The books that I want to read this year

I've done very well recently working my way through my "to be read" pile which puts me in a position that I've not been in for many years - looking for some new books to read! I have some Christmas money to spend, so I'm going to be treating myself to some new books, both brand new and second-hand.

Here are some of the books that I want to read this year:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - I've read several books by Murakami and I really like his writing style and the surreal, magic realism elements in his stories. I've had 1Q84 in mind for a while, and when I recently found out that it's set in Tokyo I thought that it would be a good one to read in the first half of this year, before we visit Tokyo in the summer.

Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell - I've shared that I want to indulge my interest in Everest this year, and this book seems like a highly recommended place to start when it comes to learning about the commercialisation of climbing the mountain.

Other Everest books - I've been doing some research and I'm slowly building up a list of books about Everest that I want to read. Some of these aren't available new, and I'm also conscious of my book buying budget, so I have put together an order of second hand books from World of Books. I always order books from there in groups of four as they are usually buy three get one free! So the ones that I'm starting with are Dark Summit by Nick Heil, No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs, Left for Dead by Beck Weathers and The Other Side of Everest by Matt Dickinson. These books may well get a bit samey after a while, so I will probably spread them out over the year!

Photo credit Lauren Gray via Unsplash

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - I've had this on my shelf for a while, but I moved it from the "to be read" shelf to my main bookshelf so that I didn't feel the pressure to read it! But I keep hearing about how good it is and I definitely want to give it a go. Just so that I can say I've read it!

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt - I've been hearing a lot about this book recently. Although it's a couple of years old now, I think that people are talking about it at the moment because the government has been discussing banning social media for under 16s. I'm really interested in social media and the effect that it has on people, especially children, and obviously having teenagers of my own it's an issue that I want to learn more about.

Finally I want to get back to the library! I've not been for months because I've had such a huge pile of books to be read beside my bed. But now that it's feeling more manageable I want to go and have a good browse in the large library near my daughter's school, and come home with a pile of new books to try.

Do you have any reading plans this year?

A weekend away in Bath

I've been wanting to visit Bath for many years, and last weekend we were able to make it happen! My husband and I managed a night away, with my Mum staying overnight to watch the teenagers. 

We chose to travel by train because Bath is very walkable and our hotel was close to the station. My son loves trains and was jealous of our journey so I took a photo of each train that we travelled on for him! We only needed to change once and it was a smooth journey, it took us about three hours and I spent most of the journey just looking out of the window. I love train journeys too!

 

Bath is such a lovely city, all the architecture is so beautiful. I loved how even on the main shopping streets all the shops were in keeping with the setting, there weren't any garish shop signs and they were all tucked away behind decorative pillars. It felt as though a lot of effort has gone into making it an attractive place to visit and spend time.

The one thing that I definitely wanted to visit in Bath was The Roman Baths. I've heard of them of course, but I had no idea that the baths were actually fed by a hot spring! There was also a lot more to see than just the main bath area which was familiar to me from photographs. The whole museum was fascinating. I was particularly taken with the Bath curse tablets which are small sheets of metal inscribed with curses against a specific person, usually for something like a theft, and thrown into the spring for the attention of the goddess Sulis so that she could identify the culprit and punish accordingly.

There is an enormous bath complex to explore and it's brought to life really well with projections and large screens. The audioguide was also very good with lots of really interesting information.

We stayed in a very nice spa hotel, which came with some extra benefits because we booked using our credit card. We had use of the spa all day, which was lovely, and we also received a generous credit towards a treatment. I had an upper body massage and facial treatment which was amazing, the massage was very firm and left tears in my eyes but I felt so good afterwards and my skin was really soft. The spa area had warm and hot pools with a sauna and steam room, and the waters in the hotel spa are supplied by one of the hot springs.

Our rate included a cooked breakfast and so in addition to the continental breakfast offerings I opted for pancakes with thick cream and strawberries. Delicious!

We had a lovely weekend away, it was so nice not to have to worry too much about the children (my Mum didn't stay for the whole weekend and I'm not sure they really saw her even when she was there!) My husband is already eyeing up the next weekend away!

What I've been up to lately - January 2026

I've taken a bit of a break from the blog for the start of the year, so here's what I've been up to!

Reading

I've done a very good job of working through my to be read piles, both physical and Kindle books, and so I'm now getting to some books that I've been wanting to read for a little while. I have just finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver which was excellent. That's three of her books now which I've loved, so I'm definitely going to be finding some more. The book is a modern (ish) retelling of David Copperfield. I've never really got on with Dickens, but I may give it a go.

Next up is the new Philip Pullman book, The Rose Field which is the third book in the Book of Dust Series. Before I start it I've been re-reading the first two books in the trilogy, as it has been a while since I last read them. I don't find this series as compelling as the original His Dark Materials trilogy, but I am fascinated by the world in which they are set and I'm eager to see how the trilogy concludes.

Watching

I enjoyed watching the finale of Stranger Things. Maybe the ending was a little too cheesy but I quite liked that. It felt as though everything tied up nicely although I know that there is some dispute among the fan base! 

Harry and I watched a couple of lovely shows over Christmas that were about train rides - Nordic Train at Christmas and Alpine Train at Christmas. Each one followed a train taking a scenic journey, with some stops along the way to explore local businesses. They were really slow and festive and I really enjoyed them, I hope they repeat them next year.

On Black Friday we treated ourselves to a three month unlimited card at Cineworld. My husband and I went to see The Housemaid over Christmas which is based on a book which I enjoyed. It was a great film, not too long, paced really well and it kept you guessing. We also went as a family to watch Avatar: Fire and Ash. I enjoyed it although I'm not sure what to say other than that it was very long (3 hours 17 mins) and there was just a lot of it! It was quite watchable but I'm not really sure it had the same plot development or interest as the first film. 

This weekend we are really getting our money's worth from the card with three consecutive evenings watching The Lord of The Rings films extended editions. With running times of 3 hours 48 mins, 3 hours 55 mins and 4 hours 23 minutes we are definitely going to need to bring the snacks!

Crafting

I've been working on my small, vaguely Christmas themed cross stitch. It's a fun one to do, with some gorgeous colours. There's lots of variety, with a mixture of full and half stitches and different numbers of strands to add some texture.

Listening

I'm back on the school run so it's back to Spotify. I started off the year listening to the new album from Suede - Antidepressants, which is very good. I've listened to Suede for years, and thought of them again when I found out that apparently Suede have become popular in K-Pop circles - my daughter was singing a song about having Suede on the vinyl which amused me!

I'm also back to my podcasts, I've been listening to Cal Newport The Deep Life, I especially enjoy episodes about AI and finding alternatives to social media. I also follow Feel Better, Live More by Dr Rangan Chatterjee, especially episodes about nutrition and improving daily habits.

Organising

One of my January goals was to declutter five items a day. It's going very well, in addition to tidying up some more visible areas of the home I've also been delving into cupboards and getting rid of some things that should have been moved on years ago. I'm only halfway through the month but I'm not struggling to find things, and I've done two runs to the charity shop so far.

Eating

Another new year goal was to get my eating back on track with some healthier habits. I've enjoyed a few meals out with large desserts, but in between I've been cutting back and upping my fruit and vegetable intake. It's not about losing weight (although a little bit would be nice!) but just aiming for an improvement in my health and wellbeing.

Looking forward to

Harry starts learning to drive next week which is very exciting, both for him and us. I'm looking forward to sending him out on errands!

I'm really ready for spring now, although I know there's still a little time to wait. I want to see what happens to my garden when the weather turns warmer, whether all the bulbs that I planted appear and which plants have made it through the winter. I'm also deciding which seeds to plant to fill my garden with flowers for the summer.

My goals and projects for 2026

For me, the New Year begins today, on the day that the children go back to school. I need to wait until we get back into a routine, all the Christmas food has been eaten, and I can give the house a bit of a reset.

I have a few projects that I want to work on this year, some of which are quite long term, so I need to make plans to tackle them a bit at a time. My first goals for January are fairly typical - mainly getting back into healthy eating and exercise routines!

January goals

Pick up my exercise routine again. I was doing really well before Christmas, but I've not exercised properly in weeks! I do different types of exercise throughout the week, and I plan my week to fit in around the other things that I'm doing. So I know exactly what I want to do and when to do it, it's just a case of getting on with it!

Improve my eating habits after the Christmas lapses. It's not just about losing some weight, although that would be nice, it's about cutting back on the chocolate and making an effort to increase fruit and vegetables.

Work on decluttering the house. I enjoy a decluttering challenge so I'm aiming to find five items a day to get rid of, and I've been stocking up on sturdy bags for charity shop donations. This will involve sorting through our filing cabinet which has become too full for new paperwork, and going through the food cupboards to look for expired food and things which need to be used up.

Finally, our home project for this year is refurbishing our bathrooms. Apart from some minor repairs we've not done anything to them, and as they are original to the house they are over 25 years old! Things are starting to fall apart, and they are all looking rather sad and limescale clogged. So we need to make a start on the planning, go through some brochures and work out what we want.

Longer term projects

Then there are the things that I want to work on over the rest of the year.

Over the next few months I'll be planning my garden. I'll be deciding what seeds to plant and what larger plants I'd like, to fill in the gaps in our borders. The front of our house is quite bare, and so I'd like to put some kind of trellis on it to soften it a bit. We are also planning some kind of living wall or vertical planter for the wall along one side of our patio. I'm not really sure where to start with this, so some research is required!

In the summer we have a big holiday to Japan coming up, and although we've booked the flights and worked out a rough itinerary there is plenty of planning and research to be done before we can book hotels, trains and attractions.

I have several large boxes of family history files which need to be sorted through with the rest of the family and then stored. This has prompted me to think about all my photographs, both printed and digital, and how best to enjoy them. I'm wondering about putting together some photo books, maybe one for each year containing my favourite photos. I have a couple of photograph albums which I enjoy looking through, and I think if I had some physical books I would appreciate the photos more.

Hobbies and interests

Then I have my personal projects for the year. I have a few cross stitch kits which I would like to complete, starting with this Be A Light cross stitch from Dimensions which I picked up on holiday a couple of years ago. It's quite simple, not too big and without much backstitching, so I'm hoping that it won't take too long. The only tricky thing is that the dark background is easier to work on during daylight.

In terms of reading I'm doing very well with my To Be Read piles, both physical and digital. I have an interest which I want to explore this year which is reading about climbing Everest, something which has fascinated me for a while now. So I've put together a list of books which I want to read and I'll be doing a sizeable World of Books order at some point! 

And then maybe this will also be the year that I finally tackle War and Peace...!

What things do you want to work on this year?

What I read and listened to in 2025

Happy New Year! As the New Year gets underway, I've been looking back on what I read and listened to in 2025.

What I read

I love to keep track of the books that I've read, and I've been doing this in Goodreads for a few years now. Every year I enjoy looking back over my reading year, and here are some of my stats from 2025:

I don't worry too much about the number of books, as I usually read a variety of books including some very long ones. This year I read 91 books, which compares to 115 last year, which wasn't a surprise as I knew that I had read less in 2025. But just look how much I read in October as I powered through my Kindle "To be Read" folder on a week long holiday in the Dominican Republic!

I was surprised to see that my top genre was Romance as I like to imagine that my reading tastes are more highbrow. A lot of those free Kindle reads probably fell into that category, and also at times this year I did seek out books which were a little easier to read rather than any longer classics.

What I listened to

We have the Spotify family plan so that we can all keep our listening interests separate. And although it's not cheap we definitely get our money's worth. I was quite impressed with my listening time of 7,182 minutes (119 hours) but it pales in comparison with my son who managed 61,191 minutes - that's over 1000 hours!

Here are my top stats:

Not surprisingly, Pulp are at the top, especially after the release of their new album this year which led to my three favourite songs from the album falling in my top songs list. Spotify gave me a listening age of 47 based on listening to music from the early 90s which is only a year out. However I think that my age estimate may have been lowered based on the fact that the K-Pop group Blackpink made my number two. 

This was mainly due to repeated listens to Shutdown before we went to see them in concert over the summer. I was learning the rap so that I could join in and embarrass my daughter! I also love their song Jump which reminds me of our trip to Seoul in the summer when we watched the video release of the single on a huge screen.

The top artists also reflects the amount of time I spent listening to set lists as part of our year of concerts. Maybe it spoils the surprise for some, but I like to be familiar with the songs that are going to be played so that I can make sure I know them well enough to sing along!

Reading and listening plans for 2026

My to be read pile is currently very manageable, but I'll be starting with books that I received for my birthday in October and haven't yet read!

I've decided that I want to really indulge my interest in Everest this year. I love reading accounts from climbers, and I'm particularly interested in the commercial side of climbing and the companies that take people up when they aren't quite as experienced as they should be. I've read a couple of books already, and I'm putting together a list to purchase second hand.

In terms of music I want to try and find some new-to-me music to listen to rather than just repeating through my favourites. I'm intending to look up a list of what are generally considered to be the best albums and work my way through those, as well as listening to older albums from my favourite groups where I'm only familiar with the singles.

Our building up to Christmas traditions

Along with the build up to Christmas come a whole host of traditions, some that I've put in place over the years but lots that have just sort of happened!

Christmas starts for me with an early trip to the garden centre when they've just opened their Christmas displays. Our local Haskins does several different themed areas, and if you get there early in the season you can enjoy everything before it all gets picked over. I never actually buy anything, but I love browsing the displays and seeing what they've decided should be in fashion this year.

Come December and the elves are back. We've been happily welcoming the elves into our home for the run up to Christmas for what feels like forever. There has been some criticism in recent years that their antics have become less interesting compared to the more exciting earlier years, but they've managed a few surprises. 

We don't watch much television so we never buy a paper TV guide, except when it's time to get the Christmas TV guide. It's a big part of my husband's Christmas, so he always makes sure to buy one as soon as they are released. But we very rarely splurge on the expensive Radio Times, he always manages to find one of the more budget friendly ones. 

One of our most time consuming traditions is the yearly baking, assembling and decorating of the gingerbread houses. I've been making two for years, almost always making my own gingerbread from scratch. I've got it down to a fine art now and although it's an effort I really do enjoy making them. The children love decorating them too, and they are always delicious.

At some point before Christmas we always sit down and watch Nativity! I'm not quite sure why this film appeals to me so much, but it wouldn't be Christmas without watching it. My favourite part is the establishing shot for the Mayor's reception which was filmed at Coombe Abbey where we got married, and I love all the festive songs and decorations. It's just a really fun film building up to a really sweet Nativity celebration.

Delivering the neighbour's Christmas cards is another festive tradition that the children have been helping me with for a few years. When they were younger I used to let them go out together, anxiously watching them from the window to make sure that they didn't get lost in our tiny cul-de-sac. Now I still send them out, but I don't feel the need to stand there hovering any more!

I never introduced Christmas Eve boxes, but the elves do always bring new pyjamas for the children when they leave on Christmas Eve. As they are a little more fussy now I've asked for some help this year to make sure that they get a set they really want!

Also on Christmas Eve we still make and sprinkle reindeer food. I keep it simple with just oats, some Cheerios, raisins and a bit of sugar for some sparkle. I love seeing them out in the garden in their pyjamas sprinkling it on the grass, even though they are enormous teenagers now!

The final Christmas Eve tradition is my husband wrapping his presents for me at the last minute. I didn't even realise that this was a family tradition until my daughter mentioned it this year. I hadn't known it was such a big part of her Christmas!

What things do you find yourself doing every year as Christmas approaches?

Places that I'd like to visit for a cold winter getaway

I've been lucky enough to enjoy travel all around the world, but when it comes to planning a holiday we tend to prioritise places with a lovely, warm climate. In fact I can only think of two places that we've visited that have been unbearably cold - Iceland in April and Chicago in December. Most of my holiday memories involve warm seas, cooling towels and an appreciation for air conditioning!

But that doesn't mean that there aren't places I would like to visit that enjoy much colder temperatures.  One place in particular that I've always wanted to visit is Hammerfest in Norway, the world's northernmost town. This was inspired by Bill Bryson, writing in Neither Here Nor There, which I've read many times. When he visited in winter he had to take a thirty hour bus ride from Oslo although I think the transport may be easier now - I know that my parents stopped there on a cruise a few years ago. 

Of course the main reason that people are prepared to brace freezing conditions is in hope of seeing the Northern Lights, and that's definitely part of the appeal for me! I had a glimpse of them in Iceland, before we had fancy phones that let you photograph the lights when they aren't visible to the naked eye, but it was a little late in the year to see them properly. I'm realistic and I know that they aren't as spectacular in person, but I'd still love to spend some time gazing at the skies.

Ideally I would be watching them from something like this - a glass igloo. I think that they look amazing, imagine lying in bed and watching the Northern Lights above you!

Photo credit Vincent Guth via Unsplash

Another type of accommodation that I'd like to try is an Ice Hotel. They are a bit of a novelty and definitely not designed for a long stay - mostly people visit them in the day just to look around and marvel with no intention of staying to sleep - I've never heard of anyone that has actually spent a night in one! I've been doing some research and it looks as though the rooms don't have luggage storage, a bathroom or even a door, so you literally just wrap up warm before you lie down in a sleeping bag on the ice block and go to sleep! I found some interesting information here if it's something you also like the sound of - Ice Hotel Guide. I think it would be a really unique experience!

Photo credit William Warby via Unsplash

Alaska is another northern place that I'd like to visit, ideally as part of an Alaskan cruise. We came very close to booking one earlier this year, but because the cruise lines that do the best tours aren't the big family ships we decided it's probably best to do one in a few years without the children. It's a good idea to look for the cruise lines that can sail all the way into Glacier Bay - and only a few are allowed each year. I love the idea of sitting on a balcony, wrapped in blanket with a hot chocolate and watching the glaciers pass by.

A little easier and closer to home, for a winter getaway I think that a European city break at Christmas is perfect. I do love a Christmas market, and while they can be found all over the world, Germany will always hold a special place in my heart. I love wandering around clutching a sticky mug of mulled wine and nibbling a decorated gingerbread heart.

I spent a year living in Germany as part of my studies, and it was fantastic to see the little town I lived in decorated for Christmas. They went all out with the decorations, even all that time ago, but it was really tasteful and gorgeously festive. I still remember the bus ride back to the airport before I came home for Christmas - many of the houses had a realistic life-sized Father Christmas on the roof or climbing up the chimney!

Which colder destinations appeal to you for a winter holiday?