#2025 reading log

[betterthanthemovies]

2025 reading log:

little women - louisa may alcott (started 12/31/24)

intermezzo - sally rooney

animal farm - george orwell

all the bright places - jennifer niven

beg, borrow, or steal - sarah adams (started 1/9/25)

[ofliterarynature]

2025 Reading Goals

Based on previous years (and barring any major life upheavals), I've again set my year total to 120! As part of that number, I would like to read:

12 owned tbr print books

12 owned tbr graphic novels

12 owned tbr audiobooks

25-in-25 (I'm working on a list I promise)

And for some non-numerical goals, I would like to:

Use star ratings in a way that reflects my love/like/okay ratings

Reorganize my bookshelves

[astraydestiny]

NEW QUEST UNLOCKED: January Writing Month Challenge

ALLLLLLRIGHTY. ITS TIMEEEEEEEEE!

Time for January Writing Month!

Hey, i’m Kani/Kana! (I alternate between those two names) for those who don’t know me.

What most people don’t know about me, except for my lovely moots, is that I usually have a rotating schedule for my consistent writing (for my own sanity). My last writing month was November, and not it’s january! It’s pretty much like this:

January: Writing Quest

February: XP Farming (Inspo gathering/content consumption)

March: Writing Quest

April: XP Farming

May: Writing Quest

June: XP Farming

July: Writing Quest

August: XP Farming

September: Writing Quest

October: XP Farming

November: Writing Quest

December: XP Farming

Of course, you don’t have to stay within these boundaries, and you can write if you want to on the XP months! But on the Writing Quests, you HAVE to remain consistent to achieve a set goal of whatever amount of words you wish to achieve, by the end of the month,

If you want to participate with me of course, i usually do this, bc i have a BOOK TO FINISH!!!! Books plural actually, both reading and writing… And shows I wanna watch and movies i wanna watch but i just don’t feel motivated to watch them… BUT YK THATS WHY I MADE THIS SYSTEM THAT I’M ONY JUST NOW SHARING WITH THE WORLD!!

It’s very simple, and i’m sure other people pretty much came up with the same thing, just different names and stuff, but i guess the unique thing about it here is that you can get constant updates about my progress throughout the entire thing, and you can also like show ur progress thru reblogging or comment or smth i dunno ITS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS!!!

Bc we’re motivating eachother and stuff

SO YEAH

Writing Quests can also be a lot of things, I know I listed one of them in one of the previous paragraphs but I’ll put a list of things you can do right here if ur not writing a book.

Assign a Word count to finish by the end of the month

Weekly Short Stories (1k-2k), written and edited

Analysis’s of Tales you like, and been wanting to do

Asks and requests for your own blogs

IDK PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES WRITING TBH

A Writing Quest should also be fun by the way! So make it as fun as you can, don’t force yourself to write, write about what you like, or even just journal your thoughts! Just as long as you write and grow from the process!

Mmm that should be it. If ur interested then reblog probably idk

BUT YEAH! GL ON EVERYONE WHO SEES THIS AND IS INTERESTING I TRYING IT!

From a fellow writer,

-Kani

(Me rn bec its liek 12:30 on a school night after winter break i needa sleep istg)

[curiouscalamitys]

READING LOG No. 5: RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars; 9 of 10 scale | Recommend: Absolutely Yes!

Genre: High Fantasy Fiction, YA Literature | Format Read In: Audiobook

Status: First-Time Read, Reread | Favorite Aspect: the political/social commentary on class distinctions, poverty, and the biracial experience

There is no way that I won't be buying a physical version of this series. I have never regretted listening to an audiobook because the story was just too good to have not read it with my own two eyeballs. So, on a surface level, the story is amazing. But I can tell there were intricacies and subtleties that I missed due to having a shifting focus as I listened while driving.

The worldbuilding is rich in a fascinating way. And the class distinctions are cleverly constructed so that the political aspects make sense for the stakes of the story.

To dive into specifics, I absolutely loved that this story not only has the surface level stakes of taking down the monarchy and its unjust class distinctions that has caused such a divided us vs. them society. There's also the emotional stakes for Mare of being neither Reds nor Silvers paralleling to the bi-racial experience that calls to question loyalties, priorities, and power distributions. THEN, there's the romantic sub-plot. I think Maven's betrayal shocked me harder because I was rooting for him. I thought that he was a victim of second-lead syndrome because it was very obvious that Cal was the main love interest. The author had really built Maven to be a sympathetic, understanding character that I was actually feeling bad that I knew Mare was going to be choosing Cal over him and it was going to break our hearts. I thought I was predicting his let-down, and, man, was I so unprepared for the actual events to unfold.

Nonetheless, I don't think I would've seen the betrayal had i read it myself. I had no doubt in my mind where Maven's loyalties lied. And even on my second listen (which I started immediately after finishing it the first time), there are barely even hints of his betrayal. It is so subtle. You have the obvious resent for his older brother, which actually strengthens his story of wanting to work with the Scarlet Guard, and then Julian's warning to Mare about him being his mother's son. AND I PROMISE THAT I WAS FOCUSING SO HARD THE SECOND TIME TO FIND THE FORESHADOWING.

As I post this, I have already started Glass Sword but please no spoilers for the rest of the series!

[likeclarabow]

2025 books read

Only If You're Lucky - Stacy Willingham (Dec 31-Jan 2)

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna (Jan 2-Jan 3)

Dracula (reread) - Bram Stoker (Jan 4-Jan 11)

[scarlct-vvitch]

the books i have read in 2025, updated as i read them:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells / finished 01/04/25

Genre: Sci-fi

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Thoughts: this book is....so impressive?? it's so short but I got attached to it so fast. murderbot is so good I want a hundred more stories with murderbot omfg

[werehamburglar]

chuck tingle, the genius that you are

[callipraxia]

An Introductory Interview

Q: Who is writing this?

A: Call me Calli - it’s shorter than the whole screen name. I’m an asexual woman from the U.S.

Q: And what do you do online?

A: I’ve identified as a writer since I was eleven, and although it’s been about two years since I completed a story not started before that point, I still write a lot of essays and/or extended rambles analyzing books or TV shows I like.

Q: What are some examples of what those rambles might be about?

A: I joined AO3 and started writing Gravity Falls fanfiction under this name in 2021. A fair bit of it, even, for a while. As a result, this is still primarily known as a Gravity Falls blog, but I also go on tangents about Star Wars and Discworld fairly often. Other recurring interests I might go a year without mentioning but also might drop 5000 words about at any time include The Wheel of Time, roleplaying games whose sourcebooks I like, and various members of the Bronte family and their assorted works and also books written about either of those things. Other series and subjects come up if/when my attention lands on them for some reason.

Q: Any writing goals for the year?

A: Yes, but since I didn’t succeed in any of the ones I posted last year, I’m keeping the details classified this year. It makes me annoyed with myself, because it’s irrational, but I’m mildly superstitious about that kind of thing. It combines about as poorly as you’d expect with my much stronger tendency to ramble about anything I’m even remotely interested in to anyone who stands still a little too long.

Books Started And Finished This Year, 2025

1. Guards, Guards! - Terry Pratchett

2. The House of My Mother - Shari Franke

[grimladyreads]

Damn Glad to Meet You My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches By Tim Matheson 3/5 Stars

I really enjoy Memoirs usually, but I just found this one being okay. I did like seeing what other shows Tim has been in. I really only know him as the VP in The West Wing so it was interesting to read about everything he did before that.

4/

[bluesalinger]

books i read in 2025 - 1 - fifty beasts to break your heart / gennarose nethercott

this is a short story collection i got for christmas (thanks mom). i read thistlefoot last year and i think nethercott has a great grasp on character creation. these stories were whimsical and dark, bringing to mind folklore and urban legends with the undertone of modern human experiences, such as unfulfilling romances with men. i liked it 8/10

[bunnny84]

✨2025📚

Reading List

I read just about every day.

Paper books, on my kindle, and audio books.

📖currently reading:

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Zodiac Academy: Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

📚Books I’ve finished:

Don’t Eat the Pie by Monique Asher

Iron Flame(reread) by Rebecca Yarros

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer Armentrout

[drinksattheendoftheworld]

Favourite* 50 Movies Seen in 2024

As has often been the case, I feel like I've seen so many disparate films this past year, it's difficult to rank them in a way that makes sense. This is how we get a film like Pulse from 2001 nestled next to Turner & Hooch. And yet, I persevere! I saw a lot of films I loved in 2024, and I'd say the top half of this list are all bonafide bangers (with the rest being solid as well). I've been working to lend more weight to films that genuinely resonate with me, regardless of popular opinion or what I think "seems" like it "should" be the best, and if there are any questionable choices here, you can probably chalk it up to that, because as always...

*Favourite ≠ Best

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Skatetown U.S.A. (1979)

Black Narcissus (1947)

The Holdovers (2023)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Juror #2 (2024)

Bound (1996)

Chinatown (1974)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Sole Survivor (1984)

Starship Troopers (1997)

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

The Third Man (1949)

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Peeping Tom (1960)

Nosferatu (1922)

Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

The Last Showgirl (2024)

Longlegs (2024)

Victim (1961)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

In a Violent Nature (2024)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Death Game (1977)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Relay (2024)

Smile (1975)

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

A Complete Unknown (2024)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Eden (2024)

Spartacus (1960)

Working Girl (1988)

The Out-of-Towners (1970)

The Fifth Element (1997)

Dragonwyck (1946)

Conclave (2024)

F/X (1986)

Hauntedween (1991)

Witchfinder General (1968)

10 to Midnight (1983)

Patty Hearst (1988)

Mystere (1983)

Summer of '42 (1971)

Pulse (2001)

Turner & Hooch (1989)

Hotel (1967)

Hotel (2004)

The Devonsville Terror (1983)

[vanserrass]

READING LOG 2025

5/100 📚

JANUARY

1. Sin & Spirit - K. F. Breene

2. The Striker - Ana Huang

3. Legendary - Stephanie Garber

4. Wild Scottish Love - Tricia O’Malley

5. The Wedding People - Alison Espach

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

YES AHAHA YES!!!

i see Several Candidates For Buddy Reads (spare man, hammajang luck, maaaaybe explosions if i can find it), if you are Interested In Such Festivities,

25 in 2025

Sigh. I've been bullied. I guess. I did a big swing and a miss on last years list, but I have a Plan this time. A Theme. A Goal. This will be mostly comprised of my Illumicrate books so I can decide if it is in fact worth it to keep my subscription going until the Alecto edition gets announced. If I don't actually enjoy the majority of the books in these boxes then what's the point, yknow?

So here's this years color key:

Green - Carry over from last year (not carrying over every missed book, which probably means I should just get rid of them huh)

Purple - Illumicrate books

Blue - I own these in physical form, but they're not from Illumicrate

Labyrinth's Heart by MA Carrick

The Faithless by CL Clark

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

City of Bones by Martha Wells

Witch King by Martha Wells

After the Forest by Kell Woods

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen

The Phoenix Keeper by SA Maclean

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

Until We Shatter by Kate Dylan

Mistress of Lies by KM Enright

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher

The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker Chan

All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault by James Alan Gardner

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

In the Ravenous Dark by AM Strickland

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

PHEW. Okay. A fw things to note. A Dark and Drowning Tide is an Illumicrate book, but I didn't pay for it. A friend gave it to me after I skipped that month because she wasn't interested. I always look up book spoilers and skip if I'm not interested and if I'm uninterested in any of the stuff I'll skip even if the book seems neat. That month the box was full of fandoms I didn't care about, so my friends said "here, take my copy" and I said "yay! Free book!"

The Last Hour Between Worlds I think was also an Illumicrate book? They do fanart for it so I assume it was at some point. I did not get it. This is not the IC edition. I was not thrilled about The Tethered Mage so I was going to get this out of the library. Then my mom bought it for me for the holidays. So yay! Free book!

I think I would also like to keep track of books I purchase this year. I'd like to cut down on buying books that I won't love. So I'd like to utilise my library more. Win win, I think! And that seems easier than a full out ban since yeah sometimes I do enjoy little treats! Books purchased for other people do not count, obviously.

There are also some books I'd like to reread this year, mainly The Bone Maker because I've been saying that since I read it the first time. And honestly, I've been chasing the same vibes and haven't been able to match it (Godkiller got close!).

As usual, I reserve the right to pretend this post doesn't exist, but I think I've set myself up for success here :)

I don't know who hasn't done this by now @logarithmicpanda ? Have you?? Consider yourself tagged >:3c

oh right I was bullied tagged by @bigcats-birds-and-books

[curiouscalamitys]

READING LOG No. 4: THE AUCTION (Rights and Wrongs, part 3) by Julie Soto (LoveBitca8)

Status: First-Time Read

Log: Jan. 2025

Confession: I did not read the first two parts before reading this. It is stated in the author's note that it could be read as a stand-alone, and I agree. I don't feel like I was missing anything by not having read the first two parts, especially since this third part was an AU for the first two parts.

Once again, I finally got around to reading this because it was being pulled from AO3 to be published (the official book is called Rose in Chains, and I have pre-ordered it already).

Needless to say, I was completely captivated by this fic. I would be so focused on the story that my coworker had to keep me on track when our breaks were over or when our shifts were starting.

The compelling aspect to Dramione, I believe, lies in the exploration of themes like redemption/atonement, growth, overcoming prejudice/perspective shift, trauma recovery, and forgiveness. I believe this fic encapsulated that beautifully, delving into the messy and complicated aspects of their relationship in a raw and real way. And Draco, as a character, is so compelling because he is making bad decisions from a place of pain and fear. So, although we may not have been a bully or elitist, and some of his actions are inexcusable, we have all made bad decisions from a place of hurt or fear, and carried that shame or guilt from those choices. And Hermione serves as the vehicle to accept the worst in Draco—accepting the worst in ourselves—that we need. We crave redemption and forgiveness, and cheer when we see it.

And I really hope I'm not making it seem as if I am reducing Hermione as a female character. The mental load that Hermione has to carry reveals the inequality within the gender norms in both the wizarding world and our reality. I mean, this fic focuses heavily on the sexualization and objectification that the Lots (whom are mainly females) are subjected to.

I didn't mean for this to become so deep. I just meant to log this as read for my reading log.

[fanfic-reading-challenge]

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge

Welcome to another year of the Fanfic Reading Challenge (FRC)!

I won't bore you with the history of the challenge, this year, but I will welcome you to check out past posts that do explain some of it, as well as include a brief overview of what, exactly, this challenge is, though it does change year to year. (Essentially you read fics to complete goals and win bragging points and an artsy badge.)

This year is especially different, as I had the extreme pleasure of having @noxsoulmate as a partner in crime in keeping me hostage on track to completing this year's FRC. Another valued member of the mod team is @jandjsalmon and speaks for all of us if you need questions answered!

As for the challenge....

This is, indeed, a challenge. Of course.

First of all... you must obviously read fanfiction. As if you don't already!

You also need to download and make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which can be found here, as well as below in the important links section.

To participate in the challenge, you read fics that match the tasks in the challenge. An example of a task can be: "read a fic with a title containing the word purple in it." Should be easy! Of course, there are harder ones.

Which is why there are different modes of challenge to the FRC. These are as follows:

Participation (Complete 1 task)

Regular Mode (Complete 80 tasks)

Hard Mode (Complete 150 tasks)

Extreme Mode (Complete 220 tasks)

Complete (Complete 250 tasks)

The challenge lasts from January 1st, 2025, to December 31st, 2025.

There are badges that go with the modes completed, and even a secret 6th badge that will be fairly obvious if you look at the spreadsheet! Doesn't mean it'll be easy to complete though. *smirks* (Blame Noxy)

Most important of all: this challenge operates on the honour system. We don't check your work, or your reading logs (see below), so I mean, I guess if you want to be slippery with the rules, you do you, and that's on your conscience, but honestly it's so much fun to see how much you can get done by following the letter of the law/tasks! You can be slippery even with following the tasks fully. It's great fun. ;D

I think that's enough for an intro, really, maybe too much.

Important Links and Reading Logs/Trackers

As there is a component of the FRC that includes tracking numbers of words read, most of us use a reading log/tracker to keep count of how many fics we read, including data such as words, of course, chapters, month completed, ship, author, title, fandom, link to the fic, and such. It's a great place to mark what fics you want to read in the future as well!

This year we have FOUR trackers on offer, quite different from one another, so take a look, play around with them and check out their "intros", and choose according to what you think will work best for you!

Fic Tracking Sheets

Juulna's 2025 Reading Log

Noxy's 2025 Reading Log

2025 Jandy's Fic Tracker

Taru's Fic Tracker 2025

Discord

We have a blast on Discord. From general chatter to sharing pet pics to being there for each other during the tough times to forming lasting friendships and making friendships you’d never make in a ship- or fandom-specific Discord, to asking for help ‘rolling the dice’ (pick a number between 1-10!) to choose the next fic to read, to finding some of the really challenging task fills in fandoms people might not have ever read but are willing to try, or finding fandoms someone has never read and is very tentative about stepping out of their box, but they’re being 100% supported and know they don’t need to complete the fic for it to count for the task, stepping out of their comfort zone… we’ve formed a very odd group of, if not friends, then companions (but there are definite friendships that have formed!! Just ask the people who have started watching NHL and NFL together in our off topic channel!).

In any case, our Discord is not necessary, but it is a worthy and tactical element to completing many of the tasks of this challenge. 💙

And.... without further ado....!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge! (link)

There is an info/rules page as the first sheet on the spreadsheet that should fill in any further questions you have. It also has more contact info than just this page if you have any further questions and perhaps need a more immediate answer for your needs.

*Occasionally you will run into something that looks like an error, and it may in fact be one! Let us know if you see it. It's hard not to make a mistake on as large a spreadsheet as this.*

Please, first of all, have fun and just read fanfiction that you enjoy! I (Juulna) did that last year and didn't even come close to completing the entire challenge, and I still had a blast because I was enjoying what I was reading and rereading. Others took the challenge right to the completed end. Others forgot about it halfway through but still had fun, and some even went back and filled in the sheet for a really good showing! The challenge is what you make of it, what you want from it. So... just have fun. Read fic. Smile. Enjoy. :)

Second of all... well, we would love if you signal boost this post!!!!

Third of all, we do have our pinned post that includes a link to this page and that will include a link to our Discord and all our trackers as well, including past links for memento and informative purposes.

Thank you, and a blessed 2025 to all!