I Listened to a Couple of Books In 2025

This is my post on the audiobooks I listened to this year. I also have post on the books I read this year.

Audiobooks vs Reading

I think both reading and audiobooks are great. For me, they serve different purposes. If I want to really absorb the information in a particular book, I will sit, read and make highlights.

I'm also trying to do more non-fiction and for those books I will listen to the audio version. In my mind these books compete for the same time slots I would listen to podcasts and I listen to a lot of podcasts. See my post on what podcasts I'm listening to this year. I will also listen to nonfiction books that I care less about retaining all the details and are more for entertainment.

This is what works well for me, and I want to reinforce that each person learns differently. I'm trying to be descriptive here about what works well for me rather than prescriptive for others.

The fiction books

Children of Memory, Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I found out about the first book in this series from a Reddit comment where someone said something along the lines "this book made me like spiders".

It's been a bit since I was really pulled into a fiction book and this series hooked me. I adore non linear / intersecting story lines and the first book in this series pulls it off in such a satisfying way. I won't say more because I do not want to spoil anything.

The first book is my favorite of the three, but I truly enjoyed all of them. I also appreciated that these book each end with a hopeful sentimentality that is often missing in this genre. I'm looking forward to listening to Children of Strife soon when it releases.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

I hadn't done a Stephenson book since I read Snow Crash as a kid. This book was recommended on some podcast I cannot find, where a guest mentioned it was topical given the current use of generative AI.

I was really pulled in for the first three quarters, but similarly to his other books the end felt a little loose. Ultimately I am happy I gave the book a try though.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I bounced off this initially when I first tried the book last year. This year I gave the book another try because I knew the time spent would pay off and boy did it. I really enjoy the later part of the book where the different narrative points intersected.

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

All of the world building in The Way of Kings sets up the second book in the Stormlight Archive series to really play in the space that Sanderson created. I chewed through a lot of this book on my flight out and back from NeurIPS 2025.

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson
After I finished Words of Radiance I immediately started Oathbringer. In the intro Sanderson has a little note where he suggests listening to Edge dancer first. So I talked to my friend that love Sanderson's books and he pointed me towards the most recent official reading order recommendation video.

After watching I decided to listen to Edgedancer before Oathbringer. Now that I'm listening to Oathbringer, I am happy I did that. Edgedancer is a short story and provides some important context.

Once I finish Oathbringer I will put Stormlight on pause so I can listen to the Mistborn series.

The non fiction books

For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink by Sarah Rose

There is a peculiar genre of books that really tickles my brain just right: Commodity history books. ^[1] I usually go through one or two a year.

Last year I listened to A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage which covers human history and culture through six drinks: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. After I listened to that I wanted to know more about tea in particular and the dark imperial history involved so I picked up this book. I think the author did a pretty fair job of covering how the events unfolded.

Salt: a History by Mark Kurlansky

This book was dry, but not in an off putting way. Sometimes this genre is too high level and reads more like popular science. For example I picked up Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World by William Alexander this year and I'm not sure if I will go back and finish.

This book though, was packed full of historical details. I also loved how the book was a truly global view of the topic. Sometimes authors in this genre will focus too much on Europe and America. Where as in this book, when Kurlansky talked about people in Cape Cod "discovered" a new type of drill to mine deeper, he also mentioned that people in China had use the exact same approach 700 years earlier.

Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb

This is probably my favorite book out of everything this year.

Eager is the kind of book I would normally want to read and highlight every detail. This time though I listened because I wanted to share the experience with my partner and talk through the book with her. Her work overlaps with the book and she had a really great perspective to share. So we made this into a road trip book! The book was really mind expanding just like Goldfarb's other book Crossings, which I also recommend reading.

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky

I had seen recommendations for this book several times, but didn't listen until my therapist encouraged to me look into it when I asked about books on stress management. This is a book I will definitely re-read in text form to make highlights.

In progress and on deck audio books

I have two more commodity history books in progress:

• Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway - this is extremely good so far. I'm working me way through slowly though since its my new road trip audiobook
• The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffman - I was going to listen to this earlier in the year, but then realized that the second edition was releases in October so I waited. Excited to listen now that its out, especially since Hoffman narrates himself.

I'm also listening to Oathbringer.

Once those are finished I plan to listen to:

• The Mistborn books
• Children of Strife

I'll have to temper my expectations though considering how long the Sanderson books are. Luckily, I have a lot of running and biking coming up in the warmer months.