elbowleech

It's December 30, 2025, and I want to organize my reading habit. I fucking hate how corporate the terms "retro and planning" sound, but they really are the perfect way to describe this thing. Whatever.

Books I read in 2025 (favorites in bold)

Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
Seek You by Kristen Radtke
Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Annihilation of Caste by BR Ambedkar
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
Cinderella by William Wegman
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar
Dream Count by CNA
Diary of a Film by Jean Cocteau
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
The Nib: Food
Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
Big Swiss by Jean Beagin
A Style Called a Dead Fish by Ilu Susiraja
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
What my Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

It was bit of a slow reading year, which doesn't bother me too much (I believe in quality over quantity) but what does bother me is that my choices were relatively arbitrary and unintentional; I picked things up mostly on a whim. For 2026, I want plan out my reading priorities a little better in an effort to manage my ever-growing list.

Two of my friends are participating in a reading challenge by https://boundless.binderybooks.com, also known as @thisstoryaintover on socials. Rule #1 is to read (and annotate) for at least one 45 minute session per day. Rule #2 is to read at least 1 article/essay per month on any topic that interests you. Rule #3 is to read at least one book by a BIPOC author for every book you read by a white author. I'm not as interested in rule #3 because my tastes are already "diverse" and because it goes back to that quantity over quality thing that I find annoying, but the other two are minor extensions of the reading habits I already have, which feels nice.

Rules #4 and #5 are to cover each of the following genres and formats: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Classics, History/Politics, Science, Memoir/Biography, Play, Graphic Novel, Essay/Anthology/Short Story Collection, Translation.

Rule #6 is to cover the following author categories:

Book with a Queer/LGBT main character
Book with disability rep
Book by an author not from/in North America
Book by an alive Black Author
Book by an Indigenous/Native American author
Book by a SWANA author
Book by a Latinx author
Book by an East Asian author who is not Chinese, Japanese, or Korean
Book by a South Asian author who is not Indian

I'm going to organize the books on my list by genre/format and then indicate whether they fulfil any of the author categories using the corresponding number.

Literary Fiction + Historical Fiction

Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte (8?)
In Tongues by Thomas Grattan (1)
Clear by Carys Davies
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters (1)
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (1)
Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn (1)
Luster by Raven Leilani (4)
Real Life by Brandon Taylor (4, 1)
Half His Age by Jeannette Mccurdy
Open Throat Henry Hoke
Burnt Sugar Avni Doshi
The Coin by Yasmin Zaher (3)
Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards (5)
Butter by Asako Yuzuki (also a translation)
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (2) (also a translation)
Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill
Kittentits by Holly Wilson
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper (1)
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali (6)

Fantasy + Science Fiction + Horror

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (3)
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (9)
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (8)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lamani (6)
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Under the Skin by Michael Faber
The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan (1)

Romance + Classics

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Possession by A.S. Byatt
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

History/Politics + Science + Memoir/Biography

Cruising Utopia by Jose Esteban Munoz (7)
Azaadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction by Arundhati Roy
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawanda
Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood by Lucy Jones
Come As You Are by Emily Nagosaki
Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
On James Baldwin by Colm Toibin

Short Story/Anthology + Plays + Graphic Novels

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
On Pleasures and Days by Marcel Proust (also a classic)
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
The Moon on a Rainy Night by Kuzushiro (also a translation)

Poetry (my own addition to the challenge)

A Film in Which I Play Everyone by Mary Jo Bang
Mummy Eaters by Sherry Shenoda

But the challenge does not stop there.

Rule #7 is to create your own critical media journal, where you can write down notes or reviews on the books, movies, shows, articles, and essays you read. I have my Bookstagram, though I haven't left any meaningful reviews on there since 2022 (like I said before, Instagram scares me)... but that's what this Dreamwidth journal is for! Here's to hoping I can use Dreamwidth to keep up with Rule #7.

Rule #8 is to create your own personal curriculum for the year or for each "semester" of the year (fall & winter, summer optional). This could be about anything from learning more about a specific topic, learning a new skill/language, or forming your own literary analysis. The idea is to read two books for each curriculum (preferably at least one nonfiction) and make use of your local library for research.

This is one rule that's giving me pause. I've wanted to do something like this for a while— namely, a deep-dive on epistolary novels, as I'm interested in writing one myself— but I'm wary of setting my expectations for this challenge too high, and I've already decided that my main writing goal for this year is to focus on screenwriting, not fiction. I really, really, really want to finish at least one screenplay this year!

Rule #9, the final rule, is to do a buddy read or join a book club and discuss at least one book with other people. This one is easy, because I joined a book club this past year with my coworkers (the first book club I've ever truly enjoyed and felt committed to). The books we read were The Secret History by Donna Tart (a re-read for me) and Wuthering Heights (life-changing).

So, that's it! I am obviously not going to get through all of them, but my idea is to refer to this list and this list only when deciding which book to read next throughout my year.

Stay tuned for another post about movies/shows and one more about my general reflections/personal goals for 2026.