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2025
Year in Books
38,767
pages read
Paul Perry
93
books read
Paul Perry
Beowulf by Unknown
Shortest Book
178
pages
The History of the Renaissance World by Susan Wise Bauer
Longest Book
785
pages
Average book length in 2025
416
pages
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Most Shelved
2,798,232
people also shelved
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
Least Shelved
4,238
people also shelved
Paul ’s average rating for 2025
4.5
4.5
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Highest Rated on Goodreads
4.66 average
The Social Lives of Animals by Ashley Ward

Paul ’s first review of the year

it was amazing
An excellent dive into how various social animals live and structure their societies - from plankton to chimps and bonobos, via termites, cockroaches, rats, naked mole rats, herring, whales, elephants, and others.

Ward writes with a passion for his subject (on several occasions slipping in anecdotes about encounters with various creatures form his childhood or career as a biologist), as well as a great deal of confident knowledge and humour.
PAUL ’S 2025 BOOKS
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
it was amazing
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
The Social Lives of Animals by Ashley Ward
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre
1989 by Val McDermid
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky
it was amazing
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Luna by Ian McDonald
Africa Is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers
Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
it was amazing
Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Word Perfect by Susie Dent
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler
A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders by Jonn Elledge
The Sound of the Sea by Cynthia Barnett
The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross
The Black Angel by John Connolly
The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill
Divided by Tim Marshall
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie
it was amazing
You Are Here by David Nicholls
Exiles by Jane Harper
What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
it was amazing
Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler
Seed to Harvest by Octavia E. Butler
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer
The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris
it was amazing
The History of the Renaissance World by Susan Wise Bauer
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
Postmortem by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes
it was amazing
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Proto by Laura Spinney
it was amazing
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
Beowulf by Unknown
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
An African History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Benefit of Hindsight by Susan Hill
Divine Might - Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes
Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera
it was amazing
Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
Nexus by Ramez Naam
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
it was amazing
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Crux by Ramez Naam
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Patriarchs by Angela Saini
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
it was amazing
Witchcraft by Marion Gibson
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Paul ’s last review of the year

it was amazing
T. Kingfisher has been on my radar for some time so, when I saw her book The Hollow Places in the Audible 2-4-1 sale I snatched it up.

I immediately realised what the fuss was about.

Her writing is beautiful, the prose excellent and engaging, with a light touch and fine characterisation.

In this novel a young woman, Kara, returns to her small North Carolina hometown following her divorce, to live and work in her uncle's weird museum of curiosities. ...more
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