Surprisingly, 2025 has been my best year yet numbers-wise. I wouldn’t say the overall quality of what I read has been the best, but if you’re looking at how many books I read, it definitely was. I stopped including DNFs in my reading challenge (on StoryGraph) and I still have last year beat on how many books I finished. Not bad if you ask me.
Overall stats
131 books read
This is the most books I have ever read during a year. It didn’t feel like it at the time as I thought I was taking a really long time to get through, well, anything. But apparently not. This may seem like rookie numbers to some, but as someone that works full time, makes daily content and has a dog, I think it’s pretty impressive.
I can’t compare whether or not my numbers of pages is higher in 2025 as I didn’t add books as ‘did not finish’ in 2024. I have a feeling it’s about the same as I tend to sit somewhere around 50% for less than 300 and 300+ every year.
270 hours listened
2025 was also the first year I properly shelved audiobooks by hours listened. This is another reason why my pages read aren’t accurate to compare to the year before. I mostly listened to books that were longer then 8 hours – I was in my audiobook era in 2025. Pretty much whenever I was doing housework, I would be listening to a book. Well, when I wasn’t watching/listening to Critical Role. This number would have been much bigger if I didn’t watch/listen to so much Critical Role. I’d love to know a wrap up for that.
Moods and genres
My moods and genres have not changed from 2024. My top three moods were ‘lighthearted’, ‘funny’ and ’emotional’ and my top three genres were ‘romance’, ‘young adult’ and ‘contemporary’. My fantasy avoidance is still very much in swing but I’m hoping to change that in 2026. I will happily admit I’ve become a huge romance fan, but I would like to see fantasy back in my top three genres again.
DNFs
I had my most DNFs in one year during 2025. Which sounds like a bad thing, but it meant I read more books. By deciding to DNF anything I wasn’t really vibing with gave me more time to read books I was actually enjoying.
Here’s every book I DNF’d in 2025:
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
- The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
- The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets by Nancy Springer
- What If We Were by Axelle Lenoir
- I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Jenny Bayliss (ARC)
- The Scary Book of Fairy Tales by Tim Rayborn (ARC)
- The Best Christmas Choir Ever by Elizabeth Hrib (ARC)
- A Winter Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack (ARC)
- More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey (ARC)
- Haunt Your Heart Out by Amber Roberts
- Never Trust a Gemini by Freja Nicole Woolf
Ratings and reviews
Surprisingly, my average rating increased from last year. Which is likely due to the fact that I was more willing to DNF books rather than forcing myself to finish them, resulting in a low rating. I had my fair share of 2 stars and below ratings, but I rated 50 books 4 stars and above.
My five star reads of 2025 were:
- The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith (ARC)
- Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
- The Enemy’s Daughter by Melissa Poett (ARC)
- Turtle Bread by Kim Joy
- Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
- The Lumberjanes Vol. 1 by N.D. Stevenson
- Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon (ARC)
- Dungeons and Drama by Kirsty Boyce
- Kill Joy by Holly Jackson
- I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
- Revolve by Bal Khabra (ARC)
- The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore
- The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
- Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
- The Heartstopper Yearbook by Alice Oseman
I posted 135 reviews last year and have published content 1275 days in a row (3 and a half years!!). It’s a little crazy when you think about it, and a lot of people in my life have asked how I manage to do it, and the answer is very simple. I love it. This blog is everything to me and I’m incredibly proud of how far it has come and continues to grow year on year. If you missed any of my reviews in 2025 you can read them here. Thank you to every single person that has checked out Young Creative Press over the years. Here’s to 3 and a half more years (at least) of posting every day!
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You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Haul: December 2025