2025 Even More Reading about Food than Last Year

2025 was my year where I read four graphic novels about making/ cooking food, and a dozen related to food, crime, and extra powers.

In 2026, I still need to read a few more books by Stephen King, Edward Carey, and Silas House, as well as books about creativity and cooking.

My 2025 Plan

Each year, the plan is to read a book every two weeks, and this year, I managed more than one book a week, since I read a lot of food-related graphic novels.

It’s way better than I planned, since I was planning to spend less time reading this year and more time learning on YouTube and other websites.

Per usual, from mid-November/Thanksgiving until the end of the year, I attempted to finish up a handful of books I was partway through, along with some shorter/more straightforward/easier-to-read books (120 – 150 pages).

NOTE – I typically read a handful of books at once. Doing so allows me to switch around depending on my mood.

The List of Books I Read in 2025

I read the following books/graphic novels in this order, for the most part, but grouped by author or organization/company.

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being – Rick Rubin
• The Elephant in My Backyard – A Memoir – Rajiv Surendra
• Little – a Novel – Edward Carey
• Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast – No 119 – Oscar Wilde
• Pricing Design – Pricing Projects Can Feel Tricky, but It Doesn’t Have to Be – Dan Mall
• Life of Pie – a Novel – Yann Martel
• The Art of Asking – or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help – Amanda Palmer (reread)
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love – Cal Newport
• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
• Catching the Big Fish – Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity – David Lynch
• You’re Not Listening – What You’re Missing and Why It Matters – Kate Murphy
• Something Wicked This Way Comes- a Novel – Ray Bradbury
• Things Becoming Other Things – A Walking Memoir – Craig Mod
• Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual – Michael Pollan
• Muybridge – Guy Delisle
• Lost in Translation – An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World – Ellen Frances Sanders
• Notes on Creativity – Ferran Adria
• Let My People Go Surfing- The Education of a Reluctant Businessman – Yvon Chouinard
• A Drive into the Gap – Kevin Guilfoile
• American Sfoglino – A Master Class in Handmade Pasta – Even Funke with Katie Paria
• The Choi of Cooking – Flavor-Packet, Rule-breaking Recipes for a Delicious Life – Roy Choi with Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan
• What It Is – Lynda Barry (reread)
• How to Eat – Thich Nhat Hanh (reread)

Barbara Kingsolver

• The Bean Trees
• Pigs in Heaven

Dan Buettner

• The Blue Zones Solution – Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People
• The Blue Zones Second Edition – 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest
• The Blue Zones Kitchen – One Pot Meals – 100 Recipes to Live to 100
• The Blue Zones – Secrets for Living Longer – Lessons from the Healthiest Places on Earth

Danny Gregory

• The Creative License – Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are
• Make It Anyway – More Essays on Creative Living

Do Books

• Do Hope – Why You Should Never Give Up. – by Gail Muller
• Do Maintain – How to Sharpen Knives, Scissors, and Garden Tools. – Gareth Heaton
• Do Ferment – Gut Busters and Foods that Fizz. – Mathew Pennington and Nicola Cradock
• Do Nourish – How to Eat for Resilience. – Sarah Bayliss
• Do Sea Salt – The Magic of Seasoning. by Alison, David, and Jess Lea-Wilson (reread)
• Do Breath – Calm your mind. Find focus. Get stuff done. – Michael Townsend Williams (reread)
• The Side Project  Report – Do Lectures (reread)

John Steinbeck

• Of Mice and Men
• The Pearl – John Steinbeck
• The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck

Stephen King

• On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft
• The Green Mile

Seth Godin

• The Practice – Shipping Creative Work
• the dip – A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

Graphic Novel Cook Cookbooks

• Cook Korean – A Comic Book with Recipes – Robin Ha (reread)
• Let’s Make Dumplings! – A Comic Book Cookbook – Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan (reread)
• Let’s Make Ramen! – A Comic Book Cookbook – Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan (reread)
• Let’s Make Bread – A Comic Book Cookbook – Ken Forkish and Sarah Becan

Chew – Graphic Novels – John Layman and Rob Guillory

• Volume – One: Taster’s Choice
• Volume Two: “International Flavor”
• Volume Three: “Just Desserts”
• Volume – Four: Flambe
• Volume Five: Major League
• Volume Six: Space Cakes
• Volume Seven: Bad Apples
• Volume Eight: Family Recipes
• Volume Nine: Chicken Tenders
• Volume Ten: Blood Puddin’
• Volume Eleven: The Last Supper
• Volume Twelve: Sour Grapes

Never Too Small Magazine – Creative, Compact, and Joyful Ways to Design and Live

• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5 

Total Books and Graphic Novels Read

I finished the year strong, reading 66 books, of which 9 were rereads.

More Learning from YouTube

Again this year, I continued watching more YouTube to learn about cooking, shooting videos, storytelling, starting a YouTube channel, starting a small farm, etc., and taking a few courses I purchased about editing with DaVinci Resolve.

My Reading Plans for 2026

Here’s to reading about a book every week to two weeks in 2026.

2026 is the time to do more towards creating a cooking YouTube channel by learning DaVinci Resolve, but I need to put more effort into it in 2025.

Please comment if you have read any of these books, what you thought of them, and if you have any suggestions.