Read 90 Books in 2025 (and Reviewed 81 of Them)

This was not the plan. The plan was to read... just read, like I always do. And test if I could read 50 books (again). That’s been my regular count for the last five years. Some years a little less, some years a little more, but always in that general range of 40-50 books.

And then 2025 happened. Somewhere along the way, the reading count crept up to 90. I achieved the 50 books count in the 7th-8th month itself.

What surprised the most was the number of reviews left. 81. Freaking 81 reviews... writing them right after finishing the book.

2025 Got Me Into Indie Author Community

A big change this year came from spending more time on Threads. I was bored with the platforms I was active on. Thanks to the Instagram integration, I had an active bookish feed already curated for me by the algorithm.

It was an open, responsive and genuinely engaged community of indie authors and readers. That’s how I found some fresh recommendations away from the influencer hype.

Being part of those interactions led me to discover more indie titles and request ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) directly. So, I was reading as well as reviewing regularly. I guess the sense of shared connection made me more intentional about finishing books and reviewing them promptly.

Most of my reviews live on Goodreads, but I also share them on other bookish platforms and social spaces. And when I counted my Goodreads reviews at the end. It was 81. Just in 2025.

Reviewing Started to Matter More

Once ARCs became a regular part of my reading, reviewing came with expectations. Even though authors or publishers were often lenient, I set deadlines for myself. If I was taking review copies, I couldn’t just finish the book and move on. That’s how it works, right?

So, as I read, I noted down my thoughts on the Keep app. First impressions, random thoughts, emotional reactions... anything that would help me with writing the review later. I’ve been a slow reader and I keep forgetting the beginning as I approached the ending. And notes were godsend.

Alongside that, I highlighted lines, quotes and phrases that I might want to reference. And by the time I finished reading, the raw material for the review was already there.

As the year went on, I began browsing BookSirens and NetGalley more actively and reached out to PR agencies. I also started receiving a steady flow of review requests through my blog. That made it even more important to stay organised, realistic and clear about what I could commit to.

Using a Kindle helped a lot with my reviewing process. Between the device and the Kindle app, highlighting passages and saving quotes became easy. It’s not something I could do as freely with physical books. I don’t like marking pages.

Most of My Reviews Ended Up on Goodreads

Goodreads has been my primary book tracking platform for the last 10 years. It worked as a central log for me, so I kept everything here at least whenever possible. Made it easy to track. Also, most indie, self-published books showed up only on Goodreads.

However, for the books I connected with the most – especially my 4- and 5-star reads – I felt like talking about them beyond a single platform. So, those reviews found their way to Instagram and Threads. For non-fiction titles, I also shared reviews on LinkedIn. The audience and context made more sense there.

I cross-posted those reviews on specific reader-focused platforms as well – Amazon, BookBub, Bookclubs.com, Fable, LibraryThing and StoryGraph. More recently, I’ve also started sharing book reviews on Tome and Literal.club.

I'm available as Book Reviewer for hire

The Books That Earned 5 Stars

Five-star reads are rare for me. And these were the ones that stayed with me long after I finished them. A good mix of traditional books and self-published gems, which pretty much sums up my 2025 reading.

• Bailing Out, by Leonard Ruhl
• Sweets and Sycamores, by Arianne Nicks
• The Trees Sing, by Rishikesh Lokapure
• My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
• The Sundered Stars, by H.E. Bauman
• Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli
• Blackthorn, by Emily Eve
• The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, by Deborah Rodriguez
• When Death Gives You Lemons, by Alice G. Brooks

The Solid 4-Star Reads

These were some other books I genuinely enjoyed. Even though they weren’t as satisfying as the 5-star reads, they were still well-written, engaging and thoughtfully put together. Can recommend them without hesitation.

• The Shining, by Stephen King
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
• Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout
• The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden
• Numbers Don't Add Up, by Shweta
• In the Woods Somewhere, by Sam Evans
• Love Undercover, by Kacey Sophia
• The Career Escape Plan, by Rajesh Minocha
• Past Life, by David Mark
• The Time Between Doors, by Line Langager
• The Hurt Between Us, by Mariah L. Stevens
• Stop Trying!, by Carla Ondrasik

These are just a selection; the full list of my 2025 reads and reviews lives on my Goodreads profile.

Tried to Finish Most of What I Started

Reading itself wasn’t the hard part. Finishing was.

There were books I didn’t connect with and chose not to continue. In most cases, though, I tried to follow through, especially when I approached the author myself (or filled out their form) to request an ARC/review copy.

Sometimes the challenge was genre fatigue. When I unknowingly read too many books in similar themes back-to-back. At other times, it was simply a matter of mood. I found myself craving my usual crime thrillers and murder mysteries.

Those moments made finishing certain books harder, but they also made me more mindful about what I chose to read and how I scheduled my reads. I started spacing out similar genres and keeping an eye on page counts, so I didn’t overwhelm myself by taking on too many heavy reads in a single month.

Looking Ahead to 2026

I’m not trying to beat 90. Never again. It was too stressful.

Next year, I’m thinking in terms of a steady monthly mix: ARCs, physical books, library loans, and the occasional Kindle read. Just enough to stay consistent, without turning reading into a chore.

Fifty books has been my sweet spot for yearly reading. If it goes past that effortlessly, I don’t mind. But I’ll still be more mindful. What matters to me is having enough room for authors whose books I have fallen in love with.

So yes, I’m planning to continue reading and reviewing more self-published titles in 2026. And hopefully, I’ll come across many more good books worth spending time with.

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