Reading in 2025
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Another year, another recap post! Here is a quick overview of the books I read and enjoyed in 2025.
I don’t read a lot, so don’t expect a big post. I read a bit every night, to disconnect my brain and fall asleep. For this reason, you will only find fiction novels on my reading list. I also enjoy book series most of all, because they allow you to go deep into a story.
In 2025, I read 5 different book series:
The Captive’s War
The Captive’s War is a trilogy of books by The Expanse’s authors James S. A. Corey. I enjoyed their writing style in The Expanse and was happy to see them start a new story. So far they’ve only released one book and one novella, but book 2 is scheduled to be released in the spring and you can already pre-order it. I enjoyed the beginning of the story, it sets up a really interesting world.
Children of Time
The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I read all 3 books and pre-ordered the fourth, also scheduled to be released in the spring. It’s a unique take on the future of humanity / alien life stories / artificial intelligence. The main story follows life as it involves on a terraformed planet. Instead of the monkeys that were supposed to evolve on the planet to pave the way for humans to get there, it’s spiders that end up evolving on that world. We follow their evolution, and in parallel we follow what’s left of the human race as they search for a planet to live.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.This was my surprise of the year. I was looking for a lighter read after Children of time, and stumbled across the first book of the series (there are currently 7 books in the series, with more on the way). I wasn’t familiar with the litRPG genre and didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, this is exactly what I needed. Picture this: a man (Carl) and his ex-girlfriend’s cat (Princess Donut) get thrown into a televised dungeon crawler gameshow, run by aliens on what’s left of planet Earth. If that sounds crazy, you’re getting the idea. 🙂 The 7 books are easy reads, original, entertaining, and definitely a good way to disconnect after a long day. I would definitely recommend the series. The first book in particular was interesting because I was discovering the story and the genre.
Silo
Following that, I read the trilogy that inspired the TV series on Apple TV+: Silo, by Hugh Howey. I watched the show before to read the books, and I was surprised by how well the show had followed the original story. It’s a dark series about the future if humanity, but one one that I would recommend as well.
He Who Fights with Monsters
This was my last series of the year. He Who Fights With Monsters, by Shirtaloon, is comprised of 12 books. I’m not sure if the series is over, I’m at book 10 right now. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s an interesting story and idea, again in the litRPG genre. I’m just not a fan of the writing, it’s very repetitive, and I often wonder how this was published as it often feels like I’m reading something that I already read in the last chapter. The books for sure could be a lot shorter. The main character is also not very likable, and his growth over the books is overly explained, again and again, instead of letting us feel his growth for ourselves. At this point you must wonder why I read 10 books of this! I’d love to give you a good reason, but I think it’s just sunk cost fallacy 🙂
If I had to recommend only one book series, it would be Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’m looking forward to the next book!
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Another year, another recap post! Here is a quick overview of the books I read and enjoyed in 2025.
I don’t read a lot, so don’t expect a big post. I read a bit every night, to disconnect my brain and fall asleep. For this reason, you will only find fiction novels on my reading list. I also enjoy book series most of all, because they allow you to go deep into a story.
In 2025, I read 5 different book series:
The Captive’s War
The Captive’s War is a trilogy of books by The Expanse’s authors James S. A. Corey. I enjoyed their writing style in The Expanse and was happy to see them start a new story. So far they’ve only released one book and one novella, but book 2 is scheduled to be released in the spring and you can already pre-order it. I enjoyed the beginning of the story, it sets up a really interesting world.
Children of Time
The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I read all 3 books and pre-ordered the fourth, also scheduled to be released in the spring. It’s a unique take on the future of humanity / alien life stories / artificial intelligence. The main story follows life as it involves on a terraformed planet. Instead of the monkeys that were supposed to evolve on the planet to pave the way for humans to get there, it’s spiders that end up evolving on that world. We follow their evolution, and in parallel we follow what’s left of the human race as they search for a planet to live.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.This was my surprise of the year. I was looking for a lighter read after Children of time, and stumbled across the first book of the series (there are currently 7 books in the series, with more on the way). I wasn’t familiar with the litRPG genre and didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, this is exactly what I needed. Picture this: a man (Carl) and his ex-girlfriend’s cat (Princess Donut) get thrown into a televised dungeon crawler gameshow, run by aliens on what’s left of planet Earth. If that sounds crazy, you’re getting the idea. 🙂 The 7 books are easy reads, original, entertaining, and definitely a good way to disconnect after a long day. I would definitely recommend the series. The first book in particular was interesting because I was discovering the story and the genre.
Silo
Following that, I read the trilogy that inspired the TV series on Apple TV+: Silo, by Hugh Howey. I watched the show before to read the books, and I was surprised by how well the show had followed the original story. It’s a dark series about the future if humanity, but one one that I would recommend as well.
He Who Fights with Monsters
This was my last series of the year. He Who Fights With Monsters, by Shirtaloon, is comprised of 12 books. I’m not sure if the series is over, I’m at book 10 right now. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s an interesting story and idea, again in the litRPG genre. I’m just not a fan of the writing, it’s very repetitive, and I often wonder how this was published as it often feels like I’m reading something that I already read in the last chapter. The books for sure could be a lot shorter. The main character is also not very likable, and his growth over the books is overly explained, again and again, instead of letting us feel his growth for ourselves. At this point you must wonder why I read 10 books of this! I’d love to give you a good reason, but I think it’s just sunk cost fallacy 🙂
If I had to recommend only one book series, it would be Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’m looking forward to the next book!
@jeremy I've read those books in 2025, amongst others, but I've liked most of the ones you recommend 👍
What do you think about progression fantasy or litrpg, in general? -
@jeremy I've read those books in 2025, amongst others, but I've liked most of the ones you recommend 👍
What do you think about progression fantasy or litrpg, in general?@RakowskiBartosz I think I’ll need to read more before I can form a good opinion. It’s certainly refreshing, and I enjoy the style. But I find it gets repetitive quite quickly. Once the protagonist has understood how the game-like elements work and has used them a bit, the author needs to introduce new mechanics to keep the book(s) interesting.
Dungeon Crawler Carl did this well with new mechanics on each level, and some really good character development. We see Carl grow, and we also get to know a slew of side-characters that are just as important to the main plot.
He Who Fights with Monsters attempted to do something with its rank system, but I don’t think it’s enough to keep the story interesting over time. It doesn’t help that its main character isn’t written to be as endearing as Carl. 🙂
I’m curious how other books in the genre tackle that challenge. If you have recommendations for future reads, let me know!
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@jeremy yeah, I know what you're describing. Some authors end up overcomplicating everything to a point where it's difficult to follow and ignoring it would make reader skip most of the content.
Here's a list I shared recently:
https://hachyderm.io/@RakowskiBartosz/115856042913939875
I remember reading a series where the plot was emphasized and levels and numbers appeared very infrequently. If I manage to remember which one it was, I'll let you know. -
@jeremy yeah, I know what you're describing. Some authors end up overcomplicating everything to a point where it's difficult to follow and ignoring it would make reader skip most of the content.
Here's a list I shared recently:
https://hachyderm.io/@RakowskiBartosz/115856042913939875
I remember reading a series where the plot was emphasized and levels and numbers appeared very infrequently. If I manage to remember which one it was, I'll let you know.@RakowskiBartosz Thank you, I’ll check those out, add some to my reading list for 2026!
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One vaut, 4 main folders (using the PARA method), many (too many) subfolders. I think it could be better, but I haven’t found a better way yet. I’m not too worried about it though, I rely on search, bases, and internal links to navigate across my vault and it works.
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I’ve been building an RSS reader for the past year. No unread counts, no inbox to clear. Just a river that flows at its own pace.
Today it’s live on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I wrote about everything that went into it.
Current, an RSS Reader, by @tgCurrent is a new RSS reader that takes a really interesting approach to how we consume feeds. Instead of treating your subscriptions as a to-do list with an ever-growing unread count, it presents your feeds as a river; articles flow in, linger for a while, and eventually fade away on their own.
Although the app is mac / iOS only, and paid, it’s not completely closed. You can hook it up to existing RSS backends like Feedbin or Miniflux.
The completionist part of me does miss the idea of reaching “inbox zero.” For me, inbox zero was never about obsessive consumption (or at least I like to think so); it was the permission to walk away. When I’ve read everything, I’m done. I can close the app and move on with my day. I wouldn’t want my RSS experience to turn into a TikTok-like endless scroll where I just keep going without thinking. Current isn’t exactly that though, and that’s where its velocity system gets really interesting.
Each feed gets assigned a half-life that determines how long its articles stay visible. Breaking news fade away faster than blog posts for example. This means the app naturally surfaces content proportionally to its nature; a prolific news site won’t drown out the small blogs you actually care about. The pace of consumption adapts to the pace of creation, which feels much more respectful of both the reader’s attention and the author’s intent.
On top of that, Current watches your reading patterns and offers suggestions to help you “quiet” noisy sources. If a feed floods your timeline with 18 articles in one day, or if you keep skipping posts from the same source, it’ll nudge you to rate-limit or mute it.
I would give the app a try, but it’s iOS and mac-only so far, so I guess I’ll have to wait! 🙂
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Could you check that the ActivityPub plugin is still active on your site? You seem to be using the Friends plugin but the ActivityFun plugin itself seems disabled.
You can also post in the plugin’s support forums if that doesn’t help ; we’ll be happy to help!
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If you’re an old-time blogger, you probably remember Freshly Pressed. 16 years ago (!), the folks at WordPress.com launched a new blog where they highlighted interesting blog posts from the WordPress.com community every week.
We iterated on the idea a few times over the years but the main idea stayed the same:
a curated collection of posts that entertained, enlightened, and inspired. It was our way of saying “we like you, we really like you” to creators, and amplifying their great work for others to find.
Great Writing Deserves a Spotlight: Freshly Pressed Is BackFreshly Pressed went away for the past few years, but I’m happy to say that my team brought it back! It’s got a fresh coat of paint and most importantly, it’s got quite a few interesting blog posts already!
Im really happy and proud that we were able to get this done. Today, more than ever, I think we could use a bit more humanity on the web.
The old web felt like a city. You could turn down a random alley and find a weird little shop. You could get lost and discover something beautiful by accident. You could end up in a tiny shop you didn’t know existed or sit on a bench and people-watch.
Now it’s a mall. Every path leads past a store. Every store wants something from you. Even the “public” space is engineered to keep you moving toward purchase.
Straight from today’s Freshly Pressed post, I miss being unmarketable on the internet.So check some of those blogs out. Give them a Like. Leave a comment. Start following them. And if you find good potential candidates for the next Freshly Pressed post, send them my way! All you need to be featured is a WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress site running the Jetpack plugin, and most importantly, an interesting, or funny, or unique story to tell!
Bonus: if you’re more of an RSS person, you can also get Freshly Pressed posts straight in your RSS reader via this feed. Pinging @davew, I know you’re always looking for good feeds 🙂
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@king @pfefferle c5
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I’m not a big podcast listener, but I wanted to share the few podcasts I enjoyed in 2025. The list will be short.
My most listened podcast this year was once again Worlds Beyond Number. If you’re not familiar, it’s an immersive (i.e. with custom music and sound design) storytelling / actual play podcast, with Brennan Lee Mulligan (of Dropout, Dimension 20, and now Critical Role Fame) as the main gamemaster. Their main story, The Wizard, The Witch, and the Wild One kept me wanting more for the whole year. I subscribe to their Patreon so I also get access to their exclusive content on the Fireside podcast, and it’s definitely worth it. Part of their exclusive content is extra stories set in same world as the main story, and I found each one of them almost better than the main story.
Book 1 of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One has now come to an end but they continue to tell stories. Of note, a 4-parter based on the board game Cluedo (aka Clue for folks in the US) that was way better than it had any right to be!
I would consequently strongly recommend Worlds Beyond Number if you’re looking for a new podcast in 2026.
The problem with such great podcasts is that it’s hard to find anything just as good when you eventually catch up with all the episodes. I struggled with that in 2025, tried many different Actual Play podcasts. I only found one that I would recommend: Fables of Frost and Fur, by Roll for Impact. That campaign ended up being my second most listened podcast of the year.
As for the other top podcasts on my list, they’re all podcasts for kids in French and in Hungarian, so probably not something most of you will be interested in! 🙂
If you have recommendations for more Actual Play podcasts for me to discover in 2026, let me know!
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I am a fan of The Dresden Files. If you’re not familiar, it’s a series of 18 books written by Jim Butcher. The first book was published 26 years ago. In the books, you dive into the world of Harry Dresden, a private investigator in Chicago. Add in a bit of a noir atmosphere, good humor, and a bit of a buddy cop feel at times thanks to Harry’s consulting work with Karrin Murphy, police officer at Chicago PD. You get the idea. Oh, and I forgot a tiny detail: Harry is a wizard! In this world, vampires, werewolves, and fairies are real. Harry Dresden is listed in the Chicago phone book:
HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other EntertainmentI personally discovered the series 3 years ago via the audiobooks. I listened to the 4 first books and was hooked. It helped that the audiobooks were narrated by James Marsters (yes, Spike from Buffy!). He is a great narrator and his voice work was a perfect match for the series.
Fast forward to today, Twelve Months, the 18th book in the series just landed on my Kindle. You can order yours from the author’s store here.
Time to get back into the story! It’s been a while since the last book though, so I put together a refresher (thank you Claude) that I sent to my Kindle. I’ll read it, as well as the last few chapters of the last book, to get ready before to start the new book.
If you could use a refresher too, feel free to download the PDF below.
The Dresden Files: Series Summary (Books 1-17) — A comprehensive recap to prepare you for Book 18Download
