And that is a wrap! 2025 is in the books. Thank you, 2025, for all the memories and the lessons you’ve taught me. We’ve successfully completed a 365-day revolution around the sun. But as the old adage goes, with every end comes a new beginning. 2025’s conclusion comes with the opening of a new door. We are provided with 12 new chapters, each accompanied by 365 blank canvases, upon which to paint new memories. I hope that we will paint these pages with memories that we will cherish for a lifetime, may it be with the people we love or all by ourselves.

As has been the tradition in the past few years, I will be kicking off the new year by looking back to the previous year, its hits, and of course, its mishits. It is also an opportunity to take a glimpse of how the coming year is going to shape up. This book wrap-up is a part of a mini-series that will feature the following:

  1. 2025 Top 20 Favorite Books
  2. 2025 Book Wrap Up
  3. 2025 Reading Journey by the Numbers
  4. 2025 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part I)
  5. 2025 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part II)
  6. 2025 New Favorite Authors
  7. 2025 Beat the Backlist Challenge Wrap-up
  8. 2026 Books I Look Forward To List
  9. 2026 Top 26 Reading List
  10. 2026 Beat the Backlist Challenge

2023 and 2024 have certainly been record-breaking reading years. I broke barriers in 2022 when I surpassed 100 books in a year for the first time. I broke even more barriers in 2023 and 2024, when I finished 130 and 129 books, respectively. I lay low in 2025, ending the year with 119 books. Still, it was a productive reading year. It was the fourth consecutive year I finished at least 100 books. It is these successes that gained me new confidence in my reading goals. After dreaming about reading 100 books in a year for the longest time, I was finally able to do it not only once but four times, consecutively at that. This fills me up with hope this 2026. I hope I get to sustain this momentum. This reading wrap-up summarizes all my major reading statistics in 2025.

Below are my primary Goodreads statistics:

I also did my own tracking; there is a disparity in the page numbers because the versions are not always aligned. Based on my tracking, the total number of pages I completed during the year is 39,308 pages, almost 1,700 pages lower than what is reflected in Goodreads. The table below summarizes my reading statistics for the past four years. Please note that the 2022 statistics are based purely on Goodreads, while the 2023, 2024, and 2025 data are based on my own tracking. Interestingly, my average Goodreads rating has been increasing. I guess the reading wisdom I have gained over the years has made me more receptive to new ideas and works.

Metric2025202420232022
Total Number of Books Read 119129130103
Total Number of Pages39,30846,24843,46638,578
Average Number of Pages330.32358.51334.35374.54
Average Goodreads Rating4.304.204.103.80
By Length

With a whopping 874 pages, my longest read for the year was Otohiko Kaga’s Marshland, which is six pages shorter than my longest read in 2024, Stephen Markey’s The Deluge. I actually read three books over 800 pages long. The other two are Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate (871 pages) and Heimito von Doderer’s The Strudlhof Steps (839 pages). Meanwhile, my shortest read is Nobel Laureate in Literature Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. At 64 pages, it is my only 2025 read that is below 100 pages.

The graph below shows the number of books I read based on length. I have read fifteen books that are at least 500 pages long. In 2024, I read twenty books that are 500 pages long. I guess this accounts for the decrease in the number of pages I read this year against the total number of books read. Books that are longer than 100 pages but less than 300 pages long still dominate the list, with 62 books.

By Nationality and Language

I started tracking the nationality of the writers whose works I read in 2023. I also rebuilt data from books I have already read. One glaring statistic I noted is the dominance of American writers. Nearly half of all the books I read were written by American writers. Even if I separate writers who have other legacies, American writers still dominate my reading list. Four of my five most-read writers are Americans, with Danielle Steel heads and shoulders above everyone else, with 42 books. Agatha Christie was the only anomaly.

It is because of this glaring dichotomy that I have been prompted into action. I resolved to read more works of non-American writers. I guess I was unconsciously doing this in the past four years because I have been reducing the gap. The map below shows the origin of the writers whose works I read during the year:

In 2024, American writers dominated my reading list. Last year, I was able to dodge making a streak. Japanese writers, for the second time in the past three years, are my most-read writers, with 21; I ended 2023 with 26 books written by Japanese writers. My 2025 output is double my 2024 output. Still, I cannot seem to avoid American writers; they are, after all, ubiquitous. They are a close second, with eighteen books. Chinese writers round up my Top Three most-read nationalities. It is the first time that Chinese writers have entered my Top Three, which are often dominated by Japanese, American, and British writers. With a measly five books, British writers were relegated to fifth place as Korean writers claimed fourth place.

Unfortunately, in 2025, I read the works of writers from 34 different countries. This is a steep decline from the 49 countries and 38 countries I had in 2024 and 2023, respectively. I guess this is partly driven by my focus on more familiar writers. I finished 2025 with only 58 new-to-me writers, a steep drop from the 71 and 73 new-to-me writers I recorded in 2024 and 2023, respectively. Regardless, these are still decent numbers.

Other important notes include:

  • Most works written by Chinese writers read in a year, with ten books.
  • Most works written by Korean writers read in a year, with eight books, eclipsing the five books I set in 2024.
  • Most works written by Russian writers read in a year, with five.
  • Most works written by Hungarian, and Turkish writers read in a year, with four each.
  • Most works written by Vietnamese writers read in a year, with three.
  • My first books written by writers from the following countries:
    • Lebanon – Elias Khoury
    • Morocco – Laila Lalami
    • Slovenia – Dušan Šarotar

It seems that I am also making progress in my goal of reading more translated works. When I started monitoring my reading statistics, I noted how the majority of the books I read were originally written in English. As of the start of 2024, more than 80% of the books I read were written in this language. However, in 2025, I successfully read more translated works. I finished the year with 76 translated books, reducing the language gap to 72% as of the end of 2025. I guess my peripatetic nature as a reader is finally paying off. The goal is to reduce the gap further to at least one-third translated books to two-thirds English books in three years. I can confidently say that I am making decent progress. Below is the breakdown of the books I read based on the original language they were written:

In 2025, I read works originally written in 23 different languages. Unsurprisingly, English still dominates the list, although I was able to minimize it to 43 books, 23 books lower than my 2024 output. With 21 books, books originally written in Japanese remain second. This is, however, more than the 11 books I had in 2024. It is my goal to make up for this in 2025. Books originally written in Chinese are third. With nine books, 2025 is the year when I read the most books originally written in Chinese, surpassing the three books I read in 2023. A huge absence in 2025 is French literature. After having eight books in 2024, the most I had in a year, I did not read any books written in French in 2025.

I had three new languages added during the year: Thai, Slovene, and Malayalam. Moreover, I reset my most books read in a year, originally written in the following languages:

  • Chinese – 9
  • Korean – 7
  • Russian – 5
  • Turkish – 3
By Genre and Original Publication Date

In terms of genre, it comes as no surprise that historical and literary fiction, with 48 and 38 books, respectively, dominate the list. These two genres have become fixtures in my reading journey. Speculative fiction, coming-of-age, mystery, and romance round up my Top 3 with five books each. I also read works in horror and philosophical fiction, two genres I rarely venture into.

Another dimension of my reading journey I have been trying to tweak is my fixation with backlists. Over the past few years, I have been trying to read as many new books as I can. However, it is challenging to take out the backlist reader in me. How can I when I know that there are a lot of wonderful books out there? The graph underscores this inclination. I read a total of 107 backlists during the year, although this is five books lower than my total in 2024. A little above fifty percent of the books I read in 2025 were published in the current century. Books published in the second half of the twentieth century account for 45 books, twenty books more than my 2024 total.

I also read a total of three books originally published before the twentieth century. Shi Naian’s The Water Margin, said to be published in 1592, is the oldest book (in terms of original publication) I have read. Meanwhile, I read only twelve new books, five books fewer than what I read the year before. This also fell below my goal of fifteen new books. Regardless, fifteen new books will still be my goal in 2026.

And that completes my numerical analysis of my 2026 reading journey. Are there any parts of this update you want me to dig into deeper or at least improve? Or are there statistics you feel I ought to include? Do feel free to share in the comment box.