Looking back, 2025 was a great reading year for me.

I know that we are a month into 2026 already, but I sat down this morning an looked at the books that I read in 2026 and when looked at a whole, I give this year an A+.

• I read some old favorites: Le Carre, Scalzi, Howey, Carey and French. These are the writers that I will just read anything new of theirs that I find and re-read when in the mood.
• Found some new genres of authors that I love, such as Christopher Buelman's Those Across the River. A truly scary story by the author of The Blacktongued Thief.
• Fell on some never-disappointing Michael Connelly, Peter Grainger and Greg Iles.
• Read some non-fiction by Maddow and Larsen to keep me grounded.
• Discovered new writers, Robert Galbraith and Robert Jackson Bennett and proceeded to devour everything that I could find.
• Round that up with stuff hanging around the TBR pile by Tchaikovsky, Thomas Perry, Agustina Bazterrica and Paolo Baciagalupi that kept me turning pages.

I have been an avid reader since I stumbled on One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. I do book challenges not because I am trying to reach a number, but because have read so many books over almost 70 years that I need to track what I have read.

I don't usually go back and look over the year, but the 2025 list gave me a lot of satisfaction. I hope that 2026 is even better.