Bismillah.
I know it's already the end of February, but you know what they said >,< it's better late than nevahhhhh
Let's do my 2025 reading wrapped!
In 2025, my goal was to read a total of 31 books, and it had to have at least one non-fiction book. And I did it! Yeayy!!
I have been enjoying reading books since I was 5, and back in primary school, I was wholly devoted to my buku NILAM. Literally won't go anywhere without it. I loved the ritual of excitedly finishing a book and having a sense of pride seeing the pages all filled up (yes I'm a nerd like that). However as I grew into my teenage years and adulthood, I sort of forgot the introspective action of documenting your reads and jotting down your inner thoughts. It's honestly such a good way to not only remember what kind of books you've read, but also to understand yourself and build your own character and mind.
Since around 2021 or so, I started tracking my reading again, cause I felt like I wasn't reading much and my love for books faded a bit. Sometimes, I stayed consistent with all the trackings. Some other times, and perhaps most of the times, I forgot about this hobby of mine and drifted away lolll.
Anyway, 2025 was the year I actually stayed trulllyyyy on track. Well, I got strayed some mid-year, but I managed to achieve the target nonetheless!
To get down to it, let's start with my best and worst read of the year:
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I honestly never have read anything as complete as The Woman Destroyed. I really ought to make a separate post about this book, but if you're curious, it is comprised of 3 short stories about womanhood. The first one, a woman and her husband in their 60s, narrated in her POV, as they faced the challenging phase of parenthood; their son having a different opinion from them, and how she felt like her husband no longer loves her. The second story is called The Monologue but I dislike it so much so let's not bother about it. The last short story, The Woman Destroyed, is about the wife being cheated on by her husband. She allows him to continue the affair, clinging to the comfort of self-deception, telling herself that 'he will return to her'. Eventually, the affair consumes her being and sense of self and she ended up.... a wreck. Her story is not a pitiful one, I gather, but rather a tragic portrait of what happens when we abandon our own clarity and self-respect for the illusion of love.
Meanwhile we have The Housemaid is Watching as my worst read. It is the final installment in The Housemaid trilogy. It was soooo baddddd everything felt like they have no idea what they are doing and just put pieces and bits together and pray to God it's be okay. It was not.
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My most read authors! I have always known Agatha Christie, but I had never read her works until last year. They are brilliant.
To summarize quickly my reading journey in 2025:
For this year, my reading goal is:
1) To read 35 books including non-fiction.
Why 35? It's just a random number. I thought we should always strive to be better when determining our goals, so ideally the number should be above 31. 32 felt such a lazy goal. I have to be much, much better than that. But it also has to stay realistic so I settle with 35.
2) To read more diverse genre
As I realize I stick way too much to detective books, the only way for me to actually grow is to leave my comfort zone. I'm thinking of trying books in the genres I dreaded: classics, fantasy and sci-fi. Let's see how it's gonna turn out.
3) To read books from at least 5 different countries
When I read The Bastard of Istanbul last year, it made me ashamed to how oblivious I was to the histories and cultures of people all over the world. This was the book that made me goes "oh wow I never knew I was this shallow" in regards to my shallow thinking of the order of this world.
For instance, did you know that the Ottoman Empire convicted the act of genocide against Armenian peple in 1915-1917? Over 1,000,000 Armenian people were deported out of their homes and sent on death marches to the Syrian desert. And yet, the Turkish government dares to deny this to this day.
That's all for my reading goals 2026. I didn't wanna be unrealistic and set too much goals and sub-goals and whatever, so I hope I manage to achieve it this year.
