I have been beating myself up over my 2025 reading list. This year’s goal was to read 100 books. Truthfully friends, there is no prize for hitting my goal, nor punishment for a miss. The point is to keep me always reaching for a book rather than a tv remote or worse, for my phone. I spend way too much time scrolling as it is and do enjoy a good book. 

I fell behind at some point this summer. A dozen books behind schedule is a pretty big hole to dig yourself out of but I did manage. Yet, all along, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like what I was reading wasn’t good enough. 

Never mind all the articles and professional reading I was doing as well. 

My reading tastes range from historical fiction to thrillers to kiddie lit and non-fiction on a variety of topics. It felt like this year I devoted too many slots on my list to kid’s books. Out of the 102, 15 were kiddie lit. Three were from the Hector Fox storybook series gifted to the world by an author named Astrid Sheckels. These books feature exquisite artwork and fabulous stories about this group of animals that go on grand adventures but always come home to Hector’s den where they read a book or eat snacks together.

I want to live in Hector’s home, by the way. 

The kiddie lit stack also includes Charlotte’s Web and the first of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House On The Prairie series. I hadn’t read either since I was a child and was taken by how beautifully written these books are. The stories are captivating and thought provoking. These two and Hester Fox are better told stories than many of the adult contemporary fiction books I have read this year. 

I also read 20 nonfiction books on a variety of topics including farm life in the Great Depression, living in nature, and true crime. 

The rest were fiction and that stack included some truly wonderful books along with some that I would deem junk food for the brain. In particular, there were some thriller writers that required no effort to read.

I have a bookshelf where all the current year’s books live and where they are shelved in the order I read them. I also keep a Goodreads list and a notebook to record the books I read. The shelf, though, allows me to visualize all that I’ve read this year and the space these stories occupy in the world. 

Let’s face it – this is kind of a trophy shelf but I’m ok with that. 

On January 1, I always remove the books from those shelves and sort them on the kitchen table into the categories of Fiction, Non Fiction, and Children’s. I sort the favorites and which ones to give away. Then I shelve the keepers in their permanent homes. It’s a fun process for a closeted librarian. 

As I removed them 2025 books from that shelf, I realized there are trends in my reading year. Winter is reserved for longer books and a lot of nonfiction. By spring I’m reading more fiction, the heat of summer introduces kids books, and by Christmas it’s a steady diet of Richard Paul Evans and others who tell soft, happy Christmas stories. 

I read some great books this year. Why on Earth am I beating myself up over some kiddie lit that, in the grand scheme of things, is better done than some of the bubblegum fiction we are told we should be reading? 

Don’t worry. I’m done beating myself up now.

Reading is reading, friends. Whether you’re reading storybooks to your kids or diving deep into the world of Jane Austen, or reading bestselling fiction, it is all reading. 

And what a miracle it is that 26 little letters can be manipulated into thousands of words that tell a story in a book that is unique of all the other books next to it on a shelf. The creativity and effort that goes into writing books is something to be celebrated! The fact you choose a book over other distractions is amazing. 

Let us rejoice that there are books in this world and that we choose to read them!