Kristina Elyse Butke

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My Year in Reading 2025

By

Kristina Elyse Butke

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Image from depositphotos.

Introduction: My Year in Reading

Given that my previous reading years surpassed 200 books, I wanted to do a lofty goal of 150 this year. But then I started reading more prose books, and on top of that, was regularly working and writing for Oliver Heber Books, so I didn’t have the same amount of free time (or money for eBooks) as I had previously. When the writing was on the wall, and I saw that I was nowhere near to making my goal, I knocked it down to 85 books and hoped I’d reach the new one. I did, readers! Yay!

One of my goals was to read more prose, be it fiction or nonfiction. I love reading comics, graphic novels, and manga, but I felt like those genres tend to dominate my reading at the expense of prose works. While I did read more of that this year, manga still eclipsed everything that I read. This is partly due to the fact that I review manga, especially for TOKYOPOP.

Some quickie stats:

  • Total books read: 87
  • Total genres explored: BL manga (43), Horror (19), manga (13), nonfiction (5), horror manga (5), fantasy (1), and comics (1).
  • Reading challenge completed: YES! 85 books/85 books

Highlights and Lowlights

My top three books:

The Reformatory – cinematic, high tension, historical horror novel set in Jim Crow Florida. The scariest parts are not the hauntings, although those are pretty freaky, but rather the very real crimes committed against young Black boys and Black people in general during this time in the South

The Blanks – this is a short story exclusive to Amazon that is disturbing. An idyllic island is the perfect place to live, as long as you avoid eye contact with the mysterious things that randomly kill people in the town. What is the price to pay to call the place you love home?

Gal-kun Will Definitely Fall in Love – I want this to come out in paperback very, very badly (it’s digital-only right now) as this one is a keeper and an absolutely adorable BL love story.

Biggest disappointments of the year:

A horror novella written by a prolific author who also writes fantasy that I love – this versatile author writes both horror and fantasy, and her horror doesn’t always work for me. This one struck out. I wanted to like it, but I couldn’t get behind the heroine’s narrative voice and thought processes, so I DNF’d it (however I counted it as read, oops!).

A nonfiction title about menopause by a respectable Hollywood actress – I actually liked most of what I’d read so far, but then a significant chunk of the book started talking about hormones. I’m not against their use at all, but as I technically haven’t started menopause yet (and maybe only just now starting perimenopause), I felt like that part of the book didn’t apply to me, so I DNF’d it with the intention of coming back to it later in my life.

A famous nonfiction book about neurological disorders – this book is well known with a quirky title and has been around for decades. But the author opted not to update his “clinical” language that has seriously dated the book, and leave everything as written from when it was first published. It’s too bad because some of the words he uses to refer to patients are quite offensive. I had to stop and start this one a lot. Will never read this author again.

Reading trends and themes:

My adoration of boys’ love manga has obliterated every category…the only one that comes closest is horror, and I will read horror in any rendition. I read horror novellas, short stories, comics, and manga. I probably enjoy reading horror more than fantasy (huge shock!) and when I went to graduate school, I studied to eventually become a horror author. That hasn’t materialized yet. But I do like to add scary things to my fantasy novels.

Book Reviews of 2025

I reprinted a lot of book reviews on this blog from previous years, but if you want to see what I actually read and reviewed in 2025, here you go:

Looking ahead to 2026

Reading goals for 2026:

I want to read more YA fantasy and YA romantasy. I *own* a lot but have been distracted by BL and horror. It’s very important to read in the genre you wish to write and to be aware of what readers want and expect. Plus, you should always have fun with your genre!

I want to read more comics, particularly Western comics from BOOM! Studios. This is because I signed up to read and review for them. I just got two NetGalley approvals of their upcoming comics but messed up how the files were to be sent to me…so I wrote “will not review.” Well, I found an alternative way to read — the in-browser NetGalley reader–so I’m trying to review for them again.

Most anticipated books of 2026:

I have more than just the ones above, but adding cover images and making sure they pop up in gallery form is kind of tedious, lol.

Final thoughts

While I am a little bit disappointed in my reading output this year–I DNF’d a lot, had a lot of concentration issues, and nowhere near matched the glory of previous years–I have to pat myself on the back and congratulate myself for keeping up with my reading goal, and, to put it bluntly, actually bothering to read. I had a lot of distractions this year, and while I could’ve given up and wallowed in self-pity, I did manage to somehow keep going.

According to this study, despite the abysmal number, the USA is a top reading country, averaging 17 books read per year among its populace. This must be coming from the super readers, because according to this study, 48.5% of US readers hadn’t touched a book in over a year. Suffice it to say, I do not reflect the average reader or the average American when it comes to books. Yay.

What was your favorite book of 2025? What do you recommend I read in 2026?

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