Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

Tolkein. The Silmarillion. I’ve bounced off this book a dozen times over decades, despite deeply enjoying The Hobbit and LoTR. This time I discovered that the best way to read it is backwards, tracing connections to characters you already know.

Stephenson. Anathem. I think I’ll skip the end next time. The first time I read it, I was confused; this time I understood exactly what was happening but I thought it was a bit pointless. Still worth it for the first 3/4 of the novel.

Lots of short stories. I was expecting to like Mark Twain better, but ours is a much more earnest era, and no match for his Gilded Age cynicism. What passes for cynicism today is Twain in his sunniest mood. At any rate, I appreciate Twain, but I enjoy EM Forster, Henry James, JG Ballard, William Gibson, and lots of others I’m forgetting at the moment.

Between the lines, my friends, between the lines.

I definitely see Murderbot as genderless and seeing it as gendered is going to be weird. Fortunately, the series isn't particularly "dear" to me and I think I can deal with the trauma of having my mental pictures wiped-out by somebody else's.

(There are properties like "Neuromancer" and "Snow Crash" that I hope are never adapted to video and, if they are, I will steadfastly refuse to ever see, because I can't imagine anybody else's mental pictures will be better than mine...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

I read Theodoros this year (in Romanian) and I was really impressed. Best novel I've read in years. I'm currently reading Orbitor III. I bought Solenoid, but don't yet feel ready for it.