Despite, or perhaps because of it being a crappy year, last year was very much a year of reading. I enjoyed just over 80 books. And as a bonus almost nothing of my spending on reading went to Bezos’ Amazon. Dropping Amazon meant some reorganisation of maintaining my ebooks collection, and a rebalancing of how I acquire books in general.

At the start of 2025 I stepped away from Amazon for purchasing (e-)books. What looked hard at the outset, like it did when I quit Gmail in 2014, turned out to be much easier than anticipated. It does require shifting your attention to other things. There is more friction compared to when you live your entire bookish habit in a silo. In return I experienced a much bigger sense of wonder and exploration, which I realised is way more important to me. Additionally, it brought the way I experience my book store browsing and my online book browsing much closer together. That was unexpected but a big benefit.

The Numbers

I read just over 80 books, mostly fiction, a dozen non-fiction. Originally I had hoped, as I’ve hoped for years, to read more non-fiction, but on average one per month is not bad in comparison to previous years, and certainly not given the year it was and the amount of bandwidth I had for new input.

During the last year I acquired 128 books. Of those 48 were paper books, and 82 e-books (meaning I added 2 titles in both digital and paper version). Of the 48 paper books, 22 were fiction and 26 non-fiction. The 82 e-books were exactly half fiction and non-fiction.

I read fiction in the evenings, at least half an hour before I fall asleep but usually more. One or two books per week, depending on their length and time available, is the average, and has been for a number of years.

Amazon silo quit

At the start of last year I decided to leave Amazon, and get my books elsewhere. Originally when I started buying books with Amazon, it was because they were basically the only reliable online source for new English language publications, and especially for Science Fiction. My first order of paper books was in February 2008, my first e-book order with Amazon was in December 2010. From 2015 on the Dutch Amazon store exist, before 2015 I used the US store, and also regularly the German and UK store. Most paper books I buy come from local bookstores, but e-books I bought almost exclusively from Amazon.

After my decision early 2025 I did not buy anything at Amazon anymore. Except one paper book, from a used bookstore in the USA, that was delivered through Amazon fulfillment, as I found out when the parcel arrived with their logo on it.

Once I realised that what 15 years ago was a rare convenience, can now be fulfilled by many others, it was easy to quit. It did involve some work though. What helps is that, while Amazon has its own e-book format for Kindle, the rest of the world uses one single other format, epub. So, next to Amazon there are many options.

Leaving Amazon meant two things: 1) creating my own environment to manage my e-books, including ones I already have. Calibre is my go to tool now. For each book, including all the paper ones, I also have a note in my notes tool. I brought my Kindle e-books over to Calibre too. All new e-books go into Calibre, sometimes with the help of the tool Epubor. When I select a book to read and load onto my reader, I now start in my notes to see what I have, and then Calibre to get the book. 2) find new ways to acquire e-books. These days many more platforms and book stores sell e-books online. In the Netherlands, across the EU and elsewhere. For most English language e-books the Kobo platform is useful.

I use a Kobo reader and an Android e-ink device to read.

Nature outside the Walled Garden

Cutting my own path created more friction at first. Most of that however is a one-time thing to figure out and set up. For every online platform and book store you need to find out which e-books have watermarks, which have DRM, plus which type (Adobe, lcpl, or something else), and if you can handle that. Each and every platform comes with its own account to keep track of too. The book sector pretends there is no single European market, but 27 separate markets. In part that is because of differences in how prices are set at national level. In part that is because e-books are electronic services in the single market, and the VAT of the customer’s country of residence applies. When I buy an e-book in Belgium or Cyprus, I will pay the Dutch VAT rate. It seems many platforms avoid the admin of dealing with different VAT rates by only selling domestically. You get around that by lying about your address. A bit like back when you had to fill out US zip codes on various sites and everyone used 90210 as it was the only one everyone knew by heart from the 90s tv series.

Frequenting different online book platforms brings a bigger sense of wonder and exploration in return on that initial friction. While the Japanese, Ireland registered, Kobo platform is most like Amazon in that it has ‘everything’, I’ve bought on a range of different platforms this year. Each platform, especially if they have a specific niche, or if they are tied to a physical book store, has its own flavour, and shows different books on its front page or in the context of the book I am searching for. Some of the books that serendipity brings in front of my eyes that way are in languages I can’t read, but it does mean I know it exists, and may find a translation somewhere. Especially since I read Libraries of the Mind by William Marx (see below) I’ve come to see translation also as obscuring the untranslated, and I am more on the lookout for other languages just out of curiosity as to their existence.

In the past I felt a big divide between exploring physical bookshops and buying an e-book (on Amazon), and there was always some guilt involved in coming across a book in a store and then later buying an e-book. This has changed.

Yes, I buy at the generic Kobo platform (although the sales accrue with the big Dutch Bol platform), but there are plenty bookstores who have their own online platforms for e-books. When I was working in Berlin for a week in October, I browsed the Dussmann book store, taking notes and pictures of books I thought might be interesting. I didn’t buy anything, there are only so many books you can fit in carry-on luggage. Afterwards I check out the books in more detail online. I keep a list of things I’ve come across online and in stores that I may want to buy (also helpful to avoid buying a German edition of something I already have in English e.g.). I then buy the ones I want to have as e-book, at the store’s own online platform. It works as an extension of the experience of browsing the store, while transitioning from the physical to the e-book. It brings browsing book stores and online together. That feeling persists across stores, where I jot down a title in one book store, see it someplace else and then buy it in yet another. It was an unexpected effect. Yet it makes the experience much more pleasant and continuous.

The books I most enjoyed in 2025

Out of the around 80 titles last year these are a few I enjoyed. Not a ranking, not a limitative list.

I came across the author Elif Shafak because of her discussing multilingualism in an article. Then I searched out her books. There Are Rivers in the Sky I read first (which I bought for Kindle in late 2024), a beautifully written book of the past and the now. And later in the year The Island of Missing Trees (bought on Kobo), making the separation of Cyprus tangible. Beautiful language.

Playground by Richard Powers (Kobo via Bol.com), was a fun read. Life is the stories we carry and tell. This one builds an arc from oral cultures to statistically probably AI output, from friendship and turns not taken, to restoring our earth and oceans which technology has consumed. Beautifully woven and told. It also led me through references in the story about gaming and virtual words to reading Johan Huizinga’s 1938 work Homo Ludens.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Kindle, bought December 2024), seemingly loosely inspired by the mathematician and later hermit Alexander Grothendiek. An agent provocateur for hire is tracking a group of activists in southern France. But this gig is changing her too. The weaving of different stories and layers, in social stratum, geography, mental health and alcohol abuse, and time was fun. A story I’d like to have continued reading.

Vor aller Augen by Martina Clavadetscher (paper, bought in Zürich), is a bundle of short stories centered around the women in famous paintings. Some were misses for me, some were full hits. Some felt too long, others felt too short and deserving of their own entire book.

Libraries of the Mind by William Marx, a professor of comparative literatures, was a fun and inspiring non-fiction read. It led me down the path of exploring non-fiction in languages I cannot read, and in general focus on reading as a path of exploration, not merely the act of reading a book. (paper, bought in Groningen)

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan I appreciated and enjoyed a lot more precisely because I read Libraries of the Mind by William Marx two months before it. A century from now two scholars of comparative literatures in a post-climate collapse England look back at our years to figure out if a famous poem that no-one ever saw or read, it was just read by the author to a group of people once at a birthday party, might still exist somewhere. While their students can hardly read and protest against having to read more than a handful of books during their entire education. Came across it in an Antwerp bookstore, but read it through the Kobo Plus subscription that E has.

Berghonger by Fleur Jongepier (non-fiction, paper, bought in Utrecht), I came across right after our return from a trip to the Alps this summer. The author, when not in the mountains, lives around the corner from our office in Utrecht.

Biedermann und die Brandstifter by Max Frisch (1953, e-book, bought online from a Vienna bookstore). Arsonists are wreaking havoc in town, Biedermann houses the arsonists in his attic after they wriggle their way into his life, in the vain hope they at least won’t burn his place down. Originally I read this in 1987, but since a number of years there are plenty arsonists on the move again, and getting re-elected. So a re-read was in order, and one of my first attempts to buy from bookstores online across Europe.

Rouwdouwers by Falun Ellie Koos, raw, sharp observations. While being very different I associate it with another book by Max Frisch, Homo Faber (1957), that as a teenager I read in one sitting more or less like a manual on how not to feel. I read this with a lot more compassion. Moving. (paper, bought in Utrecht)

Then we get to the SF / fantasy books, of which I will name five.

Extremophile by Ian Green (paper, bought in Utrecht), was a cool ride. Biohacking thriller set in climate-collapse London. Picked it up because it had an endorsement of Adrian Tchaikovsky, whose books I usually enjoy. This is Green’s first SF book after writing mostly fantasy. Very enjoyable.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky usually does some amazing world building in space opera settings. This is a more whimsical story in comparison, grim and fun all at the same time. (Bought for Kindle still in 2024.)

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys, a first-contact story set in a near future hope punk world. The aliens distrust you if you don’t bring your kids to negotiations. Her site says she recently moved to the Netherlands. Bought as e-book through the Dutch Bol.com platform.

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein On recommendation by Cory Doctorow read this, and the three next volumes. A fantasy story that is also a terraforming and colonisation SF story. High-tech will look like magic to those not in the know. Two additional books have been announced. (read through the Kobo Plus subscription that E has)

Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, the 2014 debut novel of this Finnish author. Finland is very arid and part of a future-China occupation. Water crimes are punishable by death. Tea Masters have a special relationship to water. Strangely enjoyable mix of the stillness and quiet rituals of tea ceremonies with the tension of a brutal regime, while we follow a woman growing up and become herself.

I appreciate how 11 of the 13 living authors in this list have a personal website on the open web.

Looking forward to the stories that lie ahead in 2026!