
  3. Castaneda, Carlos: The Teachings of Don Juan – A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (R)
  4. Moorcock, Michael: The Prince with the Silver Hand
  5. Watts, Alan W: The Joyous Cosmology – Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
  6. Trelawny, Edward: Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron
  7. Horwood, William: Duncton Wood (R)
  8. Shakespeare, William: The Tempest (R)
  9. Bryson, Bill: Shakespeare (R)
  10. Hackett, Helen: A Short History of English Renaissance Drama (R)
  11. Shakespeare, William & Fletcher, John: King Henry VIII, or, All Is True
  12. Tadie, Jean-Yves: Marcel Proust
  13. Rovelli, Carlo: The Order of Time
  14. Watts, Alan W: This Is It
  15. Proust, Marcel: Against Sainte-Beuve and Other Essays (Proust article here)
  16. Watts, Alan W: The Wisdom of Insecurity

September

  1. Butcher, Daisy & Leaf, Janette (ed.): Crawling Horror – Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird (British Library Tales of the Weird)
  2. Herbert, James: Portent
  3. Carroll, Lewis: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (R)
  4. Leslie, Adam S: Lost in the Garden
  5. Masterton, Graham: Night Warriors
  6. Aaronovitch, Ben: The Masquerades of Spring
  7. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Banquet (R) (Asterix article here)
  8. Shakespeare, William: All’s Well That Ends Well
  9. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and Caesar’s Gift (R)
  10. Ferri, Jean-Yves & Conrad, Didier: Asterix and the Missing Scroll (R)
  11. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield (R)
  12. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix in Switzerland (R)
  13. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix the Legionary (R)
  14. Salinger, J.D.: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters / Seymour – An Introduction
  15. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Big Fight (R)
  16. Moore, Alan: The Great When
  17. Wolfe, Tom: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (R)

October

  1. Hergé: The Making of Tintin – In the World of the Inca
  2. Proust, Marcel & Heuet, Stéphane: In Search of Lost Time – Swann’s Way (a Graphic Novel) (R)
  3. Proust, Marcel & Heuet, Stéphane: In Search of Lost Time – In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (a Graphic Novel) (R)
  4. Jahic, Admir & Roethlisberger, Comenius: Music – a Conversation Through Song Titles
  5. Summerfield, Geoffrey: Voices – An Anthology of Poetry and Pictures (vols 1 & 2)
  6. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix in Britain (R) & Asterix chez les Bretons
  7. Jackson, David & Pepper, Dennis: Story – An Anthology of Stories and Pictures (vols 1-3)
  8. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Roman Agent (R)
  9. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: The Mansions of the Gods (R)
  10. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Soothsayer (R)
  11. Landy, Joshua: Marcel Proust – A Very Short Introduction
  12. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix and the Laurel Wreath (R)
  13. Ernaux, Annie: A Man’s Place
  14. Collins, Patricia: Introducing Italian Art
  15. de Beauvoir, Simone: A Very Easy Death
  16. Fosse, Jon: A Shining
  17. Graham, Ben: Electric Tibet
  18. Corneille, Moliére, Racine: Cinna, The Misanthrope, Andromache, Phaedra
  19. Berti, Luciano:The Uffizi
  20. Ernaux, Annie:The Other Girl
  21. Ernaux, Annie:The Years
  22. Paphides, Pete: Broken Greek
  23. Golbourn, Alan:The Last Breath Before Death (review here)
  24. Salinger, J.D.: Franny & Zooey
  25. Green, Julian: Paris
  26. Fosse, Jon: A Silent Language
  27. Davis, Lydia: Essays Two
  28. Albaret, Céleste: Monsieur Proust
  29. Madame de Sévigné: Selected Letters
  30. Payne, Julian: What The Tide Reveals (review here)

November

  1. Goscinny, René & Uderzo, Albert: Asterix at the Olympic Games (R)
  2. Camus, Albert: Caligula & Cross Purpose
  3. Hill, Joe: King Sorrow
  4. Osman, Richard: The Thursday Murder Club
  5. Osman, Richard: The Man Who Died Twice
  6. Ernaux, Annie: The Young Man
  7. Osman, Richard: The Bullet That Missed
  8. Miller, Laura: The Magician’s Book – A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia
  9. Spufford, Francis: The Child That Books Built
  10. Ernaux, Annie: Simple Passion
  11. Black, Jeremy: Paris – A Short History
  12. Osman, Richard: The Last Devil To Die
  13. Moorcock, Michael: Hawkmoon
  14. King, Stephen: The Dark Half (R)
  15. Foster, Alan Dean: Alien Nation (film novelisations article here)
  16. Alwakeel, Ramzy: How We Used Saint Etienne To Live (R)
  17. Osman, Richard: The Impossible Fortune

December

  1. King, Stephen: Christine (R)
  2. Bataille, Georges: The Story of the Eye
  3. Hitchens, Christopher: Love, Poverty & War – Journeys and Essays
  4. Alverson, Charles: Time Bandits
  5. Damrosch, Leo: Storyteller – The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
  6. Ronson, Mark: Blood Thirst
  7. Althaus, Karin; Djukić, Adrian; Merjian, Ara H.; Mühling, Matthias; Weber, Stephanie: Surrealism and Anti-Fascism – Anthology
  8. MacDonald, Ian: Revolution in the Head – The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties (R)
  9. Osborne, Ian: Zzap! The Legacy
  10. Carlisle, Clare: Transcendence for Beginners