What I Read in 2025: 3 Books You Might Enjoy

Three of my favorite books from 2025, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 2/25/26: Congrats to Dave from Oklahoma on winning this year's giveaway!

patsanannn

THE TURN OF the calendar is one of my favorite times of the year. I know changing a number from one year to the next is, in many ways, an artificial marker. It is similar to a woman lamenting turning 40 or the global hysteria when the calendar switched over to the year 2000. These are just numbers, after all!

And while I recognize the superficiality of the new year, I am also reminded that God set forth the seasons and the planet's orbit around the sun. He set up the axial tilt and the 365-day cycle, even inaugurating holidays for his people to celebrate.

The new year inspires me because of its apparent limitless potential for growth, accomplishment, and progress. I can't wait to see what 2026 has in store for you and for me. May we find ourselves in the center of God's will.

While looking ahead is energizing for me, I also, as I do every year, take a look back at the previous year and share with you some of my favorite books of the year.

I came across a LinkedIn post last week with a list of eight books to help you get "unstuck." As a sucker for reading recommendations I took note. In reading comments on the post, I came across multiple responses with an argument I have heard quite often. The comments were varied, but they were all to the effect of "books don't change lives."

Having heard this many times, even by authors themselves, I've come to the realization that this must be true for some. This is not true for me. The Bible aside, which is unquestionably life-changing, I can enumerate a dozen or so books that have had a profound impact on my life both in a practical sense and in ways that enlightened my perspective.

I say all of this only to encourage you to keep reading.

And as I also do every year, I am giving away one of the following books plus a copy of my latest book, You're Utmost Is Not Enough: Trusting God When Life Doesn't Make Sense, in your preferred format.¹ To enter is free, but you must opt-in even you are already a subscriber to my email list. To do so, enter your email below and click "Enter the Contest."

Almost there!

Check your email to confirm your entry.

But enough preamble, let's get on to what I read in 2025.

Three Books You Might Enjoy

In many ways 2025 was a bust because I started and did not finish more books than I ever remember doing. My TBR list is always growing, so I simply don't have time to tolerate poor or irrelevant writing like I thought I did in previous times. But by the end of 2025 I finished reading eight books, pretty standard for me. Following are the three books I think you also will most enjoy.

What I Read in 2024: 3 Books You Might Enjoy

Three of my favorite books from 2024, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 4/17/25: Congrats to Sven from Germany on winning this year's giveaway!

Clarissa Watson

AS HAS BECOME an annual tradition here at AndrewGilmore.net, I'm recapping the books I read this past year I think you will find intriguing. Many times I approach this assignment with skepticism, wondering if the exercise is mere self-indulgence, but I keep typing for two reasons.

First, I love knowing what other people are reading. I can't leave a conversation with my bibliophile colleagues or friends without inquiring about his or her latest read. Even on the beach or at a coffee shop, I try to spy book titles peaking through the finger lattice of public readers. So, my thinking goes, if I possess insatiable book curiosity, you might as well.

Second, I enjoy the giveaway tied to this tradition. Yes, the activity is somewhat self-serving in that you must surrender your email address to enter the drawing. But, as always, you can remove yourself from the list at any time with one click, no questions asked. Marketing strategy aside, I take pleasure in the act of generosity, and by sharing books I enjoyed I hope to form a bond—however tenuous—with the recipient.

This year, I am switching things up a bit. You must opt-in to be entered in the drawing. In years past I would draw a name from my existing list only to receive silence in response to the email notification. Whether the winner had no knowledge of the contest, ceased checking his email, or lay comatose in a county hospital I knew not. Therefore, even those currently on my email list must sign up for the contest. To do so, enter your email below and click "Enter the Contest."

Almost there!

Check your email to confirm your entry.

If you're new around here, the winner, drawn at random, will receive one of the following books for free, plus a copy of my latest book, You're Utmost Is Not Enough: Trusting God When Life Doesn't Make Sense, in your preferred format.¹

On to what I read.

Three Books You Might Enjoy

I had a consistent reading year by my standards, completing eight books while starting a few others that I did not enjoy and abandoned. As usual, nonfiction dominated the landscape; just two of the octet were fiction. Nevertheless, I dedicated a good portion of my autumnal reading to a thick anthology of short stories—one I look forward to finishing.

With the constant bustle of life, it seems I must always fight my exhausted brain for reading time. Yet I never regret the minutes I spend reading, and I need only pore over my TBR list to generate some internal giddiness at all of the wisdom, knowledge, enrichment, and entertainment awaiting me on my bedroom bookshelf or overstuffed Kindle library.

Here are three books I read in 2024 I think you might enjoy.

What I Read in 2023: 3 Books You Might Also Enjoy

 Three of my favorite books from 2023, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 6/18/24: Congrats to Sara from Newfoundland for winning the giveaway!

Dan Dimitriu

WITH AN EVER-GROWING TBR list, I came to the sobering realization recently that I will never be able to read all of those books before I die, even if I never added another one to the list. At least, not at my current pace.

The past twelve months have seemed especially devoid of leisure time due to various professional and personal commitments. Nevertheless I still managed to finish eight books in 2023. Here are three I think you will enjoy.

What I Read in 2022: 3 Books You Might Also Enjoy

Three of my favorite books from 2022, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 1/25/23: Congrats to Thomas from Spain on winning the book giveaway!

Siora Photography

I GOT AMBITOUS in September of 2021 and decided to pick up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

I remember my first exposure to the book. I was in high school and a I spied a guy a grade ahead of me buried in the novel. Although I didn't know him well, he had a reputation as a superior intellect.

I love reading, as you know, and I've always admired a good intellect, so seeing Atlas Shrugged in this high school senior's hands was reason enough to add the work to my mental to-be-read list. That was in 2001.

Twenty years later I had occasion to pick up Rand's magnum opus. I am in graduate school at the moment, and a scholarship opportunity arose involving the reading of and writing an essay about the book. Those interested received a complimentary copy of the book in a digital format.

Although I knew the book was long, the electronic format masked its true girth. The English Standard Version of the Bible contains 757,439 words.[1] Atlas Shrugged, in comparison, contains an estimated 645,000 words.[2]  Within a couple of weeks my coursework overtook most available free time for reading. But as the scholarship deadline came and passed me by, I found myself enthralled in Rand's book. So from September to May I read until I worked my way through the novel.

Alas, I cannot recommend Atlas Shrugged in my annual roundup of books I read. I had high hopes for the book, and the work was compelling much of the time. In the end, though, only strict adherents or new converts to Rand's objectivism philosophy will probably consider a book of such length worth the read. Although I resonate with much of Ayn's worldview, she makes zero allowance for either God or for charity of any kind. Additionally, portions of the book—the Galt speech, for example—are so long as to become repetitive.

I only bring up Atlas Shrugged as context for my year of reading; I spent almost half of the year finishing up the book. With that background established, here are three books I think you might enjoy.

What I Read in 2021

 Three of my favorite books from 2021, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 2/2/22: Cherylynn won this year's giveaway. Congrats, Cherylynn!

Kimberly Farmer

READING FOR PLEASURE took a hit this year ever since I started graduate school in June. At the same time, my family took a trip to Orlando to visit the Universal and Disney theme parks. The vacation was one of the highlights in a year filled with busyness, stress, and tragedy.

I still read quite a bit—maybe even more than last year—but a large portion of that time belonged to textbooks rather than trade books as usual. Still, three of the books I read this year merited mention and recommendation in this year's edition of What I Read. 2021 started off biography-centric but rounded out with a self-help book and some fiction. I'm currently tackling Ayn Rand's behemoth, Atlas Shrugged, so you might see it on next year's list. The jury's still out on that book.

As is tradition here at AndrewGilmore.net, I'm giving away one of the three books below plus a copy of my brand new book, Your Utmost Is Not Enough: Trusting God When Life Doesn't Make Sense. See the end of this article for details.

Here are three books you might enjoy:

What I Read in 2020

Four of my favorite books from 2020, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Darren Richardson

Whatever else you can say about 2020, time spent sequestered at home afforded the opportunity to read more than usual. And, although I conclude just about every year wishing I had spent more time reading, I navigated my way through some good books these past twelve months. Here's what I read.  

Don't Believe Everything You Hear: The Privilege (and Burden) of Reading

What Jesus expects of those who can read.

Johannes Krupinski

If you were a Jewish person living in the first century, there's a good chance you wouldn't know how to read.

Or at least not know how to read well.

It's hard to say for sure, but literacy estimates I've encountered range from 3 to 30 percent. Catherine Hezser, professor of Jewish studies at the University of London, concludes that only 10 percent of Jewish people in first century Israel could do more than write his or her own name.[1] Jewish culture valued reading and writing, perhaps more than any ancient culture, but it reserved such tasks for the scribes and other elites like the Sanhedrin.

With this context in mind, it is interesting to examine some of Jesus's own words when teaching or rebuking his fellow countrymen.