For the last few years, I’ve been setting myself reading challenges. I did the same this year. I picked 25 books that I want to read in 2025. It’s a a mix of classic literature, modern fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and even a graphic novel—some are long-overdue reads, others are completely new discoveries. From literary giants like Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald to epic fantasy worlds by Tolkien and Robert Jordan, this is going to be an exciting year of reading!

Classics & Modern Literary Fiction:

1. The Tin Drum – Günter Grass

2. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. Pere Goriot – Honoré de Balzac

4. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

5. Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

8. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

9. Chronicle of a Death Foretold – Gabriel García Márquez

10. Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee

11. The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster

12. The Man Who Was Thursday – G.K. Chesterton

13. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

14. Possession – A.S. Byatt

Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Magical Realism:

15. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

16. The Eye of the World – Robert Jordan

17. И Жили они долго и счастливо (And They Lived Happily Ever After) – Алена Селютина

Russian Literature & Soviet-era Writing:

18. Ни дня без строчки (No Day Without a Line) – Yuri Olesha

19. Прощание с Матёрой (Farewell to Matyora) – Valentin Rasputin

Non-Fiction & Essays:

20. The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk

21. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf (Yes, this is the one I forgot to film! 😅)

Historical & Contemporary Fiction:

22. Aylin – Ayse Kulin

23. Flights – Olga Tokarczuk

24. Hunger – Knut Hamsun

Graphic Novels & Experimental Works:

25. The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman

This list is ambitious but exciting, and I can’t wait to share my reading journey with you throughout the year! Have you read any of these books? Are any of them on your 2025 reading list? Drop a comment below and let’s chat about our reading goals! 📖✨