Books I read during 2025

Fun post about some reading accomplishments. During 2025 I read twenty-eight books.

Not bad! Massive improvement from the sixteen I read during 2024.

Breaking down the genre of the twenty-eight books I read last year revealed a dead split between fiction and non-fiction, both earning fourteen reads apiece.

Non-Fiction standouts:

• Seven books on Stoicism, six of them by Ryan Holiday. My favorite Holiday read was Stillness is the Key. Just a fantastic, well researched book, on why it’s so important to stay present – mentally and physically. And when we do not allow ourselves to be “still” we ultimately will crash never reaching our potential. He tied in wonderful historical examples to learn from, some revealing a tragic downfall based upon their inability to simple say, “enough.” Holiday has turned into one of my favorite writers for his unique honest voice.

  
  

• Alfred Lansing’s Endurance. Written fifty years ago and still just as amazing. This is a book I have wanted to read for years and finally got around to it. The entire story from the first page reads like a Hollywood drama. Shackelton’s adventure stands on its own – in a class to itself. Nothing about it seems possible to have survived through yet they all did. It’s a masterclass in leadership studies. Lansing does a phenomenal job at putting the reader on the ice, in the snow, starving, freezing, and with no visible way out.

“Shackleton rechristened her Endurance, in keeping with the motto of his family, Fortitudine vincimus–‘By endurance we conquer.’” - Alfred Lansing

• Two epics by Erik Larson: Devil and the White City, and Demon of Unrest. Both are horrific in their brutality, yet both are rooted from a very different place. Demon of Unrest left a very bitter taste in my mouth as we continue to navigate our current political climate. This book details the days leading up with the start of the civil war and how President Lincoln handled those tumultuous times. I was left wondering if we have actually learned anything from our past and will history just repeat itself? How was it possible that Abraham Lincoln was able to keep this country together when so many forces were against him? It’s really just impossible to comprehend.

  
  

  As for the Devil, who knew the most ruthless serial killer of all time wasn’t Jack the Ripper and lived in America? This book reads like fiction. It tells a story of the man (Daniel Burham) who was responsible for building the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair in the shadow of a ruthless serial killer.

“I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murdered, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.” HH Holmes, during his confession of his crimes.

• Memoir from Dean Karnazes, Road to Sparta. I would love to run 153 continuous miles as he did to feel for one second what it must have felt like. His experience was summarized best by him, “it was a glorious dismantling of self.” Indeed it was.

  
  

• Again, I started the year reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Should be mandatory for everyone to read every year. Period. Each time I read Meditations I see something different. This time I latched on to:

“The elements move upward, downward, and in all directions. The motion of virtue is different–deeper. It moves at a steady pace on a road hard to discern, and always forward.” - Marcus Aurelius

We must always continue forward, and it’s our effort that truly separates us. When we have the determination to never quit, we find salvation, and with that true success.

Fiction standouts:

• Some classics here: 1984 (George Orwell) and Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) – both books are absolute necessary reads. The only question I had reading both was why had it taken me so long to do so?

  
  

• Rumor has it that Blood Meridian will (finally) be made into a movie. With limited dialoged and poetic verbal imagery of ruthless violence, I can’t imagine what a movie would entail and how it would successfully be filmed. If you haven’t read this book, all I will say is that its about a rag-tag band of outlaws who cross the Texas border into Mexico during the early 1900s in search of killing Mexicans for their scalps. It’s horrific in its imagery and indifference for human life.

  
  

• From 1984: “Who controls the past now. Controls the future.” Rage Against The Machine referenced that line perfectly in one of their songs. Again, I thought of our own political climate and how we have migrated toward a democracy that lacks the necessary checks and balances to stand-off dictatorship. Are we living in the world that Orwell imagined? Are we too living in a society that fails to question the world around us? Are we all just puppets going through the motions?

  
  

• Dan Brown’s new Robert Langdon thriller, Secret of Secrets. I have read all of his books and this one reminding me a little of Da Vinci Code / Angels & Demons, due to its fast pace and scientific symbolism. I am a sucker for Dan Brown’s work. Just so well researched and imagined! I won’t spoil what it’s about for you. Just read it!

  
  

What I learned from reading this year?

• I enjoy non-fiction over fiction. Over the years my taste has just changed. There something really exciting about reading true stories of heroism and drama. The best non-fiction, I believe, can always be read in parallel to present day events.

  
  

• I have developed into a Stoic. Not really. But I have fallen in love with the teachings of Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca. Thank you, Ryan Holiday!

  
  

• Reading about stoicism has really opened my eyes to a much larger world. Stoicism is the study of life and doing. Let’s not talk about it…let’s do it. Words are just words and easy to manufacture, but our actions are always more difficult. Easiest way to think about it is: Philosophy is the study of life, while Stoicism is the art of enduring. When you combine them for “Stoic Philosophy” we definite it as the physical act of living: to endure! That is why we are here on this earth! Through our endurance we are given the opportunity to experience life in its most raw and vulnerable form. Shackelton probably knew that.

  
  

If you have time those are just a few of the wonderful books I read during 2025. Enjoy!