Books Read Of 2025

I kept my target of reading 52 books this year and I ended up reading 53, rushing to read one on the morning on new years eve as I had forgotten one earlier in the year! But still that's no bad thing. 

I'm sure you all know I'm a book worm by now, so no surprises here on the numbers, audio books were such a game changer for me, and I often wonder how much I'd enjoy my main work (small batch production) without them. I do also listen to a lot of podcasts and the like as well. 

Book highlights of the year - Fiction

Not sure where to start with this as there were so many good ones. 

Classics - 

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - I can think of no better time than now to read this book. It's surprising how long ago it was written, but my goodness it rings true of today. 

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Always wanted to read this and this year I gave myself that opportunity. Not sure what I was expecting, but even though it's huge and has a huge number of characters I found it easier going than I thought. The war scenes were some of the best I've read and dare I say some bits near the beginning with the teenagers is almost a little trashy. Glad I read it, but might not be one I re read often! 

A Month In The Country - A beautiful calm book, just enjoy feeling like you're in a village in the 1920s, about a man with shell shock recovering while restoring a mural on a wall in a church. 

Far from the Madding Crowd - Gabriel Oak deserved so much better. That's all I say! 

Grapes of Wrath - Bleak, but worth reading. But bleak

Day of the triffids - Great bit of sci-fi fun, loved it. 

Fiction - 

Jasper Fforde - completely bonkers world building, almost gave up and then suddenly I was there and loved it - can't wait for the third one in this series. 

The Devils - Joe Abercrombie - Probably my favourite author and he's done it again. A cast of characters I love, loads of action and funny to boot. Incredible writing. 

Project Hail Mary  - Andy Weir - Great cosy Sci-fi, every bit of this was fun, and written in a way to keep you reading. 

Misery - Stephen King - I could not stop reading this. I was hooked. I wanted to turn away but couldn't. Such a great book. 

Bob Mortimer - Satsuma complex and Avocado Hotel - Just fun books, light reading at it's finest. I love these. 

The Black Tongue Thief - special mention for a great audio performance, one review said it was "alright except for the non native English speaker" I thought that was odd so gave the sample a listen - he is Irish! And every paragraph he reads like it's poetry, very much a fantasy book, with magic and the like, but very fun, a pleasure to listen to. 

Non Fiction - 

Malcolm Gladwell - This year I started (on my brother's recommendation) to read Malcolm Gladwell. I got through four of his this year, they make incredible audio books as include the interview recordings and look at fascinating subjects. I was utterly hooked on each one. Not always the happiest of subjects, but ones really worth reading about. 

Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green - Again another incredible book about a subject I knew less that perhaps I should. very eye opening, especially about how we treat and cure things only when it suits. 

Less - Patrick Grant - A book that puts into words a lot of what I think. Beautiful turn of phrase and I'm going to urge more people to read this book. Superb. 

A particular highlight - Reading Terry Pratchett to my boy. We've been loving reading the truckers series together and the books have quite often made him (and me) laugh out loud. my teen years were spent reading Pratchett so I'm hoping we can read lots of these together in the future. 

The Children Of the Famine - Marita Conlon-Mckenna - I read this to the girls and I can see why it's an Irish classic. A trilogy of books about the Irish famine, the middle book about a girl of 13 moving to America on her own, it's history that should certainly be taught a lot more, especially when there are a lot of people that want Britain to be "great again", a lot suffered for that so called greatness. Docks shipping grain off to England while Ireland starved, it's made the girls and I look a lot more into that time period. 

Books that didn't quite hit the mark for me - 

Of thorn and Briar. It just wasn't what I wanted it to be, I think I wanted it to be another Burn (by Ben Short) and it just felt a bit flat, but maybe that was my expectation rather than the book itself. Also I felt that there was some underlying contradictions in opinions that I couldn't quite place my finger on, I do think it is a well written book though and I did enjoy it, just didn't fill me up (if that makes sense). 

Shogun Part 2 - Honestly I was so invested and then it just ended in such a flat way, wrecked the whole thing for me. 

Craft Land - James Fox - just felt a bit w&nky, just didn't feel right to me and I love books about craft. Skimming too softly and with too much reverence between the crafts. In one bit he talks about how much thought goes into stroke of the chisel of a stone carver, and as a wood carver I have to think that it's just crap, because I'm normally thinking about what I'm going to cook for tea, not that if I make a bad stroke the piece is ruined, otherwise nothing would be made. 

The lion Above The door - Onjali Q. Raúf - I loved, laughed and cried at The Boy At the Back Of the Class, but this one was just too slow, I read it to my son and I think it struggled to hold both of our attention, I think if it was shorter it would have been better (for us anyway), still a good book, just not in the same league as the other I just mentioned. 

So there you go, my books of 2025. I think 52 is a good target, not saying I'll get there this year, but I like having an aim. My wife and daughters are going to share their reading lists as well in the next week or so. 

What was your favourite book you read in 2025? Anything you think I'd like?

New Year Ended With A Bang

 We've been busy off seeing family, a trip to Stratford theatre on Tuesday night to see the BFG (which was amazing), then yesterday we were having a fairly lazy day before going off to see friends. 

My wife went for a run and tripped and fell, the first we heard was from some people who saw it happen, who luckily brought her home. She was covered in blood and straight away I could see she had cut her head pretty deep. 

So we left the children and I took her to the local injuries, they took one look and told us to go to A&E. We didn't have to wait too long when we got there, about an hour after being seen initially for a quick assessment. They said she'd need stitches and she ended up having nine above her eyebrow. 

We told our friend, who's house were going to for new years, as we were in hosptial, and she went to collect them. The girls had been baking all afternoon for the party and were ready to go. 

When my wife and I got home from the hospital we were a bit wiped out. But I came back tot he log basket full of logs, the fire lit and burning away nicely, chickens shut in, workshops all locked up. I was very proud of how our children dealt with it all. 

My wife stayed in for new years, I managed to drag myself out for a few hours, it was lovely being with friends, but also I couldn't help but worry about my wife (especially as it's her head she hit). 

This morning she is obviously a little tender, still shook up and still tired as her body tries to heal. 

Only up from her on in!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

It seems to come faster every year, but a big merry Christmas from the Alviti household. 

We've enjoyed a very chilled out few days, I'm not great at stopping, but have managed to slow right down. 

Christmas day was spent with just the five of us, and boxing day was with my wife's family, we still have my family to go and a evening at the theatre to see the BFG.

I've been given lots of nice presents, a new mic for my camera (need to get back int he habit of more videos), lots of lovely books, nice dairy free chocolates, some hobby stuff (warhammer modelling stuff and a nice light for painting) and some nice clothes (and socks). 

Hope you've had a great break as well. I will try to blog a bit more in the new year, this year has been extra busy and I got put off social media a bit earlier in the year and left one platform completely, but I still think it's important to maintain my blog and document what we get up to for us all to look back on one day. 

So Merry Christmas one and all! I will do my usual yearly round up in the next few days plus a few goals for the new year. 

Now I Can Feel Christmassy

Having created a business that runs right up to Christmas to provide gifts for people to buy, certainly makes me see the Christmas build up in a different light - for me it's become a very busy time of year. I'm lucky that I can still swing things around and make it all fit around the children, but I have put in some late nights lately! 

She's not too big to lift up to put the angel on top of the tree!

 But the rush is over, no orders at all this weekend, which I'm thankful for (really, although I'd be happy to sell a bit more...) as I hate the idea of someone not getting something they've ordered by the time they want it. Everything gets delivered a bit slower now as they must have mountains of parcels to deal with.

I'm very thankful I can work from home (well workshop) like I do, and be around my children so much. It enables me to mess about here and still do lots of other things I enjoy. Having travelled for work for so many years, walking across to my workshop is still something I pinch myself about. I'm never going to be rich doing what I do, but I do enjoy it, and for now it's ideal for family life, maybe I should push to earn more money, but balance is always tricky to find.

I'm going to make a bit more stock now, to top back up, and have a few more products I'd like to design and make, as well as some magazine articles due in fairly soon. But I'm also going to take a bit of time for myself and try to do a few other things I enjoy. In the new year I really want to lay some hedges, and sort out chicken pens, and get the garden back in order! There's always a list as long as my arm! 

An Afternoon At My Wife's School

So it really doesn't feel like I've stepped out the workshop much over the last month. I have been having a good month of sales, and I have been putting in the hours to try and keep up! I'm looking forward to that say when the last posting date is done. 

Yesterday I did take a bit of time though. My wife was doing DT with the children in key stage 2 and asked if I would come and give her a hand.

I aways find something like this fascinating, how some children will listen and just get what they're being told, how others need to be shown and how some won't get it this time! I managed to have about 4 sawing at a time, and it was running pretty safely. 

 I did think her school needed a bit of an upgrade with some of the equipment, I'm going to make them some new bench hooks, as these were just too small and not up to the job. The grove in the top was to put the wood in, but it meant that you couldn't hold it very well. I think it was trying to be too clever, and I encourage the children to cut up the side of it. the bottom of the hook was also really small so it slipped off the table. 

An interesting afternoon and always interesting to see your partner at work (although I doubt my wife would say that as I work in a workshop 20 yards from the house!).