Challenge: 50 Books discussion

Hello, 2025!

I feel like I didn't read enough in 2024 -- not enough downtime at home to read while I'm feeling awake enough to read, no longer motivated enough to get up early and read before I leave for work, and too much scrolling during lunch breaks -- so I hope to read more books in 2025. In preparation for 2024, I made a list of books I wanted to read, and it was overly ambitious for my work schedule; I think I read maybe 2 books that were on the list :D So hopefully I'll do a better job of reading those this year.

And now, on with the show!

Yes, that scrolling really cuts into the reading time. I must limit that more myself.

Best of luck on whittling down your list this year!

Ann A wrote: "Yes, that scrolling really cuts into the reading time. I must limit that more myself.

Best of luck on whittling down your list this year!"

Thanks! :)

Technically, The Murder on the Links was the first book I finished this year, but since I read the majority of it in 2024, I put it on my 2024 list.

So here's book #1 that was fully read in 2025:
1. Housekeeping

This is my second time reading this, and I'm not sure why I liked it so much the first time I read it, or why I liked it so less this time. Perhaps it was the phase of my life I was in the first time, or just that my tastes have changed. It was fine to read this time, I just didn't like it as much as I did the first time. Or maybe I misremembered how much I liked it: I read it 3 years before Goodreads was even a thing, so maybe my review was more reflective of what I thought I remembered about it -- and where I was in life and who I was with -- and not so much the book firsthand.

I rated it 4 starts when I added it to GR years after reading it; I'd give it 2-2.5 stars now, as I've just finished reading it for a second time.

But Robinson certainly has a way with words: her descriptions and imagery are wonderful, such as comparing a train going over a bridge to a "weasel sliding off a rock."

2. All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me

An enjoyable read (non-fiction) about a man who worked as a security guard at the Met for 10 years. He talks about the art, people who visited the museum (including sometimes quirky stories about quirky people or the quirky ways security dealt with them), the camaraderie with other guards, his family, and musings on beauty, life, and death. Not a life-changing book, but an enjoyable read.


3. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness

Oi. It must be hard to be a parent these days.

I gave this 4 stars not because I, personally, "really liked it" or would read it again, but because I do think he has valuable insights for parents and educators. (My full review is here.)

4. America's Museums: The Belmont Report

If you're a museum nerd, it's an interesting read on the state of museums in 1968. It was especially interesting to think about what changes have happened since the report and its recommendations and what things still haven't changed.

5. Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives

The book is a look at the history of archives -- incl. their non-political nature, focus, and evolution -- in different countries, as well as movements that rethought history or began looking at history differently -- such as the women's movement and civil rights -- and how sometimes those are woven together. Later chapters also talk about digital archives and archiving electronic records (and which electronic records deserve to be archived).

(Sheesh, only 5??)

6. The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design

It's both sad and satisfying when a book that has sat on my bookshelf for sooooo long to be read ends up being given away when I'm done with it. Sad that I waited so long for something not really worth waiting that long for, but satisfying because it's going to free up space on the bookshelf!

7. The Door-to-Door Bookstore

This was a very sweet and cute book, a great summer read and perfect for reading on the bus and during lunch. Maybe a little cheesy at times, but sweet.
(My full review is here.)

8. Journey to Munich

My not-quite-annual tradition of reading a Maisie Dobbs book for the Fourth of July returns!

9. The Librarianist

My full review is here, but the short version is "I wouldn't say this book shouldn't be read, I would just warn people to not have high hopes for the overall feeling they get as they finish it. And if they love it, that's great for them."

10. π: A Biography of the World's Most Mysterious Number

It was okay. (My longer review is here.)

11. The Classics of Western Philosophy: A Reader's Guide

This is like a (very large) Cliffs Notes of Philosophy, but not in a negative way. I think it works both as a companion to the original texts, with possibly a philosophy teacher guiding the reader, but also as a stand-alone text to give the reader generally good overviews of philosophical works (although, sometimes the essays went over my head, too). [My full review is here.]

12. The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution

A really great summary of "Fibonacci" (Leonardo of Pisa, also known by a much fuller given name) and his personal story, including writing Liber abbaci, one of the first -- if not the first -- books of mathematics, calculations, and "everyday" math (I'm not sure I'd consider his sample problems as everyday math, but whatevs) for the general reader.

13. A Deaccession Reader

I've neglected my piles of books about the workings of museums and nonprofits, so I'm trying to get back into the habit of sprinkling them in to my reading for the year.

14. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera

A fine retelling of the Phantom of the Opera story. It was a nice and light read to enjoy while sitting in the sun, with the right amount of Sherlock but with enough of the original story.

15. Lost City Radio
(Hispanic Heritage Month)

16. The House of the Spirits

Ooh, double win! A 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die book (which I haven't read in soooo long) and a Hispanic Heritage Month read!

This was a really good book about many generations of a very complicated family. It's Isabel Allende's first book, and apparently the first book of hers that I've read (I was sure I'd read something else, but my Goodreads list doesn't show that, so I guess this was my first. Also makes me wonder, though, what I'd read that I thought was by her), and I'll definitely continue to read more.