2025 in Books
2025 has been a wonderful year in my reading journey, i was able to complete 22 books, which is around 3x more than what I was able to do in 2024.
That’s a graph in positive direction 📈
This year, I am aiming to reach 40 books. I know its around 1 book every 8-9 days, it’s little too ambitious. But yes, I can pull it off, and here’s why?
- In 2025 I journalled for 273 days (Definitely a number I want to make 365)
- Out of which I have read 169 days, which is only half a year, and there were reader’s block in middle
- There can be a few days where I read but didn’t journal, but for ease and peace of mind we can neglect it xD
Which means, if I am consistent, I should be able to cross the 40 books mark, and it is a conservative goal which I have kept.
Okay, coming back to the recap of books.
2025, was quite explorative in terms of reading, I tried different genres, different mediums, and different ways of reading.
What Books did I read?
Selfhelp & Psychology
From start, I have been reading a lot of self-help books, infact I started reading with a self-help book, Atomic Habits (yes, classical).
After a few books I found it to repeat itself a lot, the authors started to paraphrase the same points and create chapters and sometimes books out of it, and overall it felt very boring to read more and more, which might be a reason why I was inconsistent in reading.
But there were a few good ones, whose inherent lessons were really deep and resonated very well with me.
(You can click the book name to read my summary on them)
One more thing I learned about reading self-help book is that, you need not to read the entire book, picking chapters or later skimming paragraphs still provide you the same understanding of the entire philosophy on which the book is based of.
While reading these, another thing I realised is that I really like to read about human behaviour and about various aspects of, why we do what we do.
The Art of Thinking Clearly, was a great book that give me a birds eye view of this entire genre, then seeing Late Daniel Kahneman being mentioned in every book I read,
I had to pick up his Thinking, Fast and Slow, which have been reading line by line, from past 1+ months, almost 80% there. This book is an ultimate source of knowledge on human behaviour backed by scientific research, it is filled with a lot of “Aha you got me, moments”, and it makes you question your own thinking.
Hence, Psychology is one of the genres I want to explore a little more in 2026.
Business & Finance
Apart of self-help, business was another genre which I read a lot in 2025.
It was mainly learning about different founders on how they built and scaled their businesses, the struggles they went through, the decisions they took, the reason behind taking those decisions, the reasons behind those reasons, the different factors which comes into picture when running a business, etc etc.
It was great reading them, but after a point I felt, this is not something which interests me anymore, maybe one reason being I want to experience it, instead of only reading it. Also, I am not in a process of running a business, which makes it not that worthful of a read now (I might be wrong, but this is what I felt)
Coming to Finance, Investing 101 is one of those books, after reading it, has become a must recommend for people who are trying to manage their finances.
The author explains various financial concepts in a fundamental way, while keeping the overall state of the book neutral, and not forcing any way of investing.
And since I am managing my personal finance, it was a good read, looking to read more into this genre, might share my current finance strategy and splits in future blog post, it has gone through a lot of iterations.
Indian History & Culture
I always loved reading about our culture, and it is something which I am proud of, and want to explore more in depth.
Daiva, was a great read which talks about the Tulu Nadu Daivaradhane (ದೈವರಾಧನೆ) culture.
In 2026, I will be reading Mahabharat by C. Rajagopalachari, it is an abridged English retelling of the epic, but a good starting point. Also want to read Bhagavad Gita by Bibek Debroy, which seems to be the most accurate english translation, based on some of my research.
Last year I also stumbled upon books by Amish, he writes on mythological fiction. I read his entire Shiva Triology within 4 weeks. The book had kept me so hooked that I used to read it day in and day out, the language is easy to understand, and the way he narrates the story always keeps you on your toes.
Technical
Last but not the least, technical books. I didnt read a lot, but planning to read some more this year.
2026, my aim is to broaden my technical expertise across various domains, and build foundations in them.
These are the books currently in my radar, based on people referencing it over the internet (The list might change in the future)
- Recursive Book of Recursion
- Building Microfrontends - O’Reilly
- CLRS - Algorithms
- Operating Systems - Three Easy Pieces
- Compilers - The Dragon book
- Principles of Building AI Agents
While I wont be spending my entire day reading technical books. I will still read a hobby book by side to keep myself refreshed, but at the same time building my CS foundations.
For a brief period of 2-3 months, I tried reading ebooks over my iPad, but I found it not much effective. So that start’s me with
Does Medium matter?
Reading ebooks sounds like a great idea, no need to spend much money, easy to carry, annotate, track, etc etc.
I had the tools in hand, had a way to track readtime and streaks, but my knowledge retention was taking a hit, and also having to read from an LED screen was not a good idea.
Reading physical books gives me a sense of accomplishment when I turn the page, move the bookmarks, close it after a good reading sesh, and finally removing the bookmark once I finish it, and it going over the shelf and witnessing my library grow up. All these small things really add up.
I still read blogs, papers or try books on my iPad, but when I want to read for a purpose of gaining knowledge or understanding things, I prefer physical books now.
You can find the books I read in 2025 at /books
One more reflection being, I never wrote what I learned or understood about a book, which is something I am aiming to improve this year, as it will improve my retention and my writing skills simultaneously.
If you are a software dev, or you love to read, please feel free to reach out to me at any of my socials or at deveeshshetty@gmail.com.
Would love to discuss more about the books, or hear out any of your recommendations!
Thanks for reading, and keep reading :)
Read my 2025 Wrapped
Cover Image Credits: Guzel Maksutova on Unsplash