At the end of the year, I (Nate) often enjoy reflecting on my reading in the past year. I read some great books in 2025, and here are comments on some of the best:
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube, Patrick Leigh Fermor
As an 19-year-old in 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor decided to backpack across Europe, crossing the English Channel and then essentially walking all the way to Istanbul, staying in barns, homes, and palaces. His descriptions of the local landscapes, monasteries and villages, art, music, and people are fascinating, and what makes the book more of a treasure is the fact that much of what he saw is gone because of World War 2. But Fermor is a marvelous writer, and I plan to read the next two books in the story of his journey.
Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler, Rick Steves
As I read Fermor, his cultural references were so ferocious that I felt that I needed a refresher in European art / history. I enjoy watching Rick Steves’s jaunts around Europe, and his Europe 101 is a good overview to our Western cultural inheritance.
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One, Stanley Fish
The author points out that some people love words, phrases, and sentences in the same way that an artist loves the texture of his paint. I’m probably one of those people. This book helped me slow down and note the art and complexity and power of different types of great sentences.
Walking the Nile, Levison Wood
This is explorer Levison Wood’s retelling of his record-setting walk of the entire length of the Nile River, 4,000 miles, from a spring in Rwanda to the Mediterranean Sea. On his journey, he encountered crocodiles, criminals, deadly heat, war, and some very interesting people.
How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, Alan Jacobs
In an era in which people’s thoughts are directed not by a careful process of thinking but by the Algorithms, Alan Jacobs has provided an excellent guide to thinking critically.
The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
Good fantasy is not an escape from the real world, but a way to open our eyes to the moral and spiritual conflict of the world that we live in. The Lord of the Rings is full of wisdom, goodness, and truth, and it is my favorite story.
Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman, Patrick Hutchison
April read this first and recommended this to me, and I really enjoyed it. Hutchison had a lucrative but boring job in Seattle, and he knew something was missing. He ended up buying a little fixer-upper cabin in the mountains, quitting his job, having some adventures, and finding community.
2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
For years, I found the film’s exploration of the relationship of human beings and our technology thought-provoking. If technology can do everything we can do, what are we even here for as human beings? (One of my favorite moments in film history is the moment David Bowman turns the supercomputer Hal off, using the most basic of human tools—a screwdriver.) Although the book is interesting, it has a lot more about the “To infinity and beyond” part of the story, and it doesn’t improve the story. I think this is one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better.
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
My wife and I loved the 2005 BBC miniseries, so I decided to read the novel. The novel is long, but it’s a masterpiece. I love its variety of idiosyncratic characters. And no one can work death by spontaneous combustion into a story like Charles Dickens.
Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent, N. D. Wilson
Hard to describe but really good. Meditations on our mortality, our purpose in God's design for His world, and the sovereignty of God.
Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis
I’ve read this book many times, but I always felt I missed something in the last twenty pages or so, which become symbolic and visionary. This time I read the novel along with Till We Have Faces: A Reader’s Guide, by Christine Norvell, and it really helped. I think this is Lewis’s finest novel, with the possible exception of Perelandra. It’s a retelling of the myth of Psyche and Eros from the perspective of one of the wicked sisters, but infused with Christian symbolism. The story is ultimately about the nature of true Christian love.
Class Clown, Dave Barry
This is Dave Barry's memoir. Barry is now in his late 70’s. A good friend gave the book to me (Thanks, Mike!), and I laughed a lot as I read it. Mr. Barry is very funny, but he needs God. In between his hilarious memories, there are some surprisingly sad and surprisingly thoughtful reflections. I especially enjoyed his reminisces of his early days as a journalist.
Everything Sad Is Untrue (A True Story), Daniel Nayeri
Such a powerful story. The author recounts his early years, starting with growing up in a wealthy family in Iran. When his mother becomes a Christian, Iran’s police give her an ultimatum to turn in the other members of her underground church. As a result, she flees the country, taking little Daniel and his big sister. Daniel ends up in Oklahoma, trying to fit in with American junior high kids. Off the top of my head, I think this is only the fourth book in my life that brought me to tears.
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, David Brooks
(Note: I technically finished this book this week, but it is so good I had to include it.) Absolutely fantastic book. Brooks shows that in our lives, people climb two mountains. The first mountain in life is the kind of success we think we want when we are young adults: we want a career, a nice house, a nice car, etc. And so we climb that mountain. But when we get to the top, we realize that these things aren’t fulfilling, and we’re empty, and we go into a valley. Then we discover a second mountain—a life of meaning and service. Brooks shows human beings are wired to have a truly fulfilling life only by totally and completely giving ourselves away for others—for another person, for a family, for a community, for God. If we don't do that, our lives feel wrong. Although I don’t agree with everything Brooks says, there is much light here.
I read a few other books, but these were the most notable. Enjoy your reading in 2026, friends!
