I recently rummaged through some old blog posts and found this literary meme. After a gap of over a decade, I’m giving it another go. Literature was my refuge in 2025, so I’m hoping this will be easy …

THE RULES: Using only books you have read this year, answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself: Determined by Robert Sapolsky

How do you feel: Lost in Thought by Zena Hitz

Describe where you currently live: The Age of Uncertainty by David Spiegelhalter

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Michael Kempe

Your favourite form of transportation: Wandering Through Life by Donna Leon

Your best friend is: Good Prose by Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd

You and your friends are: Free Agents by Kevin Mitchell

What’s the weather like: A Dry Spell by Clare Chambers

You fear: Monoculture by F S Michaels

What is the best advice you have to give: No Straight Road Takes You There by Rebecca Solnit

Thought for the day: We Are Free to Change the World by Lyndsey Stonebridge

How I would like to die: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

My soul’s present condition: Transient and Strange by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Well, that wasn’t too difficult. The answers are mostly philosophical, which very much reflects what I read over the year. I finished 170 books, which is a lot, even for me. I stopped reading the news, ignored social media, and watched very little telly.

You can see my responses from previous years by working backwards from 2014.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and book-filled 2026 📚