Every year my goal is to read 12 books, one per each month. Generally speaking, this is a very low goal, however I always attempt to finish the year off on a positive note rather than a negative one, so I feel like one book a month is low enough that meeting it is realistic and passing it makes me feel accomplished. It’s also realistic considering my current lifestyle (ie. Working full time and attending school full time, plus being a productive member of my household).
This year I’m doing things a little bit differently by aiming for one page per day alongside the twelve books per year. Again, a very small goal that I hope will, eventually, add up to progress on my many TBRs and maybe even some habits formed. I’ll also try to write through my thoughts and post them on this site, as I have been doing with the Count of Monte Christo. I normally don’t like posting reviews or even star ratings on books, because I haven’t actually figured out what my criteria for rating books yet is, and I have an irrational fear of someone screenshotting my opinions and making fun of me (is that self centered? I think I need to realize no one is actually watching me like that, but why not ensure that by creating this site). Just some lines of thought will be a nice way to exercise my brain and digest these stories better.
Since I only started these exercises in December though, I have an entire year’s worth of texts that I still want to comment on because, despite not reading as much, a lot of these still linger on my mind.
To start, some fun charts from StoryGraph:
Total pages read: 4,211
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I went from Miss Major Speaks directly to A Storm of Swords and Wuthering Heights. I don’t know if I agree that Miss Major Speaks is a completely light book. Although there is a hopeful message of unity and community building amongst trans women especially in her text, the unvarnished account of her struggles—especially as these struggles persist for many other trans women of colour—do not make this a light read. Otherwise, everything else tracks |
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This one’s a fun one. In August, I was moving, and October is when the semester really kicks off. Still, I got my reading in! |
Authors I spent the most time with in 2025: Ursula K. Le Guin
- This one is no surprise. She has always been my favourite author, and I had finished 2024 by re-reading the Left Hand of Darkness. There is such a beautiful solidity to her writing, and all her characters linger with you in such an intimate way. Similarly, her nonfiction work has a language that gives a sense that she is speaking directly to you: she weaves honesty, humour, and prose effortlessly. I will never tire of her writing, and I don’t think I fear the day where I’ve read all her works, as there is so much to return to. An additional note: Shoutout to my friends who will always receive screenshots of whatever text I’m reading now, especially nonfiction works.
Books I read
Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolutionary
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy - Jan 11,2025
This was a really good book to read and finish after I got my top surgery. Book club read. Changed my life. I had quite a lot of thoughts on this one, but really they were mostly spoken out loud in the book club I attend.
A Storm of Swords
George R.R. Martin - Mar 14, 2025
There are so many pages, and so many goings on in this book, that it is hard to describe it compared to the others in the series so far. As it stands, GRRM only gets better. Stories like these, with a seemingly endless number of plots that all come together at the eleventh hour in a swift tug of the strings, are a delight to read. The cast of characters only grows, which is why it makes sense that the next two books split the action up, but in this entry where you really do see all the players on the board at once, was a perfect treat. I kind of regret the fact that it's been so long since I have read this book, and have yet to pick up the fourth one, but the escalating events of ASoS require a long digestion period. As a surprise to no one, I am quite fond of Brienne of Tarth, as well as all of the Stark siblings' varied struggles. I miss Catelyn Stark a lot. And Davos... While I never watched the show, I genuinely can't believe that watching the Red Wedding was as bad as reading it. Like, the implications of everything is simply too much, I've never had to re-read those pages multiple times, and then wish I could un-read them... At the end of the day, I just love a good fantasy. ASOIF has a lot of depth and grandiosity that I cannot help but be attracted to. Hopefully I will have the courage to continue reading it.
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë - Apr 1, 2025
I think what led me to read this was a combination of generally enjoying gothic literature, as well as the announcement of the Wuthering Heights movie and the need to be able to ethically hate on it. The story can only be described as aching, horrid, and haunting. Brontë is able to make you feel the hard stones, the biting wind, and the wet mud that chills your feet as you walk across the moors with Catherine and Heathcliff. Much like hell, Heathcliff's violent rage is a chilling companion to the feverish warmth that Catherine exudes in her madness, broken up only by her attempts to improve her life. I was pleasantly surprised to find a hopeful ending in Cathy and Hareton's story. Needless to say, I loved this book a lot, and I'm glad that hating has led me to such a great story. I don't think it[s not a love story, but it's obviously not aspirational, or even sexy. Anyways, I do have a problem where I don't think I can talk about or like anything unless I'm an expert on it, and I'd like to look further into Gothic lit because of this.
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut - Apr 8, 2025
This is a classic I've had on my shelf for a long time, but I cannot remember what compelled me to read it except for maybe the fact that it was pretty short. I had no expectations going in, and this was my first experience with Vonnegut. The way Vonnegut writes, and includes elements of his own experience in this story, makes it a poignant experience. Billy Pilgrim is a boy wholly unprepared for what he goes through, both in war and in space and at home, because the situations forced upon him are simply too much to comprehend entirely. I think Vonnegut captures that ingeniously.
Cuba and Angola the War for Freedom
Harry Villegas - Apr 19, 2025
I bought this book in like 2023 because I was in a seminar class about Cuba, Culture, and the Revolution (which still remains one of my favourite classess to this day), when I found it at Indigo by chance. My prof actually knows Villegas, and was pleasantly surprised when I brought this book to class, however it still took me so long to get around to it. I wanted to read something rather short, but a lot of what I was feeling when I read Slaughterhouse-Five was still being felt. It is obviously a Cuban perspective of their contributions to the war in Angola, and besides this text and what I read in class, my overall knowledge of the events is rather lacking. What I can say is that, time and time again (and I dont care if this isn't "nuanced" or whatever) Fidel was completely right: History will absolve him. History continues to absolve him.
The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Ursula K. Le Guin - May 22, 2025
There's genuinely too many thoughts on this book that I physically cannot contain them in this space just yet. Part of it is that, much like the book which takes us through a journey of UKL's own ideas as she grows and changes as an author and human being, this is something that only increases in value as you revisit it, which you must do. As a technical/referential guide on how to be a writer of any kind, it's perfect. As a critique/response to the genre of sci-fi and fantasy, it's also wonderfully illuminating. I walked away with a lot of further references that I hope to explore in the near future.
Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions
Ursula K. Le Guin - Jun 30, 2025
I finally read it because UKL speaks about her development as a Fantasy/Sci-fi authour by comparing her early works to her later works, and devotes a lot of time to these three. TLotN also includes the introduction for all three of the included novels, which only made my cravings for these books stronger.
The Idiot
Elif Batuman - Jul 23, 2025
Another book that I just wanted to get off of my TBR list, and I'm glad I did so. The humour in how unintentionally absurd Selin is was enjoyable, but ultimately it captures the feeling of disjointedness that comes with leaving home and no longer being the smartest kid in class. I found out that it is semi-autobiographical, and that Elif Batuman is a lesbian, which added another layer of humour to all of poor Selin's problems.
The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces
Seth Harp - Sep 21, 2025
Normally I am not into true crime, but I like to keep up to date with the goings on of such a powerful terrorist organization such as the one that is central to this book. A grim exposé that makes me feel like a crazy person because it is not a conspiracy theory, but talking about anything discussed in thos book makes you sound like one.
Memories That Smell like Gasoline
David Wojnarowicz - Nov 24, 2025
Birthday gift for myself. Kind of left me at a loss for words. For similar reasons, I have yet to finish Close to the Knives; Wojnarowicz had been fighting his whole life, and he does not glamorize or sanitize his bloody and violent struggle. He has a distinctive writing style, employed here specifically, that is like a long running sentence, both prosaic and blunt at the same time. Sometimes time and space and dreams fold in on themselves as he narrates, taking you from one theatre showing porn to a motel room to the fragments of his childhood. His watercolours, which are included alongside the text, compliment the story in various ways. Wojnarowicz is unapologetic in his desire and attraction to men, to the acts that he watched or participated in; there is a matter-of-factness in how he presents these moments: moments of trauma, abuse, violence, and affection that overlap. AIDS is the omnipresent heaviness that hangs over it all.
Customer Copy: A Memoir
Laur Flom - Dec 27, 2025
I didn't actually read this in December, but I only remembered then that I could add books myself onto StoryGraph, so I uploaded this one. This is published by an acquaintence via their own printing press, Smallest Goose Press and you can find the book here, although you cannot purchase it anymore because it was a limited run printing! Something about looking through someone's receipts, regardless of how much or little I know them, feels like a massive overstep into their privacy. Why is it so strangely personal to not only know about the little things that people spend their money on, but also how much they cost? At the same time, it feels cold and even dehumanizing to reduce one's life to an itemized receipt (not that I believe this was the authors intentions, but perhaps one of the things that they intended their audience to reflect on). Very cool project, I am so glad to own a copy of it!
H of H Playbook
Anne Carson - Dec 27, 2025
Anne Carson's fascination with Herakles and his journey has always yielded the most beautiful pieces. from Autobiography of Red, which fundamentally altered my brain chemistry, to Red Doc>, she has been able to superimpose the ancient story with the reality of living in southern Ontario in a way that is seamless. There is a sense that I could have known these tragic men as my neighbours, that Euripides had written this with the poorly paved, yellow-grassed fields of Keswick or Orangeville in mind. Well, if he ever went there, he probably would think it was Thebes anyways. This one was particularly poignant to revisit and read through in its entirety after I read The Fort Bragg Cartel as the issues stirred in that book are exactly what Carson is speaking to. The ways in which war completely transforms a human being into something that cannot just "return home," the mental weight that comes with killing innocents and doing drugs and feeling both hunted and invincible. True to form, the formatting of the book is also very experimental, with the lines printed and glued on pages, lines occasionally being finished in pencil, and illustrations in pencil and oil pastels that stain the pages that brush against it. Such a unique experience.
Sun, 04 Jan 2026 19:53:20 +0500