Best of 2025 in Media
Feb. 3rd, 2026 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaThis is late and will probably never get done unless I skip annotations this year, so, bare bones: the best media I encountered in 2025.
I didn't track reading statistics in 2025; instead, I spent the time reading. My Goodreads Year in Books suggests 160, a conservative estimation further unbalanced by a lot of non-book reading. Primarily academic reading, particularly but not exclusively on Antarctica and generative AI. I can't guesstimate; it was less reading than some years (as I'm still spending a lot of time writing) but omnivorous and non-traditional reading. As always, some particularly favorites and remarkable trends are below.
2025 was the year I got into historical polar exploration. My onramp was The Worst Journey in the World, and locates my focus in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, but I read widely to supplement my knowledge and chase the high. My favorites, in no order:
The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard
H.R. Guly (the best, most accessible, most diverse resource I found for heroic age medical information; publishes as Henry/H./H.R. Guly, a lot of his stuff is free online; what actually is snow blindness? what medicine did they have? Guly has gotchu covered)
"Tainted Bodies: Scurvy, Bad Food and the Reputation of the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–1904," Edward Armston-Sheret
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night, Julian Sancton
Antarctica, or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole, Otto Nordenskjöld
The Voyage of the Discovery, Vol I-II, Robert Falcon Scott
The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-9, Earnest Shackleton
Scott's Last Expedition, Robert Falcon Scott
Diary of the "Terra Nova" Expedition to the Antarctic, 1910-1912, Edward Adrian Wilson
The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage, Anthony Brandt
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition, Buddy Levy
Non-polar books:
Cunt Toward Enemy, Porpentine Charity Heartscape
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor, James Hogg
Voice of the Blood series, Jemiah Jefferson
The Church of the Mountain of Flesh, Kyle Wakefield
Vivia, Tanith Lee
Prisoners of Peace series, Erin Bow
A Shining Affliction: A Story of Harm and Healing in Psychotherapy, Annie G. Rogers
The Haunting, Margaret Mahy
A Dog So Small, Philippa Pearce
The Smell of Starving Boys, Loo Hui Phang, illustrated by Frederik Peeters, translated by Edward Gauvin
Made in Abyss, Akihito Tsukushi
The Promised Neverland, Kaiu Shirai, illustrated by Posuka Demizu
And some picture books:
The Scariest Book Ever, Bob Shea
There’s a Ghost in This House, Oliver Jeffers
The Secret Cat, Katarina Strömgård
George and His Nighttime Friends, Seng Soun Ratanavanh
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (GOTY)
Hollow Knight: Silksong (GOTY too)
The Last of Us Part II
Dredge (only one on this list I watched instead of played; not a big year for my own gaming but I did 100% this)
Silent Hill f
STALKER 2
Lies of P: Overture
Returnal
The Quarry
The Sugarland Express (OT3 of my dreams)
The Fly
Angel Heart
To Die For
Severance s1-2
Gargoyles
Hazbin Hotel s1
Books
I didn't track reading statistics in 2025; instead, I spent the time reading. My Goodreads Year in Books suggests 160, a conservative estimation further unbalanced by a lot of non-book reading. Primarily academic reading, particularly but not exclusively on Antarctica and generative AI. I can't guesstimate; it was less reading than some years (as I'm still spending a lot of time writing) but omnivorous and non-traditional reading. As always, some particularly favorites and remarkable trends are below.
2025 was the year I got into historical polar exploration. My onramp was The Worst Journey in the World, and locates my focus in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, but I read widely to supplement my knowledge and chase the high. My favorites, in no order:
The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard
H.R. Guly (the best, most accessible, most diverse resource I found for heroic age medical information; publishes as Henry/H./H.R. Guly, a lot of his stuff is free online; what actually is snow blindness? what medicine did they have? Guly has gotchu covered)
"Tainted Bodies: Scurvy, Bad Food and the Reputation of the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–1904," Edward Armston-Sheret
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night, Julian Sancton
Antarctica, or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole, Otto Nordenskjöld
The Voyage of the Discovery, Vol I-II, Robert Falcon Scott
The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-9, Earnest Shackleton
Scott's Last Expedition, Robert Falcon Scott
Diary of the "Terra Nova" Expedition to the Antarctic, 1910-1912, Edward Adrian Wilson
The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage, Anthony Brandt
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition, Buddy Levy
Non-polar books:
Cunt Toward Enemy, Porpentine Charity Heartscape
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor, James Hogg
Voice of the Blood series, Jemiah Jefferson
The Church of the Mountain of Flesh, Kyle Wakefield
Vivia, Tanith Lee
Prisoners of Peace series, Erin Bow
A Shining Affliction: A Story of Harm and Healing in Psychotherapy, Annie G. Rogers
The Haunting, Margaret Mahy
A Dog So Small, Philippa Pearce
The Smell of Starving Boys, Loo Hui Phang, illustrated by Frederik Peeters, translated by Edward Gauvin
Made in Abyss, Akihito Tsukushi
The Promised Neverland, Kaiu Shirai, illustrated by Posuka Demizu
And some picture books:
The Scariest Book Ever, Bob Shea
There’s a Ghost in This House, Oliver Jeffers
The Secret Cat, Katarina Strömgård
George and His Nighttime Friends, Seng Soun Ratanavanh
Games
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (GOTY)
Hollow Knight: Silksong (GOTY too)
The Last of Us Part II
Dredge (only one on this list I watched instead of played; not a big year for my own gaming but I did 100% this)
Silent Hill f
STALKER 2
Lies of P: Overture
Returnal
The Quarry
Visual Media
The Sugarland Express (OT3 of my dreams)
The Fly
Angel Heart
To Die For
Severance s1-2
Gargoyles
Hazbin Hotel s1
