I read a lot of blogs by a lot of people who read a lot of books. At this time of the year it is the custom for people to do a census of all the books they have they read over the past 12 months and then share that list with everyone else. For the last few years (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018), I’ve been collecting all those lists in one place – here (and here’s a X thread of it).
I find these lists helpful enjoyable because it forms the often always unrealistic basis for my next year of reading. I see a list and think ‘Ooh, interesting’ and I add it to my TBR (to be read list) which is now so long that my only real hope is heaven having lots of book nooks like this. I’ll update it for about a week after New Year as those who only collect after a full year is properly done add their lists. Check the social media for updates or back here.
Happy reading!
For the Reading & Writing Life
- Ranked: The Best Countries at Reading. Copy Singapore everybody!
- Why Men Should Read More Fiction
- Christian Bibliophilia
- Nothing Better Than a Whole Lot of Books: In Praise of Bibliomania
- These Are My Reading Rules For 2026 from someone who pretty much reads books for a living
- Are adults forgetting how to read? And how harmful is it?
- Always a favourite: The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025
- On Paperbacks and TikTok
- If you need to watch in order to know how to write then this is the place.
- Some good advice to aspiring writers from Trevin Wax
- My Lifetime Reading Plan by a lifetime reader, Ted Gioia
- And a classic and necessary post for those who need to defend how many books we have: The Antilibrary: The Hidden Value of Unread Books
Individuals Best of Lists
In alphabetical order
- Yancey Arrington
- Andrew Batson
- Jonathan Black. I love the way Jonathan mixes old and new books. And impressed by how much he reads!
- Tim Challies & Tim’s general market favourites
- Thomas Creedy: The Long List or if you prefer a thread of all 129 books!! Or just the Top 10!
- Tyler Cowen: Non-fiction (with a late addendum); Fiction
- Brad East
- Jez Field
- Sam Hailes
- Chris Hatch
- Ryan Holiday – I might add another link later because just now it’s to his bookshop, which I don’t mind but if you want his reasons then you’ll have to go to his newsletter
- John Hosier
- Mark Larson
- Leah Libresco
- Lex Loizides
- Stephen McAlpine
- Gary McMurray
- Mark Meynell
- Russell Moore
- Henry Oliver
- Mark Pickett
- Maria Popova
- Derek Rishmawy
- Fred Sanders (bit niche just Trinity books)
- Evie Solheim
- Tim Suffield
- Benjamin Vrbicek
- Trevin Wax
- Phil Whittall – snuck my own list in
- Jeremy Williams and full list
- Nadya Williams
- Andrew Wilson
- John Woods
Organisations Best of Lists
I haven’t remotely tried to capture all the lists out there just the ones from media that I follow. So you can get a pretty good idea of who informs my views from this list.
- Challies. I know he’s not an organisation but he has a round up here so it didn’t really fit above!
- Christianity Today (US)
- The Economist
- The editors at Mere Orthodoxy share their best reads of the year
- New Statesman
- The Gospel Coalition award winners & then their editorial staff picked their favourites
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