2025 in Books

STATS:

19 books
18 Audiobooks
1 Kindle books
Many unfinished books
2.3x listening speed
0 Chinese books
F in Diversity score (1 Female Author)

2025 was not an enjoyable year when it came to reading. I simply did not feel the desire to read. I was often distracted by the work at our school, and then by our move to the UK. I spent a lot more time watching videos on how to use Microsoft SharePoint and what cars to buy than reading books.

I was also far more absent minded when I did read. I did not write down much of what I read. And I am now suffering from not having much to write about in this yearly recap.

The book that left the strongest impression on me was Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert Reich. It introduced the idea that my generation, and my parents’ generation, might have failed humanity’s future. That the evolution of capitalism, democracy (or politics), and technology might have made the world more divided, more unequal, and more unkind. The book explained a lot of what I saw in the US in the 90s and 2000s, and how so many things felt misaligned with human prosperity. The choices around trade, campaign finance, and more.

The other theme from these books was China. Dan Wang’s framing that China is a nation of engineers while America is a nation of lawyers helped me think about the paths and interactions of the two countries. I lived in these worlds in the 2000s. I was at Apple during its rise in China in the 2010s. But I have always struggled to think through what I experienced. The three books on China helped.

Finally, I am frustrated with myself. I said in previous yearly book reflections that I should read fewer biographies and autobiographies. Yet the moment I heard about a book on Patagonia’s founder, I could not resist and bought it. The book was unsatisfying and shallow. I was disappointed both in the book and in myself, that I once again succumbed to urges I already knew I struggle to contain so predictably.