Ask HN: What were the best books you read in 2025?
No synthesized answer yet. Check the discussion below.
But I do not read a lot of books in a year anymore.
Why?
And I realize as I write this, my favorite fiction authors have mostly all died off…and if they were already dead when I discovered them I have already read about as much of their work as seemed worth reading.
But in the bigger picture, I quit moralizing over my reading a few years ago…it started with giving myself permission to not finish books.
Basically I stopped keeping a list.
Returned my treatment of the internet from “the thing” to just another tool.
I keep a reading list at quinnkeast.com/reading. Would love to see others’ if any has one to share!
* The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Short, but a great read)
* The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
* The Armchair Universe by A.K.Dewdney (First read this one many years ago, but I've been reading it again)
* Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield (third book in a series, so you'd want to start at the begining with The Apollo Murders)
- Leviathan Wakes by James Corey
- UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan
- Efficient Linux at the Command Line by Daniel Barrett
Assyria, The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire by Eckart Frahm
1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline
Children of Ash and Elm, a History of the Vikings by Neil Price
Differential Privacy (2025) by Simson Garfinkel. This is an accessible and enjoyable introduction to differential privacy from the MIT Press essentials series.
The Philosopher in the Kitchen (1825) by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. This is a primer on gourmandism or the art and science of cooking, eating, and hosting. An interesting look at the French intellectual milieu at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy (2006) by Steven Hales. This book argues for relativism about philosophical propositions, e.g., metaphysical statements. I came across this book and picked it up after enjoying a few articles from Hales' blog [0].
I usually put up a list at the end of each year. Here's the list from last year [1].
This is a recommendation that applies to very few people but the misfits, the philosophers, the hermits, the compulsive thinkers. Those that feel they are meant to peer behind the veil of the world rather than dance to its tune.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Animal Farm by George Orwell (a reread)
Night by Elie Wiesel