The sheer number of basic html errors this week that I’ve made (and thankfully caught) is enough to make my head spin. Including in this largely copy-and-paste post. I figured by this point, I’d have come up with a punch-line or something to follow up that opening observation, but inspiration seems to be striking someone else. So, I’ll just leave this here as another sign that the ol’ gray matter isn’t quite 100% this week. Thankfully, here are a handful of examples of people that should be publicly posting:
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet “Reading is a subversive act”: Shenandoah interviews Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor–Elect Ghazala Hashmi—Shared for the ideas nothing else. Politics aside (I know nothing about hers), this is what I want in an office holder. As Sam Seaborn says, “I look for anything. I look for a mind at work.”
bullet Reintroduction of Federal Right to Read Act Aims to Bolster Literacy, School Libraries
bullet The New York Public Library’s Most Checked Out Books in 2025
bullet Why stay so narrowly focused, though? LibraryThing (and others) have a cool graphic showing The Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries for 2025.
bullet How Translation Works, Book Title Edition
bullet The Art of Buying Books for Other People
bullet Ways You Can Help Your Fellow Book Bloggers This Holiday Season—it would be classless of me to suggest that you can take care of #4 on Jo’s list by using the Bookshop.org button to the right. So I won’t.
bullet Where Do You Promote Your Book Blog in 2026?—This is something I’ve never worked that hard on (and it shows). Some of the comments to the post have inspired a thought or two. Will I take advantage of that? Who knows…but I should. (or, better, I should hire one of my underemployed kids to do it for me)
bullet Curating a Library for a Young One—good stuff here.
bullet Books that made a bigger impression over time—oooh, I like this idea. And a couple of these books have been on my “eh, maybe” list for a bit. Given their impact, I’m a little more inclined to get them.
bullet It’s time for a few more Best Of ’25 lists, so hold on to your wallets.
bullet CrimeReads gave us: The Best Books of 2025: Traditional Mysteries and The Best Books of 2025: Noir Fiction
bullet Public Books’ Public Picks 2025
bullet Tom Bookbeard’s Top Reads of 2025
bullet Favorite Books Read in 2025—from Pages Unbound’s Krysta
bullet C. J. Daley’s Top Reads of 2025
bullet 746 Books has three lists (it’s not just me that has to break them down!) My Favourite Books of the Year: Part One – The 746!. Part Two – The Irish!, and Part Three – New!
bullet and this only sorta fits here, like last week, The Hard Word’s Top Twenty-Five for First Twenty-Five Years (20-16)
bullet And then we have people looking ahead to 2026 (good grief, I’m barely planning the next 11 days! (yes, I’m jealous of their level of organization))
bullet Wolfmantula’s The Unofficial 2026 TBR—the amount of effort behind this post’s graphics alone…
bullet A Jam’s list to 2026 releases – Part 1
bullet Get Ready! Readers’ Most Anticipated Books of 2026—

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Book Berne-ing #22 Breaking Into Booktube!

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
bullet An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer
bullet Indexing: Reflections, Episode Ten: Untold Truths by Seanan McGuire
bullet Santa 365 by Spencer Quinn
bullet Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan
bullet And I mentioned the release of Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Dogged by Michael R. Fletcher—”In the final days of the Demon Empire a lone wardog goes in search of the answer to the only question she cares about: Who murdered her mate? Utterly unqualified to solve a mystery, Dogged Determination has but one advantage: She never, ever gives up.” The cover alone grabs my attention (it’s almost like that’s the point), the premise sounds cool, and the hype from early reviews around this is palpable. It’s the next novel I’m tackling.

I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day. — Carlos Ruiz Zafón