In 2025, I aimed to read at least 1 day a fortnight, with the idea of seeing what kind of results that leads to, instead of a number of books read.
However, 2025 turned into a massive year of transition, with me getting a new medical diagnosis, changing jobs, moving house, and reading fell out of my priorities. Still, I completed 3 books, and I did read a few others – just not to completion yet.
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January :: Succeeding At Interviews Pocketbook by Peter English
5 Stars
I bought this as a gift for someone else on a youtuber recommendation, and figured it was short and there would be no harm reading it first!
It seems to be a handy little book for helping you consider what interviewers are seeking and how to make that easier for yourself. I’ve not done an interview in years, but the advice was either stuff I agreed with or do myself when interviewing (both as a candidate and when being involved in recruiting).
It was an easy read, covering the key aspects without being full of irrelevant words.
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December :: Teaching for Realists by Omar Akbar
4 Stars
This book was a fairly useful little pointer for a trainee teacher. It focuses on where trainee and ECTs will benefit from focusing, such as taking every chance to speak to other teachers, and remembering your purpose that drew you to teaching during hard times.
The author shares some handy nuggets from their teaching experience and reflections on the difficulties of realistic teaching.
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December :: The Hounds of Morrigan by Pat O’Shea
4 Stars
Reviewing this story feels particularly hard because I found the poetic language a bit of a struggle and put the book down for long stretches.
It took me 12 years and 9 months to read this book. I did enjoy the story, though I recognise parts I definitely don’t remember due to the passage of time.
The journey is filled with magical twists and a lively cast of characters. I feel that anything I say is going to be reflected in the lost memories, but the large cast of characters and different levels of writing were tricky to keep track of (even in the stint where I read the last 100 pages across 4 days, new characters were hard to make sense of).
I feel that if you can get into the right frame of mind, this could flow as a lovely fantasy tale. I want to note that a lot of the parts would benefit from being read aloud, and wonder in hindsight if an audiobook version would be a better format.
Either way, it had some delightful twists and the words created a lovely world to spend time in.
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I didn’t come close to my goal of 12 books: again.
However, at the end of the year I did manage to start building regular reading into my evening routine.
So we’ll just have to see how 2026 pans out…