BOOKS READ -- 2025 REPORT

 I am not the best at keeping records, but it appears that I have read at least 264 books in 2025.  The true number is higher because I know there were some books that for some reason I never recorded.  Not that we are having a contest, but I completely out-sku2nked the other members of my family:  Christina came in at 67 (six! seven!...which made thirteen-year-old Jack ecstatic); Erin came in at 124 (she reads thick, heavy books); and Jessamyn came in at 175.  No reports in yet from Kaylee or Amy, but both tend to read a lot and may have come close to reaching my number; Amy, however, will read a book three or four times if she really likes it and she is always concerned about whether she should count each reading.

So who did I read this year?  Just about everyone, but some authors deserve mention.

• Michael Crichton.  I read 18 of his books, finishing his complete published ouvre, including four he wrote as "John Lange" and one he co-authored as "Michael Douglas."  I prefer his thrillers but I was also impressed with his crime novel The Great Train Robbery.
• James Lee Burke, 11 books, finishing up all of his published books and collections (that is, until February, when the new Dave Robicheaux comes out).  For consistent excellence, it's hard to beat Burke.  I couldn't pick a favorite -- is it possible to have an 11-place tie for first?
• Joe R. Lansdale, 8 books.  I still have three or four of his titles on Mount TBR, and there are a gazillion of others out there -- the man is anything but not prolific.  I have long held there is something in the water in East Texas and Lansdale continues to prove me right.  Sentimental favorite:  In Waders from Mars, a sweet science fiction-y children's story about interplanetary ducks bent on conquering Earth, based on a story Lansdale's son Keith told when he was five.
• Terry Shames.  The first six books in her Samuel Craddock series.  I am late to the party on this.  Craddock and his central Texas small-town neighbors are addictive-forming.  These remind me a lot of Bill Crider's Dan Rhodes series, even though there are large differences.  Currently there are six more books in the series and I'll be getting to them post-haste.
• Stephen Spotswood.  The five books in the Pentecost-Parker series.  Once again, I was late to the party.  A fun, feminist tribute to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  Although set in the 1940s, the two main characters reverberate in today's world.
• Christopher Golden.  5 books, including the mammoth Stephen King Tribute anthology.  I've been a fan of Golden since the beginning.  The man write exquisite horror, nail-biting suspense, readable tie-ins (something not that easy to do), and unusual fantasy.  Way back when, he wrote the YA Bodies of Evidence series that is still one of my favorites.  My top pick for this year would be Blood of the Four, a magnificent epic fantasy co-authored with Tim Lebbon
• Manly Wade Wellman.  Five books (kind of).  The gentleman from North Carolina could do it all -- science fiction, fantasy, mystery, western, historical, history (both Civil War and regional), biography,  comics (he wrote the very first Captain Marvel comic book story).  This year I finally got a copy of A Double Life, a very rare paper back adaptation of the Ronald Colman film.  I also managed to get five of the six volumes in the Winston-Salem in History series that Wellman either wrote or co-wrote.  I had ordered all six, but the dealer cancelled one of the volumes.  That book, Winston-Salem in History, Volume One:  The Founders now remains the only Wellman book I have not read.  (Maybe, there had been a rumor of a small-press publication of a heavily revised short story, but I have never been able to confirm if it, or the publisher, actually existed.)
• John Creasey.  Only four books this year.  I have at least fifteen others on Mount TBR.
• Fritz Leiber.  Four books, all collections.  Two more collections await me.
• Murray Leinster.  Four books.  There are still two of his westerns I have not read available on Internet Archive.  I am going to have to search for the ten or so older novels of his, some published in England and never reprinted (**sigh**).
• Budjette Tan.  Four graphic novels.  My find of the year.  Tan is a Filipino comics artist who draws on the legends of his country for his Treme, about a young woman who uses her contacts with supernatural creatures to solve murders.  Amazing artwork, fantastic storytelling, and a unique setting make this series an absolute winner.
• "Kenneth Robeson."  How is it I only read four Doc Savage novels this year?  Gotta do better in 2026.
• Lee Goldberg.  Four books.  A writer who can do no wrong.  I've read all his fiction and started in on his non-fiction, hoping to complete it next year before the new Eve Ronin comes out.
• Hard Case Crime.  I don't have a count on how many I read this past year, but I can report that I have read everything they have published except for two books I hope to finish this month; I had hoped to get them done before Max Allan Collins' Return of the Maltese Falcon comes out on January 6 (yes, it is pre-ordered), but that does not seem likely.  Also, I am catching up on the Hard Case Crime graphic novel line, having read eight of them this past hear.

Coming up for 2026:  many books by John Creasey, Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake. Lee Goldberg, Christopher Golden.  Hoping to dig out my copy of Agatha Christie's "Mary Westmacott" novels.  I also have two books by John Dickson Carr and two by Shirley Jackson I want to get to.  There are a few Erle Stanley Gardner collections still on Mount TBR and, surprisingly, some Mickey Spillanes.  I'm currently on page 150 of Joe Hill's new doorstop novel, and that makes we want to get to his two early novels I have not read.  And I am getting an itching for more books by James Herbert and Charles L. Grant.  There are only four books by Rex Stout that I have not read, all early novels and all long out of print and very expensive, but I can hope, can't I?

And some time, dammit, I am going to read Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas, which I have started at least four times in the past and have had to put down for various reasons.  Maybe this year?