36 Books in 2025—That’s a Wrap!

I cannot believe that another year has come and gone. It’s true what they say: The days are long but the years are short. And getting shorter the older I get!

In early January, it did something that it doesn’t typically do in the Deep South … it snowed. A glorious and unexpected white and fluffy dusting that blanketed everything in sight six inches deep. With a pot of bubbling soup on the stove (and a loaf of homemade sourdough bread baking in the oven), I found myself snuggling up on the sofa to put pen to page, scribbling my overdue New Year’s resolutions.

As I pondered, my mind wandered … and I dug deep to see if there was anything that needed “resoluting.” And when all was said and done, sitting at the tippy-top of my “To-Do” list for 2025 was something I’d been putting off for far too long:

This might come as quite a shock, but reading for fun for this writer/editor disappeared a looooong time ago. Somewhere along the way my beloved hobby became a grueling job, juggling more manuscripts, more marketing, and more books at various stages of production than the human mind could handle. Something had to give, so reading for fun it was.

But not this year. No no! 2025 was going to be the year that all changed.

With the Broccoli Cheddar souping, and the snow falling magically outside my den window, I set myself a goal with a few parameters:

Looking back, there were months I sailed right through, checking off books left and right. More often than not, I was struggling big time. But I’d made a promise to myself that no matter how tempted to give up—or busy—I got, I was going to see this through.

So without further ado, here’s the recap of my 2025 Fall Back in Love With Reading challenge …

I ended the year reading 36 books, far surpassing the goal I set for myself way back on January 7th.

May was the month I read the most books, clocking in at 7 novels finished in 31 days. March brought me my longest read, “The Mists of Avalon,” shelving at 1,010 pages (a book I started 20 years before, and my most favorite novel of the year). I had quite a handful of DNFs (did not finish) but stayed dialed in to my goal, only purchasing two books all year—”The Women” and “The Nightingale”—both purchased after reading them on my Kindle from the library and loving them so much, I never wanted to be without them again!

I’ll write more about My Top 3 books of the Year, an honorable mention or two, and one book I just could not finish that bothered me to my very core. But for now, this is where I’ll leave you …

quite proud of myself and head over heels in love with reading once again.