Hi there

I achieved my 2025 goal of reading 52 books in a year! It wasn’t easy, and I’m definitely not going to do it again, but I am so glad I did do it. I’ve read things I otherwise wouldn’t, I’ve pushed my perseverance, and I’ve developed some really good habits that I am hoping I can hang on to.

The full list of books I read is at the bottom of this post, but first, I’ll share some of my reflections now that the challenge is over.

What I learned

I found it hard not to gamify this. When under pressure I picked shorter and shorter books. Never under 100, as that was the minimum I set for my rule, but let’s be real - even 150 is a very very short book.

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I recently got invited to a charity ball with a black tie dress code. I can’t resist a stressful project, so I decided that I’d make my own formal dress, despite only having two weeks’ notice. Why do I do this to myself?

Anyway, it worked out well, although certainly not drama free. There isn’t a lot of talk about this pattern online, so I wanted to add my thoughts to the world. Here’s a lightning quick review of the Simplicity S3099 dress sewing pattern, which I made in view B (full length), in a polyester duchess satin, with a polyester crepe-back satin for the lining.

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This year, I set myself a goal of trying to read 52 books. This was partly to exercise self-discipline, partly to rebuild my attention span for non-digital things, and partly to breathe some life into a hobby that I’ve always loved and felt guilty for allowing to languish. It’s half-way through the year now (honestly, how did that happen?), so it’s a good time to share my experiences and learnings.

I’ve finished reading 23 books (full list below). That puts me at 3 books behind - I should be reading my 27th book now. But I don’t feel bad about this at all - on the contrary. When I set the goal, I half believed I’d give up in March. Getting this far and still being roughly on track is a massive, resounding success.

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