In 2024 I gave up on my dream of being a successful poker player and resigned myself to being a boring middle-aged software engineer with a dog.

In 2025 - surprise twist - I became a successful poker player and found myself in the uncomfortable position of being a middle-aged software engineer with a dog.

I also read some books. Not too many, but the quality of the books I read this year was up quite a bit from the previous few years. Here they are, from worst to first:

10. The Dark Forest (2008) - Liu Cixin

This is the sequel to The Three-Body Problem which I ranked 9/22 when I read it in 2022. Not entirely sure why I picked this one up. Big mistake!

Pretty dumb plot here. Aliens are en route to Earth to destroy the human race and in response humanity selects 4 men to come up with a solution. It's actually a little dumber than that.

Imagine a world where we selected some reality TV star to be President of the most powerful country on Earth and gave him carte blanche to do whatever he wants. Totally unbelievable.

9. Wolf in the White Van (2014) - John Darnielle

My second least favorite book I read last year, and it wasn't even that bad!

It's a creative idea for a story. A man who survived a self-inflicted gunshot wound that horribly disfigured him as a teenager runs a mail-based RPG. When two of his customers die acting out the game in the real world he gets blamed for it.

The main character is an isolated lonely adult male. I wonder what that's like?

8. 14 Days (2024) - Edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston

This is a collaborative novel written by a bunch of famous authors that takes place and was probably written mostly during the pandemic. It reads like a bunch of short stories.

Everyone in a New York apartment building is sheltering in place and every evening they go up to the roof and share their personal histories.

I enjoyed most of these stories. I just prefer novels with a central plot to short stories.

7. Sharp Ends (2016) - Joe Abercrombie

This is a book of short stories set in the world of Joe Abercrombie's First Law. Dark funny fantasy. I can't get enough of this stuff! I do prefer the novels though.

Some of the characters are familiar from the novels - like San Dan Glokta and Nicoma Cosca (who I named my dog after). But a couple new characters steal the show - a lady thief who we meet tending bar and the barbarian warrior woman who shows up passed out in her doorway. They feature in few different stories.

6. The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) - Scott Lynch

I probably stumbled into this one from the First Law books. It belongs in the same grimdark fantasy genre.

It's the first book in the Gentleman Bastards fantasy series. Starts off a little slow but it really pulled me in about halfway through.

The main characters are thieves pulling elaborate cons on the nobility of some fantasy city. In this one they get wrapped up in a war between underworld kingpins.

The thieves have a code that when you make a big mistake you atone for it by stealing something valuable and then destroying it as an offering to the god of thieves.

I just dropped my dog off at his new adopted home today and I left the family with an envelope of cash. It felt kind of like that. I didn't steal the money but I won it gambling. Close enough.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) - Douglas Adams

I was considering a tattoo based on the series so figured I'd reread it. The idea of owning next to nothing and traveling the universe is one that strikes a chord with me. I still love these books. I should probably get that tattoo already.

4. The Devils (2025) - Joe Abercrombie

After The Devils came out I went to Magers and Quinn in Uptown and they were sold out! It's been a while since I tried to buy a new release book and the bookstore was sold out.

Joe Abercrombie is my favorite current writer and I assume I'm just ahead of the curve on this one. I swear I had read all the Song of Fire and Ice books before Game of Thrones was a TV show. Sick nerd brag.

Anyway I tore through this book like I do all the Abercrombie books but it's ultimately not one of my favorites. I would still recommend you start with the First Law and Shattered Sea books.

This one is so fast-moving and full of action it almost feels like he was writing it with the television adaptation in mind. I bet this winds up on some streaming service eventually.

3. Every Hand Revealed (2008) - Gus Hansen

After he won the Aussie Millions Main Event in 2007, Gus Hansen published this book detailing every single hand he played in the tournament and some thoughts he had on each hand.

Since winning the Mystery Millions at the World Series of Poker this last summer I am now playing more poker tournaments than ever. I follow the Gus Hansen approach and write down a lot of hands. I play a 2 week tournament series then spend the next 2 weeks reviewing all the hands I wrote down.

I also wrote a new blog about my WPT trip and I think I will continue writing poker blogs. The blog is back baby!

2. Klara and the Sun (2021) - Kazuo Ishiguro

Awesome novel that follows the journey of a solar powered "artificial friend" Klara who gets purchased by a family to be a companion for a sick girl Josie.

It takes place in a dystopic future where parents must decide whether to risk genetically altering their children to give them better academic opportunities. We see glimpses of fascism and political violence.

The Twin Cities in 2025 took a turn towards dystopia as well.

Armed federal "agents" are abducting people of color and anyone who tries to challenge them. On the highways you see abandoned vehicles whose drivers have been taken. School districts are scrambling to house children whose parents were disappeared while they were at school. The highest levels of our government have promised these fuckers absolute immunity.

The politics of this novel only provide the backdrop though. Ultimately the story is centered around Klara's solar theology and her relationship with Josie.

1. Tree of Smoke (2007) - Denis Johnson

This one is not for the faint of heart. It's a Vietnam war story and it gets ugly towards the end.

The main narrative centers around a CIA operative Skip Sands and his uncle Colonel Sands.

Colonel Sands is hard drinking warrior philosopher who directs a Psy Ops team. The novel follows them and several ancillary characters from before the Vietnam war all the way up until 1970.

It does not paint a pretty picture of war. Which I guess aligns with my general take on war. And the prose hit hard for me.

That's it for 2025. I'm newly jobless and dogless. I'm considering a trip to the Aussie Millions. 2026 figures to be quite a bit different than 2025 for me.

It occurs to me I forgot to mention the job I worked all of 2025. Since I quit on Thanksgiving I've barely given it a thought. Good riddance!