Reading in 2025
The best of what I've read, and audiobooks I've listened to, in 2025.
Fiction audiobooks
This was the year we "discovered" Bob Mortimer writing, and listened to as much of it as we could. Aside from his biography, we listened to The Hotel Avocado and then The Satsuma Complex. Crime drama.
When the Lights Go Out will stick with me. A beautifully written book in which nothing happens other than rain and a build-up to a breaking point.
When the Lights Go Out will stick with me. A beautifully written book in which nothing happens other than rain and a build-up to a breaking point.
Fiction books
I enjoyed: a collection of short, modern ghost stories called Haunted Tales; and Bridges, a thriller in which I initially disliked every single one of the characters, but which grew on me and was a page-turner.
Science!
Flaws of Nature is my top pick of what I read this year. It describes the constraints natural selection works under, leading to curious situations. For example, birds unable to reject ludicrously large cuckoo eggs in their nests. I learned a lot about the subtleties of evolution.
Dr Bot is a great discussion on the state of health care. It's not utopian "AI will solve it all!" by any measure, which was a relief. It was a look at what we put up with, and how we could do better, using technology to "identify and weed out unwanted biases and reduce the risks of unfair treatment".
On the AI theme, The Atomic Human is a personal history of AI, making the point that what's important to take note of is the automation of decision-making. That cuts through a lot of noise.
Song of the Cell—not a textbook—described what we know about cells, how we got there. I loved it.
Dr Bot is a great discussion on the state of health care. It's not utopian "AI will solve it all!" by any measure, which was a relief. It was a look at what we put up with, and how we could do better, using technology to "identify and weed out unwanted biases and reduce the risks of unfair treatment".
On the AI theme, The Atomic Human is a personal history of AI, making the point that what's important to take note of is the automation of decision-making. That cuts through a lot of noise.
Song of the Cell—not a textbook—described what we know about cells, how we got there. I loved it.
News
I've recently subscribed to Delayed Gratification. The news from months back that drops through the letterbox every quarter. It's physically a lovely thing, and I've enjoyed the long-form pieces in there from news I mainly ignored at the time. The write-up of the Sycamore Gap crime was superb.
Other than that, I've stuck with Private Eye—the gags are good, cartoons are wonderful, but the journalism and investigations are the reason I keep coming back. I've also continued The New World, which I consider a fantasy weekly newspaper.
Other than that, I've stuck with Private Eye—the gags are good, cartoons are wonderful, but the journalism and investigations are the reason I keep coming back. I've also continued The New World, which I consider a fantasy weekly newspaper.