dear friend,

10 books i want to read in 2025

There were two bookish experiments that I used to do: One was running a book club discussing non-fiction books about Singapore. I had the dream that change happens when people educate themselves and talk about what they care about with each other. That youthful vigor I had when I was a university student diminished after I graduated and found a full-time job. Now, I don't have the same dream. I'm a little more jaded and pessimistic about the future, which isn't great because deep down, I'm still the same person - eternally hopeful and endlessly curious.

The second experiment was that I would ask my friends for their favorite book of all time and go read that. I did that because I wanted to better understand my friends, to see what their favourite book(s) said about them as a person. I was pretty successful in reading all the books that were recommended to me except for one book which I've always held some shame about. Especially because that friend actually gifted me their copy of the book so that I can read it. 2025 is finally the year I redeem myself and finish "Flowers for Algernon".

The other books in the list are a mixture of books I found online/in-person that have been on my TBR pile for an embarrassing amount of time, books that I own that I finally feel ready to read, and just books that I feel would upgrade my operating system. I've been feeling quite stagnant in my thinking, going round and round in circles, and I want more for myself. I miss the way I used to read books deeply to prepare for the book club, and I miss the sociological discussions I had in my tutorial group. So this is my attempt at learning in public.

Here are the 10 books I want to read this year (not in any particular order):

  1. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

  2. Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving - Pete Walker

  3. Let's Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts - Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez

  4. How to Read Now - Elaine Castillo

  5. Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging - Cher Tan

  6. Health at Every Size - Linda Bacon

  7. catskull - Myle Yan Tay

  8. The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin

  9. Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore - Esther Vincent, Angelia Poon

  10. Black Waters, Pink Sands - Ng Yi-Sheng

Honorable Mentions

I couldn't resist squeezing in more books onto an already ambitious list, these are books that would be nice to read in 2025 but I know they're dense so we'll see how the year goes.

#bookclub