Pete's back in 25

Talk 2025 Category Challenge

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Pete's back in 25

1psutto
Nov 26, 2024, 3:11 pm

Heh - this is what my first post of the 24 challenge said: "Every year I have grand plans, every year I fail to live up to them. As ever the TBR grows - more this year it seems. So I'll try and reduce it." and I am not going to change a word for this challenge.

10psutto
Edited: Sep 30, 2025, 4:41 am

September 2025

Books acquired
Muybridge
Zen without a master
The tao of health and longevity
Exophony
Landmarks
Underbug
The life and teaching of Carlos Castaneda
Hell House

Books Read

Taijiquan cultivating inner strength
How we learn to move
Muybridge
Zen without a master
The Alexander Principle
The legend of a zen master
The Tao of health and longevity

14psutto
Nov 26, 2024, 3:13 pm

This post left blank to fill in once I know what I'm doing - so may just be left blank then...

15Charon07
Nov 27, 2024, 7:58 pm

The one constant in an ever-changing world is that the TBR continues to grow. Enjoy your 2025 reading!

16JayneCM
Nov 28, 2024, 6:19 am

Same! The pile of books to be read never seems to diminish - but do we really want it to?!
Happy reading in 2025.

17MissWatson
Nov 28, 2024, 7:37 am

>1 psutto: Plus que ça change and all that, eh? Good luck with your TBR!

18majkia
Nov 29, 2024, 11:15 am

Have a year of great reading, no matter how high that TBR gets.

19VivienneR
Nov 29, 2024, 11:17 pm

Enjoy your reading in 2025 and ignore how high Mt TBR is! Good to see you back!

20lowelibrary
Dec 4, 2024, 6:44 pm

My TBR may tumble over and kill me one day. I like the simple setup

21psutto
Dec 6, 2024, 10:46 am

Thanks all

my first task in 2025 is to read all the books I get for Xmas and my birthday (which is the begining of Jan) - so that's always the fun part of the challenge.

I have, this month, had a bit of a clear out and assigned some books to a pile I call "I'd like to read but now sadly realise I will probably never get round to because life is too short and even if I read 100 books a year it's going to take me ten years of buying no books to even contemplate it." This has reduced my TBR, a little. Anyway onwards and upwards for 25!

22mnleona
Dec 7, 2024, 7:49 am

Good reading in 2025. Hope you get a lot of books for Christmas.

23majkia
Dec 7, 2024, 8:36 am

>21 psutto: I badly need to do a clear out too.

24dudes22
Dec 7, 2024, 7:01 pm

>21 psutto: - I did this earlier in the year for all the same reasons.

25SF_fan_mae
Dec 7, 2024, 9:39 pm

I've been doing a similar clean out too. I'm finding some have been on the TBR pile so long I no longer have any interest in them. Others I at least skim before adding to the used bookstore bag or dropping off at a Little Free Library. Even when I meet my 50 books/year goal, the TBR grows faster. Good luck!

26Tess_W
Dec 9, 2024, 9:29 pm

Good luck with your 2025 reading!

27DeltaQueen50
Dec 15, 2024, 2:41 pm

Great to see you back, Pete. Hope 2025 turns out to be a great reading year!

28mstrust
Dec 31, 2024, 1:56 pm

Wishing you happy reading in 2025!

29psutto
Jan 1, 2025, 8:00 am

Thanks All & HNY!

First up in 25 is BRZRKR volume 1 - this was a late xmas present from friends they gave me last night, read it this morning. It's very bloody and a bit silly but entertaining enough I guess. Giving it an Average rating.

As ever I try to read my Xmas and birthday (which is on Friday) presents so they don't add to the TBR. I am reading Some Answers without questions which I got on Xmas day, having already read A book of dreams - So, my first few weeks of the year will be spent reading the books coming in the house December and January, and then I'll tackle the TBR...

30lowelibrary
Jan 1, 2025, 2:11 pm

Happy New Year and good luck with your reading.

31thornton37814
Jan 1, 2025, 3:50 pm

Happy new year and happy reading!

32MissBrangwen
Jan 1, 2025, 4:36 pm

Happy reading in 2025!

33beebeereads
Jan 1, 2025, 8:15 pm

I'll be following along...I hope you have a great reading year.

34mnleona
Jan 2, 2025, 12:04 pm

>29 psutto: Happy early Birthday. Enjoy the day

35mstrust
Jan 2, 2025, 12:29 pm

Happy birthday!

37lowelibrary
Jan 3, 2025, 2:49 pm

What a great haul, There are some interesting books in there.

38psutto
Jan 18, 2025, 3:49 am

Steadily working through the xmas and birthday haul - some of them (like Bill Bryson's The body illustrated) and Alan Moore's serpent and moon bumper book of magic ) are massive and will take a while. Just finished Some answers without questions which I enjoyed, although not as much as The vast extent which I read last year.

39psutto
Edited: Feb 17, 2025, 8:46 am

40psutto
Feb 27, 2025, 3:10 am

Went to a book event for Death of the author and accidentally bought some other books -

Tone
Art of Solitude
Being Taoist
In praise of blandness

41psutto
Mar 12, 2025, 4:38 am

Went to Hay-on-Wye yesterday and bought some books - nice to wander from bookshop to bookshop - I thought I'd buy a lot more so am fairly happy that although I've added to the TBR I haven't doen by too much!

42rabbitprincess
Mar 12, 2025, 8:25 am

Oooh Hay-on-Wye! Such a lovely town :)

43mstrust
Mar 13, 2025, 2:21 pm

Lucky! Come on, give us the haul list!

45mstrust
Mar 24, 2025, 1:24 pm

Congrats on the haul! I've read The Sun Doctor, and I believe I've read all Shaw's novels.

46psutto
Mar 26, 2025, 4:46 am

I didn't even know he'd written books and basically only know him from war films and Jaws! Looking forward to reading it

47mstrust
Mar 31, 2025, 2:09 pm

I believe he wrote five? novels. The Man in the Glass Booth may have been his best known as it was performed on Broadway later.

48psutto
Apr 8, 2025, 3:18 am

>47 mstrust: Having just read the Sun Doctor I'd read more of his stuff so may see if I can track them down

49psutto
Jun 7, 2025, 5:08 am

Someone told me that we are now closer to the year 2050 than the year 2000 and that's mind-blowing for someone who grew up on 200AD comics as a depiction of the future!

50psutto
Jun 30, 2025, 5:22 am

And now we are more than halfway through the year I'd better recommit to the initial challenge - to reduce the TBR! (a neverending task) - I used to be resourse poor but time rich and mostly kept up with the books in versus books read. Now? I'm time poor and resource, well not so much rich as richer - and the opposite is true, books arrive at a pace my reading cannot keep up with. Over the last few years I've stated the aim to not buy more books or at least to buy them at a pace that's sustainable for the TBR.

I've failed.
Constantly. Consistently.

I'm not sure a recommitment will stick, but I have to try (again) - so, knowing that I have some bookish events in the second half of the year, where, no doubt, I'll add books - I shall try for July-December to read books acquired this year to not add to the TBR and to read from the TBR.

51mstrust
Jul 10, 2025, 10:25 am

I'll be rooting for you. And I get it. I spent the whole month of June away from home. I think I read three whole books.

52psutto
Sep 14, 2025, 12:21 pm

and accidentally and repeatedly fell into bookshops yesterday and bought 6 books (mostly 2nd hand except for the Mathieson) -

The tao of health and longevity
Exophony
Landmarks
Underbug
The life and teaching of Carlos Castaneda
Hell House

53psutto
Edited: Oct 13, 2025, 3:13 am

Book haul - due to the fact that my OH will have some time coming up she dragged me around some bookshops (I know, a terrible chore, right?) and so I bought some books:

The bodymind workbook
The way of healing
The Essence of Tao
The Taoist I Ching
Sand Talk
The creative habit
Tan Tien Chi Kung
Living the Tao
How to be animal
The world within
Lost in the garden
Powsels and thrums

54GraceCollection
Oct 15, 2025, 12:16 am

>53 psutto: What a wonderful haul! I loved Sand Talk. The Creative Habit and How to be Animal are going on my list!!

55psutto
Nov 2, 2025, 9:19 am

November already!?

I'm reading (and have been for a couple of weeks) Lost in the garden which I half hate and half love - I really don't know how I'll feel about it when I've finished...

56psutto
Nov 9, 2025, 6:45 am

57psutto
Edited: Dec 26, 2025, 4:47 am

Hope everyone had a fab, bookish Christmas

my bookhaul:

Orient by David Hinton
Avid Reader
The monk in the garden
The High House
The Haynes Bike Book
Moths

58mstrust
Dec 26, 2025, 3:05 pm

Glad to see your holiday haul! Enjoy!

59psutto
Edited: Dec 30, 2025, 10:41 am

I am unlikely to finish any more books this year

so my 2025 stats:

135 books read, 35 by women, 24 by people of colour
Earliest published date 1932
Longest book 553 pages
5 markes as "Brilliant" (my highest rating)
Entangled Life (illustrated)
the wild life of our bodies
when we cease to understand the world
The immune mind
Question 7
Authors from 20 countries including new to me this year - Burma (Myanmar - but was written before the name change) and Lebanon
27 from the UK, 30 from the USA
75 from the TBR
10 hardbacks
23 ebooks
102 Nonfiction
10 Biographies
14 books about writing
8 Graphic Novels
1 short story book, 1 book of essays
2 poetry books
22 Fiction

60psutto
Dec 30, 2025, 10:57 am

oh, and I did publish a novella this year, but have forgotten how to do the touchstone - but anyway you can find it on LT here: https://www.librarything.com/work/35444889/book/303459310