Reading List 2025

It's approaching the end of the year, and that means it's time for my annual reading list. I'm happy to report that this year, especially in the first half, I've read a lot more than in the previous one. While great news, it does mean that there's much more to write about, so this time I'm going to split the list into an English part, and a (considerably longer) Spanish part, which you'll be able to change between using the language switcher in the top right, once it's also published. As before, I'm planning to go chronologically, writing a short background on each book, and giving out some "highly recommended" awards.

Oedipus Rex - Sophocles, Johnson (2005) translation

While I was on my year abroad studying in Spain, I restricted myself to only reading books in Spanish (hence why the English part of this list is relatively short), with the exception of Oedipus Rex. I read this as part of a course I was taking, Cultura Clásica (Classical Cultures), for both the coursework and the exam. Being the first Ancient Greek/Roman literature I looked at, I read it in English to better (and quicker) understand it. The translation I used is a modern text, which made it much easier to parse and more enjoyable, and also came with very helpful footnotes explaining context, characters, meanings, and more.

Sophocles is one of the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek tragedians, alongside Aeschylus ("the father of tragedy") and Euripides ("the most tragic of poets"), and Oedipus Rex is likely his most famous work. I enjoyed it a lot, it was interesting reading something in such a different format to what I'm used to, and it tied into learning about the culture and geography of Classical Greece as part of the course. Interestingly, I didn't feel as strong a sense of wanting to stop what was happening, of things going wrong, as in other fated tragedies, I felt that the characters here were often harder to sympathise with. Overall though I still liked the story and the setting, and at some point I plan to read Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, whose events take place shortly afterwards (while not strictly being sequels).

Autocracy, Inc. - Anne Applebaum

This was, without a doubt, the best book I read this year. As often happens, I found myself browsing the shelves (and tables, in this case) at Waterstones, and came across this intriguing title. After a good half an hour or so or reading in the shop, I bought it, and read it over the course of a few days - the first book I read after coming back to the UK and Exeter. The book is an extended version of recent essays by Applebaum, and both the depth and breadth of her reporting is excellent. It ties together the key parts of modern autocracies - including money and co-operation, information narratives and social media, and their global, transnational effects, into one accessible, factual, and compelling book which I can recommend to everyone.

I found it so useful that I re-read it shortly after to make notes, and it's inspired various projects and investigations since then. Perhaps most importantly, it comes with a wide variety of ideas for protecting the free world and for reversing the current trends of autocratization. So if you're stuck wondering why the world is how it is at the moment, and how we can go about trying to improve it, then there's a good chance that this is the book for you.

Nero - Conn Iggulden

11 June 2016 is when I took out my first Conn Iggulden book from the library: Lords of the bow, the second of his Genghis Khan and descendents series. Shortly after coming home with it, my mum had a look through and decided it was not appropriate for me, then an 11 year old, and off it went back to the library. So, on my next trip to the library with my dad, 11 year old me tried again - this time with the first book in the series, Wolf of the plains, making sure to hide it at the bottom of a large pile of books I took out alongside it, and later under my bed. And so began my introduction to the world of historical fiction.

Since then I've loved Iggulden's books, having read most of them (the fiction ones too), and I think it'd be fair to say that historical fiction is my favourite genre - combining historical events and settings with amazing storytelling and prose is simply an incredible combination. This - the opener of the Emperor Nero trilogy (although Agrippina is really the protagonist of this book) - was the first one I'd read in over 2 years, and it was almost addictive coming back to it; I finished this book in the space of a few days while on holiday. I'd say it was also one of the best I've read: I think the story was more unique and the characters/relationships had more complexity than previous ones, although that may just be because my memory of them has faded with time. Regardless, it was the book I enjoyed most this year, and is a great way to get into the genre - as long you don't mind the oddities and at times uncomfortableness of the Roman elite...

Tyrant - Conn Iggulden

Following on, Tyrant is the next in the series after Nero. There's not loads to say here: it's also fantastic, and the only reason it's not "highly recommended" is that it's pretty much a given if you're reading the first. This book develops the character of Nero a lot more, and shows his odd relationship with his mother, Agrippina, and the other people who play a large part in both lives (e.g. Burrus, the head of the Paretorians). I think Agrippina is still the most fascinating character here though, the ability she has to manipulate and control people around her, and to play Roman politics so successfully, is astounding.

I also particularly liked that Iggulden added footnotes and a historical accuracy part at the end of both books, explaining many of his decisions over what version or interpretation of an event he used to create his story. I don't remember him doing that in previous series, so it was a very welcome addition. It was fun to see some mentions of Roman Britain as well, here and at the end of the first book, and the description of Nero's Naumachia (Roman mock sea battle) was excellent. The only criticism I can raise is that I have to wait until May for the final instalment in the trilogy :(

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange is a book that I'd been meaning to read for a long time. I'm not quite sure where I first heard about it, but I think it was part of some particular grouping of "modern classics" (alongside things like 1984) which were talked about in English classes, or perhaps by my parents. It's certainly a unique book. This particular version is from the 2007 Independent's Banned Books series, which came with a very helpful foreword. Especially interesting is that Burgess claims to have always wanted the last chapter - which flips the ending on its head, to be published in the US, whereas others say that he was happy for it not to be. The slang that Burgess created for the book also added a lot (apparently done to ensure it wouldn't go out of date), and while it made it harder to read at first (lots of flicking back and forth to the glossary), it didn't take too long to get the hang of it.

The dystopian world of rampant youth violence and the ineffectiveness of the state at preventing it is a depressing one, although fitting with the pessimism of the 60s around this topic (especially in certain cities), some which still lingers today I find. And the descriptions of this are very... colourful. The story almost feels a bit like a tragedy in parts, with the previous events and people coming back in highly unlikely and strange ways. The central theme of free will vs violence and the state is an important one, and that alongside the extreme violence is probably what pushed it into the public eye, and spurred the creation of many film/stage adaptations since. I found I didn't agree with some of the undercurrents - religion, inevitability, I don't think those are the best ways to approach the problem (education and environment would be better places to start), but nonetheless, reading it was still a useful thought exercise, and I do think that free will and thinking are important things to protect, especially in a world where those kinds of rights are currently in recession.

Closing thoughts

That's it for this year. I hope you found something useful or interesting in here, and as always, please do get in touch if you have any feedback!