📚 The best books I read in 2025

I ended up at 82 number of books read. My top priority is to read a lot. Instead of going deep into just a few books, I prefer to read a wide variety of titles to get a broader overview. That gives me knowledge across many fields, which I value highly because it helps me see the bigger picture and understand how different trends and developments connect.

How to read 100 books a year

Reading that many books requires discipline but is easier than you might think.

Listen to audiobooks

Audiobooks are essential. I listen while driving, doing dishes, walking, waiting for a train, cooking, or mowing the lawn. This adds up to hundreds of hours of listening each year. About 80% of my books are audiobooks, 10% are ebooks (which I use for highlighting and deeper study), and the remaining 10% are physical books, typically for pure enjoyment.

Listen at higher speeds

If you increase the playback speed to double, you can obviously get through twice as many books. I now mostly listen at three times the normal speed. It’s easier than you think. Just increase the speed gradually. Jumping straight from normal to 3x will make it hard to comprehend, but moving from 1x to 1.25x allows your brain to adjust quickly.

Stop reading if the book is boring

Instead of pushing through a dull book because you "should," set it aside. Otherwise, you risk getting stuck and not reading at all.

Prioritize books over podcasts

I listen to few podcasts. While many are great, I prioritize books. If you want to get through a lot of books, you can’t spend too much time on podcasts.

The best books I read in 2025

Once again this year, I read more fiction than I usually do. Writing my own non-fiction book left me a bit mentally worn out, so I wanted something simple and engaging to glide through.

Peak Human: What We Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Golden Ages

By Johan Norberg

Something as unusual as a history book that speaks directly to our present moment. Norberg looks at what has created progress at several points in history (for me, the Netherlands was particularly interesting).

We ourselves are living through such a wave of progress, and it is clear how it is threatened by the very forces that have managed to choke off previous golden eras.

This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web

By Tim Berners-Lee

A fine account of how the web came to be, by the man who created it, and how he wants it to develop today.

When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life

By Steven Pinker

It is about how shared knowledge – not just what people know, but what everyone knows that everyone knows – shapes human behavior and can change societies.

One example is how authoritarian systems are often propped up by an illusion of support: people are dissatisfied individually but believe they are alone. When dissatisfaction is expressed openly and peacefully, it becomes shared knowledge, the illusion breaks, and power can quickly lose its grip without violence being needed.

The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future

By Keach Hagey

An excellent historical account not only of OpenAI’s (short) history but also of Sam Altman and the rise of generative AI. It also offers a strong mapping of the doomsday pessimists and how large and wide their influence is.

To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

By Benjamin Nathans

About the brave people who dared to stand up to the Soviet dictatorship and, among other things, used the regime’s own false rhetoric against those in power.

The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination

By Jens Andersen

After a visit to Legoland this summer, I became interested in the company Lego, and this is a good description of its rise, fall, and comeback.

Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God

By Catherine Nixey

When Jesus was a child, he killed his friends with magic. That is just one of the stories about Jesus that never made it into the Bible. There were many such stories about Jesus, just as widespread as those that eventually ended up in the Bible.

Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future

By Reid Hoffman

A book that takes a positive starting point in its view of AI.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather

By Mark Seal

Wow, how close it came – several times – to the legendary film never being made. Money problems, an alcoholic gambling-addicted screenwriter, a heavily questioned director, threats from the real mafia – and much more.

Abundance

By Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

A strong argument for why politicians must also update, repeal, and revise laws – not just add new ones – in order to enable faster development and increased prosperity. It is aimed at American policymakers, written by two Democrats, but would be just as worthwhile reading in both Brussels and Stockholm.

Mathias Sundin
Angry Optimist