Reading Recap 2025 – The Chronicles Of A Children’s Book Writer – Earl Dizon
It’s been awhile! Before I share my reading recap of 2025, I wanted to address the elephant in the room- that I hadn’t posted in months- and that I honestly don’t know if it will change. I do miss the IMWAYR blogging community but I was starting to feel a bit bored of the routine. Plus, I hadn’t been too consistent in actually reviewing the books I’ve read. Maybe I was reading too much?
I. Reading Goals
I had set out to read 500 books this year- an arbitrary number but one that would challenge me to read more of everything/anything because the number of books I read last year was embarrassingly low by my standards. (Actually, looking back at previous years’ data, 500 seems to be pretty standard since I do read a lot of picture books.)
I’m happy to say I exceeded the goal by over 100 books. In 2025, I read 611 books.
The breakdown is as follows:
-30 out of 35 Adult Fiction novels- I think I ran out of steam the last couple of months. This was helped by reading shorter books which did lead me to some great titles.
-26 out of 15 Adult Non-Fiction books- This was helped by one of my reading challenges- to read the Mindfulness Essentials series by Thich Nhat Hanh.
-13 out of 10 Young Adult titles- This was helped by one of my reading challenges- to read all of Renee Watson’s books which were mostly in this category.
-37 out of 30 Graphic Novels
-50 out of 35 Middle Grade Novels- This was helped by one of my reading challenges- to read all of the Moomin novels.
[The above categories tend to be considered substantial. The goal was to read 125 and I did 156!]
-33 out of 30 Early Chapter Books
-373 out of 325 Picture Books- This was helped by some of the reading games I did with my co-workers.
-49 out of 20 Board Books
-112 out of 150 Non-Fiction Books- I think I had even lowered it down to 135 sometime after summer but I didn’t read as many non-fiction picture books as I normally do.
-22 out of 50 Filipino Reads- I was going to do something but didn’t end up doing it this year hence me not reaching this goal but a good number even though I felt there weren’t as many Filipino books released this year.
-103 out of 75 LGBTQ+ Reads- Even I was pleasantly surprised by this number!
II. Kids At Heart
One of the things I started this year was the Kids At Heart: A Book Club for Adults who Love Children’s Literature. I’m so glad people joined in since it’s been great talking about books. Here’s what we read this past year with December being a roundtable discussion.
III. Reading Challenges
Continuing:
-Caldecott (and Youth Media Awards)
-Everybody Reads
-Reading the Rainbow
-NAYPL: Mac Barnett*
-Spooky Reads
-Festive Reads
-Grace Lin*
New:
-Moomin (& Tove Jansson)*
-Mindfulness Essentials*
-The Singing Hills Cycles*
-Renee Watson
*I should probably review the books for these!
IV. Reading Games
-BINGO
-Bookshop Battleship
-BINGO 2.0
-Bookworms & Bookstacks- This was based on Snakes & Ladders which apparently none of us had ever played so I think I was the only one who did this.
V. Reading Events
– I went to a few Silent Reading events.
-Everand had book nooks that popped up all over Portland one spring weekend so, of course, I had to visit all of them.
-I participated in an Audiobook Walk.
VI. Bookstores & Libraries Visited
In 2025, I visited 42 bookstores and libraries!
Despite creating another blog dedicated to this, I’m still trying to figure out how to best present it. Plus, that’s another thing I still have to update!
VII. What’s in store for 2026?
If anything, I want to lean more into being a reader. More details to come!
