Daren
Well that wraps up the 2025 reading year.
As usual, some made up categories, and my favourite book for each, then some statistics, and my list of 5 star books from 2025.
Thanks all those who read and comment on my reviews, keeps me motivated to keep writing them. Happy 2026 everyone.
So first to the "Best of the Year" books I have read:
Best Travel - Zanskar: the Hidden Kingdom, by Michel Peissel
Second in this esteemed category: A Vagabond Journey Around the World, by Harry Franck
Best History - The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, by Peter Hopkirk
Best Military - The Glass Cannon: A Bougainville Diary 1944-45, by Peter Pinney
Best Biography - Hell West and Crooked, by Tom Cole
Second in this category: Nunaga: Ten years of Eskimo Life, by Duncan Pryde
Best Nautical - The Cruise of the Cachalot, by Frank Bullen
Best Mountaineering - When Men and Mountains Meet, by HW Tilman
Best Published by The Travel Book Club - Round Trip from Poptun: A Journey in Search of the Maya, by Albert Lisi
Best New Zealand Authored - The Crushed Can, by FE Beyer
Best Fiction - Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup
Second in this esteemed category: >Flashman and the Dragon, by George MacDonald Fraser
Best Science Fiction - The Midwich Cuckoos, by John Wyndham
Best digital read - From the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea: The narrative of a journey, in 1890 and 1891, across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and North China, by Julius M. Price
Best science - Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements, by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
And downer of the year:
Biggest Disappointment - The White, by Adrian Caesar
Some Statistics - Read 103 books this year, at a touch under 26,000 pages. This is a 8 less books than last year, and around 1000 pages less.
My average rating for books is a healthy 3.7 stars. (I remain very consistent in this over the years)
Longest book: One Step in the Clouds: An Omnibus of Mountaineering Novels and Short Stories by Audrey Salkeld (Editor) & Rosie Smith (Editor) at 1024 pages
My most popular review this year was Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar, but it was a re-read, so: A Vagabond Journey Around the World, by Harry Franck.
A new stat I wanted to track was fiction (27 this year) and non-fiction (76 this year), which is less fiction than I expected, but 1/4 seems about right.
Of the 103 Books I rated:
17 books 5 stars
42 books 4 stars
37 books 3 stars
7 books 2 stars
no 1 star books this year!
Given the 3.7 average rating, and the high proportion of 4 stared books, 4 stars for the year it seems is most appropriate, once again.
Links to my reviews of my five star reads of 2025.
Adventurer's Eye: The Autobiography of Everest Film-Man
The Glass Cannon: A Bougainville Diary 1944-45
Hell West and Crooked
Round Trip from Poptun: A Journey in Search of the Maya
The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia
Zanskar: the Hidden Kingdom
A Vagabond Journey Around the World
Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation
Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip
Nunaga: Ten years of Eskimo Life
The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia
Shoot, Ask...and Run
From the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea: The narrative of a journey, in 1890 and 1891, across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and North China
The Red Chief
Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, And The Unearthing Of The World's Oldest Printed Book
The Cruise of the Cachalot
Well that wraps up the 2025 reading year.
As usual, some made up categories, and my favourite book for each, then some statistics, and my list of 5 star books from 2025.
Thanks all those who read and comment on my reviews, keeps me motivated to keep writing them. Happy 2026 everyone.
So first to the "Best of the Year" books I have read:
Best Travel - Zanskar: the Hidden Kingdom, by Michel Peissel
Second in this esteemed category: A Vagabond Journey Around the World, by Harry Franck
Best History - The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, by Peter Hopkirk
Best Military - The Glass Cannon: A Bougainville Diary 1944-45, by Peter Pinney
Best Biography - Hell West and Crooked, by Tom Cole
Second in this category: Nunaga: Ten years of Eskimo Life, by Duncan Pryde
Best Nautical - The Cruise of the Cachalot, by Frank Bullen
Best Mountaineering - When Men and Mountains Meet, by HW Tilman
Best Published by The Travel Book Club - Round Trip from Poptun: A Journey in Search of the Maya, by Albert Lisi
Best New Zealand Authored - The Crushed Can, by FE Beyer
Best Fiction - Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup
Second in this esteemed category: >Flashman and the Dragon, by George MacDonald Fraser
Best Science Fiction - The Midwich Cuckoos, by John Wyndham
Best digital read - From the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea: The narrative of a journey, in 1890 and 1891, across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and North China, by Julius M. Price
Best science - Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements, by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
And downer of the year:
Biggest Disappointment - The White, by Adrian Caesar
Some Statistics - Read 103 books this year, at a touch under 26,000 pages. This is a 8 less books than last year, and around 1000 pages less.
My average rating for books is a healthy 3.7 stars. (I remain very consistent in this over the years)
Longest book: One Step in the Clouds: An Omnibus of Mountaineering Novels and Short Stories by Audrey Salkeld (Editor) & Rosie Smith (Editor) at 1024 pages
My most popular review this year was Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar, but it was a re-read, so: A Vagabond Journey Around the World, by Harry Franck.
A new stat I wanted to track was fiction (27 this year) and non-fiction (76 this year), which is less fiction than I expected, but 1/4 seems about right.
Of the 103 Books I rated:
17 books 5 stars
42 books 4 stars
37 books 3 stars
7 books 2 stars
no 1 star books this year!
Given the 3.7 average rating, and the high proportion of 4 stared books, 4 stars for the year it seems is most appropriate, once again.
Links to my reviews of my five star reads of 2025.
Adventurer's Eye: The Autobiography of Everest Film-Man
The Glass Cannon: A Bougainville Diary 1944-45
Hell West and Crooked
Round Trip from Poptun: A Journey in Search of the Maya
The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia
Zanskar: the Hidden Kingdom
A Vagabond Journey Around the World
Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation
Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip
Nunaga: Ten years of Eskimo Life
The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia
Shoot, Ask...and Run
From the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea: The narrative of a journey, in 1890 and 1891, across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and North China
The Red Chief
Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, And The Unearthing Of The World's Oldest Printed Book
The Cruise of the Cachalot