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From choosing the right novel to curating your own to-read list, Katie Rosseinsky - who made it through an impressive tally of books in 2025 - has some words of wisdom to share

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At the start of the year, I open a new note in my phone's app, ready to begin a list of everything I'll read over the next 12 months. It's a little tradition that I've stuck to since 2018; while some readers prefer sites like Goodreads or apps like Storygraph, I enjoy the organised chaos of my slightly unwieldy inventories.

In 2025, I managed to read 95 books, starting off with Nathan Hill's Wellness and ending with Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin. That's a new record for me - scrolling back through the archives shows that I've previously tended to get through around 70 titles annually.

This also makes me something of an anomaly. According to research from YouGov released last year, the average Brit read or listened to just three books over a 12-month period. 40 per cent of the respondents hadn't read a single one in the past year. And we're not exactly raising a new generation of readers, either. In 2025, children's reading enjoyment fell to the lowest recorded level in the UK.

I'm well aware that talking about how many books you get through can come across as a bit smug, a not-so-humblebrag (look at me and my massive literary intellect!). I'm also aware that reading is something that brings a lot of joy to a lot of people, yet it can often fall off our list of priorities, for a whole host of totally understandable reasons: work and childcare spring to mind, along with the steady erosion of our attention span thanks to the allure of social media and short-form content. Then there's the systematic closure of libraries after years of funding cuts.

And yet reading can do us so much good. Studies have found that this hobby can improve our focus, reduce stress levels, and essentially act like a workout for the brain, supercharging memory and concentration and slowing down cognitive decline. It’s also perhaps the best tool we have for boosting empathy. As the historian and