25 Books I Want to Read in 2025

Here are 25 books that I plan to read in 2025!

With the year winding down, I've started to make a general outline of my reading plans for 2025. I don't keep any strict list or plan, but lists like this do keep me on track to read the authors and about the topics that I'd like to explore further.

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
01:32 - #1-4
04:50 - #5-10
06:12 - #11-14
09:18 - #15-19
13:49 - #20-25
18:57 - Wrap Up

#bookrecommendations #tbr

[magnumopus]

Every January I start with "War and Peace", and in January 2025 I will have to read it for the fourteenth time. It is the only book that the more I read, the more I am delighted. The first wind of every spring begins with Faulkner's novels and continues until summer. Every summer I read "Anna Karenina" and "Moby Dick" from beginning to end... Autumn belongs to Bunin from beginning to end.
As the years go by, I lose the desire to read new books, the more I am convinced that in the end nothing is worth reading except the classics.

[HannahsBooks]

I’m so glad you’re trying both Woolf and Faulkner this coming year!

[dqan]

Looking forward to your thoughts on these! Read As I Lay Dying in college and found it really interesting. Think I mentioned before how much I like the world of Dubliners. Norwegian Wood is probably the easiest entry into Murakami; not sure where I would recommend people start when it comes to the surreal stuff. Think I started with Wild Sheep then went back to Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball (not recommended). (Wait, after checking out his bibliography, I definitely started with Hard-boiled Wonderland--zany stuff. Wind-up is my favorite, but it's a real investment. Hoping to join a Proust read-along next year, but we'll see. My reading muscles are rather flaccid.

[ToReadersItMayConcern]

Loving your selection throughout. You may want to dabble in a few of Lispector's short stories alongside The Passion According to G.H., if only to get a greater sense of her style. The Passion According to G.H. is especially intense and manic (but that's also what's most interesting about it).

Fit in Woolf's The Waves if you can! I think you can handle the 'challenge' of it.

[philip]

Very happy to see you’ll be reading As I Lay Dying! Once you have read that and The Sound and the Fury, I highly recommend Absalom, Absalom! (my favorite novel of all time).

[bookdmb]

For you I would recommend starting Murakami with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, as its his most literary and thematically heavy text. Norwegian Wood is fantastic, but it has a slightly more adolescent and melodramatic texture.

[laribex]

Love the list, and you’re challenging me to read new authors. I just recently finished War and Peace for the first time, and Anna Karenina a year ago. Just WOW. I’ve been struggling with other books lately and I realized that I had a longing for more Russian literature. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy- ugh, they just get me.

[sharpasaknife]

Hi from Deutschland again! Great that you choose Tchekov (I read all his plays and saw the "Cherry Orchard" on stage). I liked "Stoner" a lot, but "Butcher's Crossing" (sorry to say this to all who appreciated it soo much) felt a bit too "simple" to me (I think this is a book I would have loved when I was in my early twenties or even younger). Murakami - me, I liked "Kafka on the Shore" best, though most of his novels are really worth to be read. And Goethe ... for a German of my generation he is the biggest God Father of high literature (at least we were told so in school) - "Werther" will really be a good starter, I think. Curious what you will say about "American Psycho". So: Thank you for your inspiring videos throughout the year, I wish you a lot of joy with your 2025 choice, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Reading Year. CU, Reiner.

[curtjarrell]

To the Lighthouse is a marvelous novel. Dubliners gets better as you read deeper into the collection. The crowning achievement of the book is the final story, "The Dead." I'm currently reading my first fiction by Murakami, his new best seller, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. It's a slow build but fascinating. Previously I've read two of his non-fiction works, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and Novelist as a Vocation. I recommend both. In 2025 I want to finish Don Quixote and read much more Borges. Happy reading.

[connord]

2025 will be a year of Vasily Grossman. I am currently reading Life and Fate and I am blown away by Grossmans beautiful prose and masterful characterization. I am already planning on reading Stalingrad as soon as I am done or maybe pausing L&F to begin Stalingrad. I can’t believe L&F is not discussed more, I’ll stop from getting to hyperbolic considering I am only a third through the novel.

[radudumanovschi]

Michael Ondaatje is that author. The English Patient is a veteran of my TBR and I'll be reading it next year.

[TheLinguistsLibrary]

Adding Secondhand Time to my wishlist! I read Norwegian Wood in June and I have mixed feelings about a certain character lol. It'll be fun to see what you think about this one, I really liked Murakami's prose.

[emilsalomonsen]

Hey, greetings from Norway! Speaking of «Norway», Norwegian wood is an interesting novel to say the least. As a guy who likes to read the classics, and espessially russian classics (currently on part 6 of crime and punishment), Norwegian wood is a quick and fun read. Looking past the questionable depictions of female characters, the prose is good and the scenery is beautiful! My next read is The sorrows of young Werther which I am very excited for:)

Discovered your channel a week ago and you soon became my favourite content creator, always looking forward to your next videos😊

[BobJacobs]

Second Hand Time, nice! I just purchased a beautiful special edition by Fitzcarraldo of that book and plan on reading it too next year.
Also: it's a very good idea to start with As I Lay Dying before The Sound and the Fury!

[mildredalayon]

Becker's The Denial of Death should be the 1st on your list, particularly given all those Russian novels and books on war. I read that book when I was 18 yrs old (I'll be 71 on Saturday), and it changed my life. I have the book (all annotated by my 18 yr old self), and I plan to re-read it at some point.
Enjoy your readings.

[christianbistriceanu]

Hello, I just started to watch your videos. Great books and great readings, but I've noticed that you do not have many latin-american writers on your bookshelves (except Jorge Luis Borges, he's one of my favourites, and Roberto Bolaño).
I will highly recomand you several books and I hope you will eventually get to them.
1. One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
2. Pedro Paramo and The burning plain- Juan Rulfo
3. The war at the end of the world - Mario Vargas Llosa
4. The obsen bird of the night- Jose Donoso
5 The savage detectives- Roberto Bolaño
6 Men of maize - Miguel Angel Asturias
7. Sort storys by Julio Cortazar
8. I the supreme- Augusto Roa Bastos
9.The posthumous memories of Bras Cubas - Machado de Assis
10. Three trapped tigers- Gullierno Cabrera Infante
11. The kiss of the spider woman- Manuel Puig.
Probably I exaggerated with the recommendation., at least try no. 1 and 3. ( most of them are considered classics)
Best regards from Romania.

[jackwalter]

Great list! As I Lay Dying is my favorite novel ever. However, I don't care for Ellis or Murakami at all. Enjoy! Read Mishima's Spring Snow to see how you would like the tetralogy.

[burke]

As I Lay Dying is amazing on so many levels. It is a nice gateway drug into Faulkner. I’m looking forward to your thoughts on both As I Lay Dying and The Sound and The Fury in 2025!

[milfredcummings]

I'm glad both books made it into your reading plan! Which is fantastic even without them. Now I somehow feel obliged to give you an explanation. Solenoid is a puzzle novel composed of at least a hundred other novels that more or less influenced Cărtărescu in different ways. It reminds me of Thomas Pynchon's novels because of the huge number of different references to different novels and authors. In fact, I recently read a novel that uses the same technique of combining autobiographical elements with science fiction, and it reminds me a lot of Solenoid. It is "Lanark" by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Another book that perhaps influenced Cărtărescu the most is Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. So White Noise influenced Cărtărescu, but it is one drop in the ocean of other influences. In the last third of White Noise the main theme is the fear of death, which is also an important theme in Solenoid. There are some other references, but they are not that important, and it has been a long time since I read those novels, so I don't remember the details.
As for Virgin Wool, I'm afraid you've chosen her equivalent of Finnegans Wake. But don't worry, it's not that bad. To the Lighthouse is a difficult book, but I'm sure you'll manage. All her novels are very different from each other in terms of writing style. It is the result of her constant experimentation. Perhaps her most accessible novel is Mrs Dalloway. Orlando is probably her wittiest and most entertaining work. The Waves and Jacob's Room are also great novels, and I would recommend reading them together to get a better understanding of them.
I'm currently reading The Silver Dove by Russian author Andrei Bely, and I'm really enjoying his writing style. Bely is one of the best authors of the last century, along with Virginia Woolf, Joyce, Proust... His novel Petersburg is a masterpiece. I recommend that you definitely read it, but maybe not next year because it is full of references to previous Russian classics, so you will enjoy it more if you read Demons, Fathers and Sons, Anna Karenina, Eugene Onegin first.

[MarinaMacca-it]

In this month I am reading only russian novels. Blue lard is a masterpiece. Awesome book such as day of the oprichnik and telluria. Sorokin is one of my faves contemporary writer. White noise was such a rewarding reading. Murakami Was my crush when I Was 28 years old. I read every book of your until 1Q84. I also started with norwegian wood that I enjoyed so much despite the sadness of the book. If you like this book, I suggest you to read south of the border, west of the sun. But if you want to experiment something eerie, I suggest you kafka on the shore or a wild sheep chase. Ps. Mishima was my faves writer when I was 20 years old. The sailor who fell from grace with the sea is my faves novel.