Top 12 Books to Read in 2025!

[@Contraband_Pigments]

A varied and fascinating list as usual. I found some new discoveries here. Please don't forget to state the translator for the edition of foreign language works you're reading. For instance, that Machado de Assis novel has at least four different English translations.

[@grantlovesbooks]

Yes, I have to remember to do that. I got in trouble a little while ago for not mentioning it in one of my reviews, so I will have to keep it in mind.

[@Cakewalkingbaby]

Looking forward to hear you talk about Zola! Always enjoy your reviews Grant😊

[@grantlovesbooks]

Thanks Cakewalk! I hope to get to Zola some time soon. I'm going to be more clever this year and read all of the TBR books right away. For the last two years I've got stuck at the end and really needed to rush the last books on the list to get them finished.

[@JamesA-b8p]

Hi Grant! Enjoyed your preview of books for 2025. Interesting choices with your book blurbs and personal revelations. I.can't plan that far advanced, only short range projections which so far will be Jon Fosse's 'Septology' (translated from Norwegian) of which I'm just finishing the first of three 'The Other Name'. I sometimes need to read books whose content embraces those things on the edge of focus, the unseen seen. Be well!

[@zerozero7644]

good luck reading all that and onto the new year, hope you enjoy japan, still hoping to see a "temple of the golden pavillion" review one day (maybe ill have to send you a copy). for me im planning on reading all the unread books i own for 2025, which was incidentally my goal for last year. huh

[@grantlovesbooks]

I'm going to try to be more clever this year and read all the 2025 TBR before anything else. Last year I got bogged down towards the end of the year and have to read three big books in December. Reading all my unread books would probably take me a few years at least. Every year my resolution is; 'I will not buy any more books until I've finished at least 75% of the books on my shelves!' This tends not to last longer than January. Good luck with your TBR!

[@CristinaInNeverland]

Well, from this list I got very interested in 'The Book of Eve', and 'Walk on the Wild Side' and around here, either it's not available in PT or it's sold out! eh eh, you really went looking for the hidden ones! I don't have a list of 12, I choose from my already long TBR, according to the availability on my shelves or ebooks and my 'appetites', but I started the year reading 3 short stories by Balzac, of which I especially appreciated 'The Unknown Masterpiece', and at the moment I have a science fiction one in hand, I know it's not your genre, 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula K. Le Guin, so far a disappointment, maybe I'll like it later, and 'Under the Volcano', this one requires a lot of concentration (after a few pages still in the 1st chapter I had to go back to the beginning, now I'm into the book, I think! I'm still at the beginning). To these, probably: - A European Education, Romain Gary; - The Time of the Assassins and The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder, both by Henry Miller; - The Festival of Insignificance, M. Kundera; - The Gift, Nabokov; - Journey by Moonlight, Antal Szerb; - The Thin Red Line, yes, from James Jones (following From Here to Eternity); - Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier; - Sinais de Fogo (Signs of Fire), Jorge de Sena (Portuguese); - The Shadow of What We Were, Luis Sepúlveda (Chilean): - The Mother, Pearl Buck. Among others 😉 HAPPY NEW YEAR Grant!

[@grantlovesbooks]

Hello Cristina, that is quite a list! I hope you will enjoy Journey by Moonlight, I sometimes wonder if I enjoyed it so much because of my strong affiliation with Hungary. Please let me know what you think. Currently I am making my Under the Volcano video, I think it will be ready by the weekend, so you will get my opinion on it soon. It's kind of amazing, I assumed From Here to Eternity was his only novel! I had no idea that he had written others. What an oversight on my part! I will certainly be keeping my eyes open for that the next time I go looking for more books! I'm going to try to be very minimal buying any more books this year since I'm planning the move to Japan. I will check all those other books I've never heard of and add them to my list! Thanks Cristina! Hope life is wonderful in Portugal in 2025!

[@debpalm8667]

Thanks for your list. Blessings.

[@grantlovesbooks]

Thanks Deb! Hope you are well!

[@aprettybookshelf]

Hey Grant happy new year to you. I already have on my TBR two of the books you mentioned, The Tale of Genji and The Posthumous Memoirs of Brad Cubas. Thanks for your recommendations as always.

[@grantlovesbooks]

Hello Prettybookshelf, that's great that you've got some of the same books I do! Let me know what you think of them, I am always interested in others opinions!

[@ev3261]

Some very interesting books on your list ! I am curious to hear your thoughts about the Japanese novel, I've never heard about it. And I think I will also join you in reading one Balzac and one Zola per year, sound like a great challenge 🙂

[@grantlovesbooks]

Hello, The Tale of Genji is becoming a little problematic, as several people have told me that the real novel is over a 1000 pages long, and my edition is really much shorter than that. But Zola and Balzac, even though I've only 'discovered' them in the last few years have quickly become my big favourites. Both of them were amazingly prolific, so I will make some serious effort to read as much as I can in the coming years. Good luck with your 2025 books!

[@scarba]

Happy New Year, I’ve screenshot one :) the Germans are crazy with the clock ⏰. For example twenty-five past seven becomes fünf vor halb acht - five before half of eight. :)

[@sharonluvisi6069]

Grant, did you purchase an abridged version of The Tale of Genji? It doesn't look hefty. The edition I have, translated by Dennis Washburn, is 1,360 pages and Royall Tyler's translation is 1,216 pages. Oh, and thank you for previewing The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas; I purchased the translation by Gregory Rabassa, who translated One Hundred Years of Solitude.

[@TheSalMaris]

@@sharonluvisi6069 I was wondering much the same thing about Genji- what’s up with that Grant?

[@grantlovesbooks]

Hello Sharon, I think my copy is a very abridged version. I hadn't realized that when I bought it. My copy of The Posthumous... was translated by Flora Thomson-Deveaux. I hope I got a good one. It's a rare book to find in the used bookstores, so I would have picked up any copy I could find. I'll try to get to the bottom of what's going on with my Genji before I begin reading.

[@grantlovesbooks]

I feel a bit stupid now. I'll see if I can't figure out what is happening with this book. Maybe I got the Hollywood version.

[@sharonluvisi6069]

@@grantlovesbooks haha!😀

[@TheSalMaris]

Happy New Year to you and yours. Have pity on us South of the border 20 January and beyond we will no longer be responsible for our actions, and most especially our mouths. Thank you Grant.

[@grantlovesbooks]

That's not the American enthusiasm I've come to know and love! And don't worry about it, soon all of Canada and Greenland will be America, and then we'll be one big North American rodeo. Every man for himself, shoot first and ask questions later, one hand on the pistol and the other pulling myself up by my bootstraps. Seems like your new guy has his sights set all the way down to Panama! When I get my new American passport I'll come down and visit you!

[@JamesA-b8p]

Pity the fool not the rule. Pax Americana! 😁 Smile! Somebody loves you!