So this is it (doo wop)

.

It's 12:08 pm on New Year's Eve and I don't see any books lying around that I'm likely to finish by midnight so I'm calling it at 117 books in 2025. So a pretty average year, I think:

2007—90
2008—124
2009—108
2010—62
2011—94
2012—82
2013—129
2014—103
2015—126
2016—66
2017—144
2018—116
2019—100
2020—115
2021—131
2022—145
2023—136
2024—129
2025—117

Anyway, who cares. That probably better predicts how many comics I read than how intellectually stalwartly I lived.

Next year will be the twentieth (!) year I've engaged in this process. Which is not an easy number to understand. I guess the next big one after that will be when I've been doing it half my life.

But I try not to think about this too much because what I wouldn't do to have lists of the books I read before I began all this. What did I read that I don't remember when I was eight or ten or fourteen or twenty-seven?

Well, it's fine. Someday we'll all shuffle off to that great night bookmobile in the sky and that will be that.

One my favorite writer died in the past week, one who's only appeared once in one of these lists but who I've written and spoken about plenty over the years (example). We just watched his funeral and parasocial relationships may be strange but they can be healthy.

Next up: another year. It should look a little different. I'm curious what number it will end at.

☞

112) Giant Days: Volume Two by John Allison with Lissa Treiman and Max Sarin, finished December 3

If this had been volume one instead of volume one, I would not have read volume two. It's fun enough but it's really just sitcom logic at this point. Characters gain skills as needed so an issue's plot can be executed and then those traits are lost, ne'er to be recovered.

I already checked out volume three so I may well read it, but . . . I have a lot of other stuff checked out too. So we'll see. 

two or three days 

☞

113) Taproot by Keezy Young, finished December 19

This book seemed like it was going to be one of the queer-friendly nonstories that's flooding the market at the moment, but I'm happy to say it did have a story and, above that, it wasn't normal boring pre-formed plot, either. The love story was on a different set of rails from the horror element which, as it ends up, wasn't actually horror anyway. The story set me up to expect some of the same tired crap I feel like is everywhere (the comics I have not finished, yall) but it's playing a much higher level of game and I respect it.

(Incidentally, checked this book out of the library because it didn't have Keezy's latest book which was promoted on a best-of-2025 list.)

Anyway, the story's about a fellow who can see ghosts (one of whom is in love with him) and the unexpected problems that infect reality when you can, in fact, see ghosts. 

one sit 

☞

114) The Last Flower by James Thurber, finished December 20

I own so much Thurber. But this may be the simplest way to understand his beauty and melancholy.

Of course, most people are just looking for the jokes.... 

one go 

☞

115) Bowling with Corpses & Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown by Mike Mignola

 This might be my favorite Mike Mignola book. I'd have to look through old reviews to check, but I love this new world he's created and the anthology of stories that fit into it. I love his loose and ragged art—a sort of studied sloppiness that only someone who has mastered his craft can pull off. At the back of this volume is an alternate version of one of the stories that is just in his black and white without Dave Stewart's colors and it's a marvel to behold. The man uses so much ink.

One useful way to consider Mignola is how he deals with the beautiful and the monstrous. For instance, his nudes—there are naked women in this books; some are likely beautiful some maybe not, but it is their interiority and their abstract existence of shadows an life that define them—not the curve of a breast. And on the opposite scale, sight horrifying and unpleasant too are defined by their context and their abstracted qualities.

I hope many more of these volumes appear. 

If for no other reason than for more commentary from ducks and cows.

 about fifty hours 

☞

116) Initial D Ominbus 1 by Shuichi Shigeno, finished December 25

I first heard of this on the Comic-Con floor where I picked up a promotional image because the kid looked like me in the Nineties and his car looked a lot like my first car, an '87 Accord.

 

Anyway, I didn't see it out, but I've been curious about it ever since and so when I saw this 500pp opening at the school library, I grabbed it to read over the holidays. Manga speeds by, after all, even something this thick.

It's about what I expected in that its mostly adolescent and post-adolescent boys racing cars. I like the blase hero who became a master at the drift in a way that keeps him from appreciating his awesomeness. It ends just before his second big race and it was all pretty exciting stuff.

My main complaint is the way the female characters are treated in the book. It feels rather like Shuichi Shigeno included them only because it's a rule and not because he wanted to. There's only one female character of note and this very boy-friendly book has one panel that for any redblooded heterosexual 14yrold will not only, necessarily, be a pornographic event, but will likely remain so for months, years afterward. It's very hot. I wanted to include that panel here so you to can be shocked at to its inclusion in what is other words a very kid-friendly book, but in the end decided it might do the same to my blog that it did to the blog.

But that's not the worst thing. This pretty high-school character is largely written "fine" EXCEPT (and it's a big EXCEPT) that in an underexplored subplot she's the victim of an Epstein-like character. She seems blissfully unaware that there's anything untoward about accepting large amounts of money from a rich old "dad" for getting naked in hotel rooms. I suppose in another thousand pages or so her honor will be defended by the series' hero (unless the series forgets her existence by then which, honestly, seems more likely), but for now the whole thing is a bizarre extra piece left in the box.

Looking for the right image to include (I didn't find it) I learned that this manga began back in the mid-90s and has become an anime and, twenty years ago, a live-action movie. So with luck we can chalk the disrespect given femanity to a former time, but man. It's wild that this was apparently the only way they could think to add a feminine aspect to a boy book. Woof. 

three or four days

☞

117) Giant Days Volume Three by John Allison and Max Sarin (et al), finished December 27

Happy to say I liked this one much more than volume two. The writing has picked back up and the expressiveness of the art is delightful. I've come to like these three girls quite a lot and wish them well. Which is exactly why I've carved out a possible exception for them in my no-library-books-in-2026 rule. 

perhaps a week 

☞

 

 

 

Previous books of 2025
(and years more distant)

Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings!

001) Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, finished January 1
002) Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell: Volume Three, finished January 1
003) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell), finished January 8
004) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, finished January 11
005) You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, finished January 12
005) Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard—and Still Is by Terryl Givens and Nathaniel Givens, finished January 24
006) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two by Emil Ferris, finished January 25

Maybe we should just pretend this set begins and ends with Wednesday Addams

007) Chas. Addams Half-Baked Cookbook, finished January 29
008) Monica by Daniel Clowes, finished February 3
009) The Unexpurgated French Edition of Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, finished February 19
010) Peach and the Isle of Monsters by Franco Aureliani and Agnes Garbowska, finished February 20
011) Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, finished February 28
012) Comic Poems edited by Peter Washington, finished March 7

Love, Beauty, and a complete lack of sasquatch 

013) Love that Dog by Sharon Creech, finished March 11
014) Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, finished March 21
015) Antelope Spring by John Bennion, finished March 24
016) Shelley Frankenstein by Colleen Madden, finished March 28
017) Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew #21: Double Take, finished April 5
018) The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clark, finshed April 8
019) Rave by Jessica Campbell, finished April 13
020) The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection by Fran Krause, finished April 14

Do not ask what she does with the babies.

027) Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, finished April 21
028) Somna: A Bedtime Story by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, finished April 23
029) Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu, finished April 24
030&031) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, finished April 25
032) Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26
033) Ephemera by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26

Brighter and brighter until we all get our heads lopped off 

034) Brighter and Brighter until the Perfect Day by Sharlee Mullins Glenn, finished April 27
035) Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett, finished May 3
036) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, finished May 5
037) Equus by Peter Shaffer
038) Travesties by Tom Stoppard, finished May 8
039) The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between by Stacey D'Erasmo, finished May 10
040) A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, finished May 16

Criticism & Comics

041) Arts and Inspiration: Mormon Perspectives, edited by Steven P. Sondrup, finished May 18
042) The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, finished May 19
043) Odessa by Jonathan Hill, finished May 22
044) Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder by Tula Lotay and Scott Snyder, finished May 22
045) Bingo Baby, finished May 26 

Books on the Fourth of July

046) Final Cut by Charles Burns, finished May 28
047) Fever Beach by Carol Hiassen, finished June 12
048) How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico, finished June 17
049) Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours by Bianca Stone, June 24
050) Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel, finished June 25
051) The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife by Michael Libling, finished July 3

An old friend makes some introductions (and more)

052) The 5th Generation by Dale Jay Dennis, finished July 7
053) To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, finished July 10
054) Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout, finished July 25
055) Meet Monster: The First Big Monster Book by Ellen Blanca and Ann Cook, illustrated by Quentin Blake, finished July 26
056) Last Pick by Jason Walz, finished July 29
057) Death Comes to Eastrepps by Francis Beeding, finished August 2

A lot of comics and then not Twain

058) Gilt Frame by Matt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt, finished August 2
059) Monkey Meat: The First Batch by Juni Ba, finished August 3
060) Abbott by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä and Jason Wordie, finished August 4
061) Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan, finished August 9
062) Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath, finished August 9
063) James by Percival Everett, finished August 13

The last books read before school starts

064) Stranger Planet by Nathan W Pyle, finished August 13
065) Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley, finished August 13
066) Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, finished August 18

Two dozen is a reasonable number of eggs, too many donuts

067) Monte Cristo by Jordan Mechner and Mario Alberti, finished August 20
068) What We Don't Talk About by Charlot Kristensen, finished August 21
069) The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Lynn Solotaroff), finished August 23
070) The Village Beyond the Mist by Sachiko Kashiwaba (translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa), finished August 23 
071) Meritocracy Mingled with Scripture by Justin Pack, finished August 24
072) God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward, finished August 27
073) He Done Her Wrong: The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It—No Music, Too by Milt Gross, finished August 27
074) The City: A Vision in Woodcuts by Frans Masereel, finished August 27
075) The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk, finished August 28
076) Destiny: A Novel in Pictures by Otto Nückel, finished August 28
077) The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, finished August 29
078) Passionate Journey: A Vision in Woodcuts by Frans Masereel, finished August 30
079) Madman's Drum by Lynd Ward, finished August 30
080) Murder Mystery Mystery Murder by Ben Abbott, finished September 3 

When you bookend with original grace and socialist revolution, things are going okay.

081) Original Grace by Adam Miller, finished September 7
082) The Skull Beneath the Skin by P.D. James, finished September 9
083) Sock Monkey Treasury by Tony Millionaire, finished September 11
084) The Sleepover by Michael Regina, finished September 16
085–087) The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, finished September 29
088) The Iron Heel by Jack London, finished October 1 

Drunk crows, dystopian Jews,
elderly werewolves, and brooding kaiju

089) The Art of Tony Millionaire by Tony Millionaire, finished October 4
090) Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk, finished October 16
091) Superman: The Harvests of Youth by Sina Grace, finished October 18
092) The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, finished October 22
093) The Third Temple by Yishai Sarid, translated by Yardenne Greenspan, finished October 23
094) Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks, finished October 25
095) The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories by David Small, finished November 3
096) Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, finished November 6 

Hundreds: Weetzie Bat finishes the first and the Desert Prophet begins the second

097) Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language by Ben Orlin, finished November 13
098) This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, finished November 14
099) The Things You Have to Do Before I Buy You a Phone by Adam Ferguson, finished November 14
100) Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, finished November 17
101) The Desert Prophet by Camilla Stark, finished November 18

Turn it up to one hundred eleven

102) How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, finished November 18
103) Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, finished November 30
104) Sweet Tooth Compendium by Jeff Lemire, finished November 24
105) Space Bear by Ethan Young, finished November 25
106) Are Comic Books Real? by Alex Nall, finished on November 26
107) Sweet Tooth: The Return by Jeff Lemire, finished November 26
108) Giant Days: Volume One by John Allison with Lissa Treiman and Max Sarin, finished December 3
109) The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet by Katherine Cowley, finished December 13
110) Class Clown by Dave Barry, finished December 13
111) One-Punch Man 01 by One and Yusuke Murata, finished December 18 

PREVIOUS OTHER YEARS IN BOOKS

2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013 = 2014 = 2015
2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022 = 2023 = 2024