Welcome to Booking Through Thursday, a weekly bookish meme about books and reading for everyone who loves both. Booking Through Thursday was first hosted by Deb. With permission, I’ve restarted it in 2026.
This week’s prompt:
Did you read anything in 2025 that surprised you? Maybe a bestseller that lived up to all the hype. Perhaps a classic that was surprisingly engaging.
Or maybe it was a book you grabbed from the shelf while you waited for your library requests to come in.
Whatever the case, let us know!
What book surprised you in 2025?
How to play:
- On your blog: Copy the question/image for your blog, answer it there, and post a quick comment here with a link or trackback to your post so we can read it.
- On social media: Copy the image, answer the prompt, and post a quick comment here with a link.
- Right here: Answer in the comments and start the discussion here. No need to have a blog to play.
Note: If it’s your first time here, your comment may end up in moderation. (My spam filter is aggressive.) I’ll be in after my writing sprints to set it free.
P.S. The prompt is always open, and you don’t have to play on Thursday. Comment whenever you like!
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I admit to staying away from The God of the Woods by Liz Moore due to all the hype. So. Much. Hype. But it was on sale not too long ago, so I decided to try it.
Sometimes the hype it absolutely earned. I really enjoyed this book, the mystery, the setting, and timeframe. Also, I love a dual timeline narrative, so I was there for that as well.
Oh, that sounds interesting! Believe it or not, I missed the hype, so now I have something to look forward to.
For me, it would have to be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. My usual reading tends towards memoir and essays, with an occasional novel by someone who writes like they’re sharing a particularly insightful conversation with me (Sigrid Nunez, Elizabeth McCracken), so I’m not sure how I came across V.E. Schwab’s magical/supernatural romance, but I’m glad I did. It was somehow so tender and hopeful — and not at all lurid or revelling in graphic horror as I feared from this genre — and it reminded me of reading the way I did as a teenager, gulping the pages. Made it easier to consider other fantasy/romance books people recommended later in the year: Spinning Silver, for example, or The Tainted Cup. And, of course, The Pansy Paradox!
I really enjoyed Addie LaRue. It was my “give this book as a Christmas present” the year it came out.
I read Dracula for the first time. I avoided it for ages because vampires aren’t really my thing, and horror really isn’t my thing. But I felt like I “should” read it. And I was shocked to discover I really enjoyed it! It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
I know! Dracula is wild! I’m also not into horror, but had no problem with the book. In fact, I should give it a re-read one of these days.