Hey all! Hope you’ve been holding up OK this January. I’ve been doing OK, just reading and writing and reading some more and writing some more and…well, what do you know, reading and writing some more. You know, the usual.

Anyway, I know I’m a bit late on this, but I thought I’d pop in and give you all a quick overview of what I read this past year! You can see the full, updated list on this site, under the “reading list” page, but here I thought I’d take some time to comment on some of them, and gush over the ones I really loved.

So! This past year I read 68 books, which smashed my old record of 48. I was pretty proud of myself when I crested 49, I’ll tell you that much. Of course, now the goalposts have shifted, and if I want to beat my record again, I’ll have to read at least 69 books. Not sure if I’ll do that in 2025, but we’ll see. I do love reading, which makes that easier.

That said, what did I actually read this year? Well, of the 68 books I read, 50 were new to me and 18 were re-reads. The first re-read was A Dance with Dragons, book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire, and…well, I’ve gushed about those books enough on this blog. If you like fantasy AT ALL, and you haven’t read those, then I don’t even know what to say at this point (and yes, I say this as someone who picked up the series late. I’m aware of the irony). The other re-reads? The Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl series—both childhood favourites—as well as the first two books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Both Potter and Fowl still hold up pretty well, I think, though through adult eyes I can acknowledge each series has flaws; they’re still a lot of fun, though, and they’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Of the new reads, no series has had a bigger impact on me this year than Malazan Book of the Fallen. Malazan is a sprawling epic fantasy series that is very densely written; it’s not a series you can just pick up, turn your brain off and enjoy. Because of that, it’s not the first series I’d recommend to someone trying to start getting into fantasy, but oh boy…if you’re willing to take the leap, it’s more than worth the effort. The world Steven Eriksen creates is spellbinding, the presentation of magic is unique (if a bit impenetrable), and there are so many cool and memorable characters. This series has also given me more than a little inspiration for my own work, specifically the Usi books. So if those ever actually come to fruition, I’ll partly have Steven Erikson to thank, I guess.

Moving on, another much more accessible series I really dug was Brandon Sanderson’s original Mistborn trilogy. I’ll admit I was hesitant to start reading Sanderson, mostly because of how fast he puts out his books: I was worried they’d be cookie-cutter, shallow and formulaic. I’m glad to say, though: at least with the original Mistborn trilogy (The Final Empire (sometimes just called Mistborn, which I actually read in late 2023), The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages), they’re anything but! Now, his prose isn’t the most beautiful in the world, and there are some instances, especially in the first book, of writing that’s kinda clunky. But the narrative was compelling, the world was quite imaginative, and the characters were (mostly) at least interesting. And, at least for me, the series got better as it went on; by the last book, I was really going hard to see what would happen next.

There were so many more good books I read last year. The Forgetting Moon and The Lonseome Crown by Brian Lee Durfee, two more great epic fantasy books. Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy (which, again, I read the first book of that in 2023), whose pacing is a bit slow at times but damn can Hobb create an atmosphere…and damn can she craft compelling characters. There was More Perfect by Temi Oh, a really good sci-fi thriller detailing a future where humans and computers become more intimately united. Against a Dark Background by the late Iain M. Banks, who’s quickly becoming one of my favourite sci-fi authors. Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a pretty fresh take on the “dying Earth” trope that was also thrilling pretty much from beginning to end. The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, a simple fairy tale (quite unlike King’s usual stuff) that was nonetheless both charming and gripping. And then…and then…I could go on and on. I did read a lot last year.

Through 2025, I hope to talk a bit more about the stuff I’m reading. Not too often; I think talking about every single book I read as I’m reading it would take up too much of my time, and that’s not really the point of this blog, anyway. But every now and then—maybe every couple months or so—I might drop a quick post here just talking about what I’ve been reading lately, what I’ve liked, and maybe what I didn’t.

So yeah…I think that’s all I’ve got to say for now. I read a bunch of good stuff in 2024, and I’ve got a long list of books I want to get to in 2025. Trust me, though, when I say this list is long. Like, long enough to make me wonder if I’ll really get to it all this year, or if we’ll be partway through 2026 before I’m done. Eh. Whatever. All I know is I can’t wait to read more. I’ve already read four books this year (a little off last year’s pace, but hey, 2025 is still young)…and now I think it’s time to go get back to the fifth.

I think that’s where I’ll leave you all for now. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon enough. Until then, though: have fun, stay safe, keep reading!