Books of 2025
J
I bought a collection of poems by John Keats. His poems feel like a gateway back to my youth, when every word carried more weight than the world around us. Reading them now is like opening an old notebook filled with pressed flowers, something fragile, fragrant with memory, and impossible to let go. His verses linger on beauty, love, and loss with an intensity that mirrors the rush of first friendships and first heartbreaks. The lines don’t just describe scenes; they immerse you, as if the Grecian urn or the nightingale’s song were within arm’s reach. There’s a tenderness in his pursuit of truth through beauty, a reminder of simpler times when wonder came easily. Revisiting Keats today is less about studying poetry and more about rekindling that raw, unfiltered sense of awe. His poems endure because they belong not just to literature, but to the very texture of growing up and remembering.
M
I went ahead with recommendations from a lot of great people and read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It is a collection of personal writings from the Roman emperor, offering profound insight into Stoic philosophy. Written as private reflections, it blends practical wisdom with moral guidance on discipline, resilience, and the fleeting nature of life. The book stands out for its clarity and universality. It reminds readers that even the most powerful man of his time wrestled with doubt, anger, and mortality.
S
I remember starting my novel-reading journey in school. Sidney Sheldon was one of my favorite author. Unfortunately, as I grow older, I realized that these genre of novels are kinda cheesy, shallow, and not really my type anymore. I re-read two of his books — Master of the Game and The Sands of Time.
T
The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chencellor takes us through time, showing how borrowing and lending have shaped the world. The key idea is that low interest rates can be dangerous. They look like easy money but bring trouble. Too much borrowing. Too much risk. It’s a trap — the cost of cheap money is high.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a popular motivational and philosophical book highlighting the resistances faced by artists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and others who are trying to break through creative barriers.
Re-read The Great Gatsby yet again. It is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway’s interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire obsessed with reuniting with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
I read The Odyssey last year; it just made sense to read The Iliad by Homer. It is an epic poem set during the Trojan War, focusing less on the war itself and more on the wrath of Achilles. It explores themes of honor, pride, fate, and the tragic costs of conflict through vivid battles and deeply human emotions. Heroes like Hector, Achilles, and Agamemnon embody both greatness and fragility, making the story timeless in its portrayal of glory and loss. More than a tale of war, it is a meditation on mortality and the pursuit of lasting legacy.