Dec 26, 2025 2 min read

On my 2025 reading

Every year I publish my reading list. This is not that list! This is a meta reflection on reading this year.

I read less this year than I have since 2019. What explains my post-pandemic low, and will the trend continue?

As many of you know, I listen to most of the books I read. Audiobooks and running bring me mental and physical joy. The habits are complementary.

Beyond the convenience factor, I've come to suspect I have a mild version of dyslexia, which manifests in two mundane ways.

First, my spelling is and always has been atrocious. I had a tutor as a youngster because I was flagged for being such an awful speller. I don't think it helped. Today, when I see a misspelled word underlined on my screen, a lot of the time I can't actually see how the word is misspelled.

My inability to perceive misspellings is doubly true in coding, where it is common to combine words like DoohickyService. Coding editors are typically smart enough to underline if you misspell a word in a made-up combination, but I have to muster all of my concentration to understand why the word is underlined. Try looking at the word Campaign nested in CampaignFactoryService or Campaign::Loader – my mind becomes almost numb to everything after the p. Thankfully LLMs solve this for the most part.

All that is to say: relative to reading text, I am a pretty good auditory processor and prefer that modality to the written word. I prefer audio so much that I even created an app that converts text to speech and puts the audio in a personalized podcast feed so I can listen to long-form essays and even documents when taking a walk. You should try it out and let me know what you think.

The second reason my reading count has gone down is the proliferation of excellent podcasts. Some of my favorites this year have been:

While traditionally I've listened to podcasts during chores and audiobooks while running, podcasts have begun leaking into my runs. On top of that, I've run just over 2,000 miles this year, which is about 600 fewer miles than last year! That's a lot less time for audiobook consumption.

In 2026, I'd like to increase the number of books I share with all of you. I think a book per week is a reasonable pace. Two books at the top of my queue for next year are The English and Their History by Robert Tombs and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Just some light winter reading to get the year started.

I'm always looking for books to fill my queue, so if you've come across any enjoyable ones, please send them my way.