Total number of books read–228
Format–Paper books: 59.9%; Audio books: 40.1%
Genre–Fiction: 64.%; Nonfiction: 30.8%; Poetry: 4.8%
Top 3 subgenres–Fantasy, Thriller, General Fiction
Longest Book–It by Stephen King–1155 pages
Shortest Book–Charlie the Choo Choo–24 pages
Most Read Author–Stephen King, 33
Total pages–83,108
Median number of pages–331
Median number of days to read a book–3
Oldest Book–The Legend of Sleepy Hollow–1820
Newest Book–The Rose Field–October 23, 2025
Shortest Title–It
Longest Title–The Quantified Process Approach to Neuropsychological Assessment

Worst Book–A Confederacy of Dunces
For the life of me, I have no idea how this book won a Pulitzer Prize. It is terrible.

My Top 10

Honorable Mention: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris
This year, I read my first book by David Sedaris and I immediately fell in love with his sense of humor and writing style. He is a master satirist, writing about family, relationships, and culture. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is…different. It presents a series of short stories about animals engaging in human behavior and exploring cultural mores, often turning them on their head. Here’s the thing: I suspect most of my friends would hate this book, perhaps thinking, “What the heck is wrong with Jason?” A lot, I suppose. (humor)

10. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
I am a bit surprised I included this on my top 10 list (am I allowed to be surprised by my own selections?). Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist who took an interesting tack with this book…writing both about working with clients and also about being a client in therapy. It is interesting to see how they intersect as well, how her thinking in one domain influences her thinking in the other. In some regards, her writing style here reminds me of the master psychotherapist, Irving Yalom. It is an engaging and deeply human book. (nonfiction)

9. Time of the Child–by Niall Williams
A few years back, Williams’s book, This is Happiness, was on my top 10 list. It was one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve ever had. Williams has an unusual gift of constructing metaphors, painting creative word pictures page after page. Like This is Happiness, Time of the Child is set in the small fictional Irish village of Faha. The book tells the story of a community doctor, his daughter, and their community. And an unexpected child. (fiction)

8. A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
I am fascinated by large numbers. I mean really large numbers. The human mind cannot comprehend what these huge numbers actually imply. One of my favorite examples compares 1 million seconds and 1 billion seconds. The former is about 11-1/2 days; the latter is 31 years and 8 months.

Anyway, the premise of A Short Stay in Hell is that the main character is sent to a hell that consists of every possible 410-page book with each page containing 40 lines and 80 characters on each line. The characters include letters, numbers, and the other characters found on a typical keyboard. The main character can escape hell when he finds the book that perfectly describes his life. The impossibility of this task becomes quickly evident when after weeks, he still has not discovered a book with even coherent words. (science fiction, horror)

7. John Adams by David McCullough
McCullough’s biography of our second president is considered one of the finest presidential biographies ever written. I have thought about reading it for years, but I never took the time. I am so glad that I finally did. I found the president, his wife, his children, and the other players in the story to be fascinating. I honestly had no idea how truly influential he was in the establishment of the United States and the pursuit of revolution. The tenuous friendship with Thomas Jefferson was really interesting; the two were certainly cut from different cloths. Did you know the two of them died on the same day, July 4, 1826? (history, biography)

6. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
A couple of years ago, I read Klune’s House on the Cerulean Sea. I liked the story just fine, but it did not wow me as I know it did others. Under the Whispering Door, however, was a touching book. The book tells the story of a deeply unlikeable attorney, Wallace Price, who dies and is escorted by a reaper to a tea shop as he awaits the afterlife. As he stays in the tea shop, he discovers what life is really about. (fiction)

5. The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War–-Jeff Sharlet
Ten years ago, I was a guest on a radio show explaining why I was a never-Trump person. I detailed my reasons and concerns. At the time (May 2016), nearly all of my conservative friends were similarly concerned, though sadly, a huge number of them changed over time. My concerns about Christian nationalism have only grown over that decade. I’ve read over a dozen books about the topic, some of which have appeared on previous lists. The Undertow is unique. Sharlet travels across America exploring particular stories of particular people (including some who live just 45 minutes from here) and their inexplicable love for Donald Trump. It is poignant. It is tragic. (politics, essay)

4. The Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tea Leavings
Like Christian nationalism, over the past several years, I have also read a number of books dealing with harms fundamentalist Christian beliefs can cause. In the Well-Trained Wife, Leavings writes about coming to accept Christian beliefs related to patriarchal leadership, and the eventual abuses she suffered at the hands of her husband. Her’s is a painful story to read, but important. Unfortunately, there are far too many who fail to see the potential endpoint of harmful beliefs. (religion, memoir)

3. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
For months, or even years, Dungeon Crawler Carl popped up as a recommended book on Audible, but I never took the recommendation seriously because the audiobook cover is just so stupid. But then I began to see the book recommended as a favorite audiobook by numerous people. Over and over, people praised it. I decided to give it a try, and it was better than I could have possibly imagined.

In this story, Carl is one of the few survivors of a mass takeover of Earth by The Borant Corporation, who turns it into a multilevel dungeon that is used as a gameshow broadcast throughout the universe. The survivors are allowed to be contestants in this cosmic gameshow. Together with his girlfriend’s award-winning cat, Princess Donut, Carl competes for his life. Part Ready Player One, part Running Man, part Hunger Games, this is a hilarious, engaging story.

I’ve listened to 6 of the 7 books that are available so far. I imagine reading the book would still be excellent, but the audio narration by Jeff Hayes makes it over the top excellent. (sci-fi, humor)

2. Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Decades ago, I read the first two books in Stephen King’s epic multivolume masterpiece about The Dark Tower but then stopped reading. My friend Josh is a huge fan of The Dark Tower, so I decided to pick it up again and made it through all seven of the canon books as well as the two ancillary books (The Wind Through the Keyhole and Charlie the Choo Choo). I absolutely loved this massive story, and I don’t think it will be long before I begin the journey to the Tower yet again. I chose Wizard and Glass (book 4) because it is my favorite of the series, though let me tell you, you should read them all. (fantasy)

1. Anxious People by Fredrick Backman
In some years, I have had a really hard time choosing my number one book. This year, there was really no contest. Anxious People by Fredrick Backman was easily my favorite book of the over 200 I read this year. It tells the story of a bank robbery and subsequent hostage situation, but it is not at all what you might imagine. It is a deeply human, hilarious, touching account. Backman is a great storyteller, which shines through in my number one. (fiction)

Notes
a) I typically have 3 to 4 books going at any given time.
b) My book total this year far exceeds any previous year. I am not entirely sure why, but I have certainly enjoyed reading.