Looking Back at 2025 And What a Year It Was

Happy New Year’s! I can’t believe that it is 2026. It will take a few weeks before I get used to saying that it is 2026. Today, we will be looking back at 2025 and recapping it and highlighting the best books from this year.

Starting off the article with how many books I read in 2025 feels like the best way. When 2025 began, I decided to aim to read a hundred books. I ended up reading a 117 books, far surpassing my goal. And I was able to read this many books was because I always had a book lined up to read.

You can check the full list of all the books I read here at Goodreads. Or you can check out my favorite books of 2025. I am proud to have read this many books and if you told me that I was going to read 117 books in 2025, I would not have believed you.

Besides reading a ton, I also traveled quite a bit. I finally visited Canada and it is a shame I didn’t earlier. It is an amazing and beautiful country and I will be going back soon. The food there was not to my liking but I didn’t do my homework so that was on me.

I also revisited some of my favorite cities. New Orleans is one of the places that I never get tired of and they have some of the best food in the states. I also visited Seattle for one full day and enjoyed going back there. It is funny that I did more in that one day than I did in my past trip that was four whole days.

If you have been following my blog, then you know I visited Japan for the second straight year. I didn’t know good food was before going to Japan and now, I find myself always wanting to go back. The 14 hour flight is not fun but it is worth it. Japan has so much to offer and it is a new experience as I explore different cities each time.

I also visited Utah for the first time (as well as Nevada as we had to drive from there). And wow, I was not prepared for the heat. We visited Zion National Park (during the government shutdown) and it was one of the most gorgeous places that I have been to. It is breathtaking and makes you realize how old the earth is and it humbles you.

I have my list of places to visit in 2026 and I’m sure you can take a couple of guesses. But I won’t spoil it until it happens. You can check out my travel blog posts at my new blog Sip, Snack, See. It is going to be where all my travel posts are so if you want to follow where I’m going, that is the best place to go.

It has been six years since I started this blog and I didn’t really post that often in the beginning. But a few years later, I decided to be a lot more consistent and it has been quite a journey. Trying anything new is scary but if you keep at it, the results will pay off.

Who would have guessed that I would have over 21 million views? That number is still shocking to me and I did not think I would ever across a million views. I want to thank everyone for following and supporting this blog and it means a lot.

I started this blog because of my love of books. The goal was to share my favorite books that I read but over the years, I have also found that this blog keeps me motivated to read as well as finding new books to read.

I am grateful for everything that has happened and I can’t wait to continue reading and writing in 2026. There will be more book recommendations and I hope you join me to read even more amazing books this year. Until next time, happy reading!

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