I read 84 books in 2025, including my 1,500th book since I started keeping my list in 1996. I aim to read 100 books this year, but longer books, and a busier life kept me from that goal this time around. As usual, my reading was all over the map, from the fantasy of Brandon Sanderson and J. R. R. Tolkien to the life of James Madison and Jesus to a Great Depression diary and Emerson's notebooks to the dictionary, and the history of the Golden Age of science fiction. Here, then, are my best reads of 20251:
1. Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean (2025)
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Susan Orlean's memoir is the big winner this year, coming in first place with her memoir of becoming a writer, and an intimate and funny look at the writer's life that was engrossing, fascinating, and a pleasure to read and absorb. Highly recommended for writers and non-writers alike.
2. Emerson: Mind on Fire by Robert D. Richardson (1996)
University of California Press
Isaac Asimov's famous story, “Nightfall” begins with this quote from Emerson:
“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God.
I haven't read much Emerson, but this year, I came across this wonderful biography of Emerson by Robert D. Richardson, particularly fascinating because of its emphasis on Emerson's notebooks and how he used them to think. This was one of those rare biographies from which many practical lessons are easily extracted.
3. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey, 50th Anniversary Edition by Michael Collins (2019)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Way back in the summer of 1998, back when I thought I might actually try to be an astronaut, I picked up a used copy of Michael Collins' memoir, Carrying the Fire at a bookshop in northern New Jersey. I read it then, and thought it unlike many of the astronaut memoirs at the time in both its detail and candor. This year, I re-read it and that reading solidified in my mind that it is the best of the astronaut memoirs and biographies I have read—and I have read quite a few of them over the decades.
4. Breakfast in the Ruins by Barry N. Malzberg (2007)
Baen Books
I re-read Breakfast in the Ruins in December, about a year after my friend and mentor Barry N. Malzberg passed away. Reading it reminded me of what a fantastic mind Malzberg had, what a powerful writer he was, so different in style from many science fiction writers. I also saw more clearly what it was he was trying to achieve within the genre—to show that it could be just as respectable and powerful as its literary cousins. The book stirred many questions that I wished I could have asked Barry, either in email or on the walks we took in the parking lot at Readercon.
5. History Matters by David McCullough (2025)
Simon & Schuster
When David McCullough passed away, we lost a phenomenal writer and historian of American culture and innovation. I recall an interview with him where he said he had about 20 projects he would like to get to, and when he died, I was sad because I figured I'd seen the last of his writing. So it was with surprise and delight that I learned of a new book, History Matters, which was a posthumous collection of previously unpublished essays and speeches on history, education, and other important matters of the day. Reading this reminded me of the power of McCullough's thoughts and words. How we could use them today!
6. Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates (2025)
Knopf
I grew up in the computer age. I got my first computer when I was 11 or 12—a Commodore VIC-20, and learned to program from the listings in computer magazines. In high school I got a DOS machine, which I used through college. My favorite word processor—Word for DOS 5.5—was a Microsoft product. So it was fun to read a memoir of the man who brought Microsoft to life as a company and led it through the early days of the Internet.
7. Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee (2019)
Dey Street Books
Alec Nevala-Lee and I have shared an issue of ANALOG (June 2011) and have been on at least one panel together at a science fiction convention. Back in 2019 I saw that he'd written a book on the history of the Golden Age of science fiction, but for some reason, I didn't read it at the time. I read it in December 2025, initially with some trepidation. After all, I had written more than 40 episodes of my Vacation in the Golden Age, and had read Asimov's autobiographies countless times, and right or wrong, activities such as these give one a feeling of propriety. Foolish, of course, and I was absolutely delighted by Alec's fascinating book on the Golden Age. I was humbled, too, learning much more about the people who made the Golden Age than I thought I knew. A must-read for any science fiction fan, but also for a fan of how a literary movement is born, and becomes a cultural phenomenon.
Earlier in the year, I read another great book by Alec, Collisions: A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs, which was a biography of Luis Alvarez, and a book I wholeheartedly recommend.
8. King's Counsellor: Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles by Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles (2020)
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
I can't recall what brought me to this book—except, perhaps, that I was searching for diaries. “Tommy” Lascelles was a private secretary to the British Royal Family and his diaries provide a fascinating peek behind the curtain during the Second World War.
— Boynton Beach, Florida
Did you have books you really enjoyed in 2025? Let me know about them in the comments.
Here are some best reads from previous years: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
