2025 Reading Wrap-Up

With the start of 2026, I’m looking back on my reading year. I exceeded my reading goal again, read from some amazing new-to-me authors and revisited some favorite authors. Here are my 2025 reading stats (thanks to StoryGraph).

I read 64 books, where my goal was 60. I read 23.906 pages. The first book of the year was “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” by TJ Klune. A book my dad picked as my first read of the year. It’s the sequel to one of my favorite books ever, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and I didn’t expect it to be just as good. My first book was also an instant 5-star read. My last book of the year was a surprise, a book I got by accident. “Nyxia” by Scott Reintgen. Didn't know anything about this, had never heard of it before. A sci-fi book, the first in a series, which I will be continuing.  

I read most books and pages in June. I do remember I read some bigger books that month, like “Desperation” by Stephen King and “November” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. But also the most books, so it makes sense that I read the most pages in June. December is always a slower month for me when it comes to reading. I want to wrap things up and during my Christmas holiday, I spend more time with family and on other hobbies. 

To no surprise, thriller was my most read genre this year. I did set a goal to read less thrillers and I actually wanted another genre to become my number one this year. I didn’t succeed with that last one, but that’s okay. I didn't read as many thrillers as I usually do. I feel like thrillers haven’t really been doing it for me lately, so I’m setting a goal for next year to make horror my most read genre. I feel more drawn to that genre lately, and I did read several horror in 2025 as well. Overall, these five genres are the ones I read the most often every year. The order just varies. 

My longest and shortest book of the year happen to be both audiobooks. “Prety Girls” by Karen Slaugter was my longest book this year, with 20 hours. It was good, but I don’t really remember many of the details. I have that with most Karen Slaughter books by the way. My shortest book was only3,5 hours long, being “Future Boy” by Michael J. Fox. A very nostalgic read, if you’re a fan of “Back to the Future”.  

I spend an average of 8 days on each book, which was the same as last year and the year before. The average amount of pages was 354 pages, which is also almost the exact same as last year. I read “Heartstopper Volume 3” in one sitting (as for volume 4 + 5, which I also read this year). These are graphic novels and I probably read all of them within an hour. They are quick, fun reads.  “Annie Bot” took me 22 days to finish. I listened to it on audio and while listening to it, I sometimes didn’t feel in the mood for an audiobook. I also didn’t like this book and this was my least favorite book of the year. 

 

My most read authors were Suzanne Collins, Alice Oseman and Abby Jimez. My number one makes sense, since I read the entire “Hunger Games” series in April. The original trilogy were rereads for me and the two prequels were first-timers. I read the final three “Heartstopper” books, making Alice Oseman my number two. And also three Abby Jimenez books, with her becoming THE romance author for me, for a non-romance fan.

I had such a good reading year. Of all the books I read, the average rating was a 4, which is a really good average. I didn’t read any 1 or 1,5 star books and 5-star was my most given rating. I read so many 5-star books this year!

In March I read 6 book, with 3 being 5-stars, making it an average of 4,5 stars that month.
In February I also read 6 book, but 3 of those book were only 2,5 stars. Making it my lowest average rated month of the year.

Based on popularity on StoryGraph, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, is the book that is shelved the most. It was a reread for me and I loved it just as much as the first time around.. “Het Laatste Verhaal van Jamie Gunn”, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt was the least shelved by readers. Understandebly so, since he’s a Dutch author and this book was only recently released in my country, and has yet to be translated to English. It ended up being my favorite book of the year. “Heartstopper Volume 5” by Alice Oseman is the highest rated book on StoryGraph. I also gave it a five-star rating, totally understand why everyone loves it.

I explored a bunch of new authors as well (I have read from Karen Slaughter before though, before I started using StoryGraph). Gillian Flynn is definitely a new favorite author for me. As are Charlotte McConaghy, Gabrielle Zevin, Chandler Baker, Coco Mellors, Octavia E. Butler and Marcus Kliewer, whom I want to read more books from.

Like last year, I didn’t realize I read so many books that were part of a series. Apparently I read 19 books that were in a series. But then again, I do get it a bit. Like I said, before, I read the entire “Hunger Games” series, which are 5 books. I read 3 of the “Heartstopper” books and I read the last two books in the “Wayward Pines” series. I also finished the “Part of Your World” series by Abby Jimenez. There are only a few books on my list that are part of series that I haven’t finished yet. And I’m interested in continuing them all.

I DNF’ed 8 books this year, which is a lot for me. I always feel sorry to DNF books. The most shocking one was “With a Vengeance” by Riley Sager. One of my most anticipated reads of the year and I just couldn’t get into it. The only book that I DNF’ed this year, that I will probably give another try is “I Was a Teenage Slasher” by Stephen Graham Jones. I love this author and I think I only stopped reading it, because I wasn’t in the mood for it at the moment. So I will probably pick it up again at some point.