So.
2025 was a year.
Draft 1 of The Secret Project: The Secreting is finished! I conservatively wrote 50k words (likely more like 70(!)), and now we’re in the editing phase. I find Draft 1-2 is far, far harder than any other editing process, and that’s saying something for this behemoth. The goal is to get Draft 3 to between 150-180k words, and we’re currently at 215k, and the first three edited chapters are…longer. So there’s lots of work to be done there.
But there are storm clouds ahead, O Ahab. The Kid went from 3 months to 15, and if you know what that means, you know. The Job sucked more of my life than I thought possible, even though I love it. Luckily, I was able to avoid the worst of the world’s daily crises, but thanks to The Job, I have sector-specific crises to manage.
Life, as they say, goes on. But it has gone on, which means looking back at what happened.
So let’s break it down a bit:
The Breakdown
Books read: 20
A better year than last, but not by much. My message from last year remains the same: I should have read more, but considering it all, I did okay!
Authors
Total authors: 14
Racialized authors: 2, 15%
Female authors: 5, 35%
Male authors: 9, 65%
In one respect better than last, in another, far worse. Female authors made a big jump, but only in raw numbers. Factoring in the “Le Guin effect” from last year, I went from 40% female to 35%. Statistically significant? Iunno, not enough of a numbers nerd to calculate that. But raw numbers made a big leap, and I’d like to keep that going.
Genres
Poetry: 1
Fiction: 1
Urban Fantasy: 1
Fantasy: 8
Historical Fiction: 1
Science Fiction: 5
History: 3
Some interesting tidbits here! Poetry returns after a bit of a hiatus, and science fiction stepped up thanks to Shelved by Genre’s series on William Gibson, but most of the other categories were, strangely, identical to last year. Fantasy was propelled by, again, Shelved by Genre, this time their Mercedes Lackey series, but that feels right to me. I’m obviously going to be fantasy-heavy.
Decades:
1930s: 1
1960s: 1
1980s: 6
1990s: 3
2000s: 2
2010s: 2
2020s: 5
My favourite
They Flew: A History of the Impossible, 2023, by Carlos Eire
It’s noteworthy, that even though I’m a(n) historian, a history book was my hand’s-down favourite for 2025. I was spellbound from the first pages, and Eire writes with such clear and compelling prose that I followed this curious history of flying saints from start to finish, all 512 pages (minus the notes; if I’m not being paid to read endnotes, I’ll trust the author).
This is one of those fantastic books of history where answering the question “what is it about” leads to such rich and generous thoughts that you’re grateful to the author for so thoroughly rewarding you for reading their work. What is it about? In the 15th and 16th centuries, Catholic saints had a tendency to fly around a lot, sometimes even translocating across the Atlantic when they were feeling sufficiently holy. Did they? Almost certainly not; after all, human flight is impossible
What, then, to make of the pages and pages and pages of documentary and eye-witness evidence, that say they did? Of the testimonies of popes and princes that they met and talked and saw those who did? What to make of the fact that disregarding that evidence requires you to pass judgement on historical fact because, to you, it is impossible, and yet the historical actors could have taken you to the very church or monastery where you could see St. Joseph of Cupertino fly that very Sunday? What does it mean, not to believe something impossible is true, but to believe that what is possible is greater than our imaginings?
I don’t want to try and summarize Eire’s argument, as that’s too much for my memory right now, but I highly recommend it, and I’m very grateful I picked it up.
The Biggest Surprise
Burning Chrome, 1986, by William Gibson
A rip-roaring brainmelter from “Johnny Mnemonic” to “Burning Chrome.” Electric. Like snorting lasers and drinking battery acid. Hook 240v straight into your neurons; if you smell burning copper don’t sweat it and just make new memories. Give yourself a new name; it’s the future. Delete your past. Makes you want to fight and fuck and write. Some stories were better than others but goddamn Gibson empties the magazine on you. You’ll need a comedown when you’re done.
The One I Also Wanted to Be My Favourite
A Small Circus, 1931, by Hans Fallada
If you were to ask me my favourite book, it would, as ever, remain The Lord of the Rings. But if you were to ask me who my favourite writer is, hands-down it’s Hans Fallada. Again, this isn’t time for a review, but I picked up A Small Circus knowing nothing about it, only that I adored Every Man Dies Alone, and I still needed to read Little Man, What Now?
Not forgetting what I just said about Eire, you actually do need to know a little bit about this one to appreciate it: set in a small town in the German countryside, it’s about a riot and a criminal trial, and the absolute failure of German society in the Weimar years. The book was written in 1929 and, although they’re present, the Nazis are hardly mentioned as they only scored a paltry return in the 1928 election. We all know that would change, and change quickly, so the experience of reading about a society drifting through a foggy sea all the while knowing what is coming is hallucinatory. It can’t be real, but Fallada’s gift is making it all so extremely so.
And it’s so damn funny.
So What About 2026?
It’s to be a year of routines and habits, starting with improving these numbers. I looked back to the 2023 list and I was at 39 books, and with varied authors and diverse backgrounds. I need more, and it’s past time I gave it to myself.
Page by page, word by word; the mountain will not climb itself.
Electronic Ephemera 