My Month in Books | Q1 (Jan-March) 2025

It’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it? I can’t believe three months have already passed, and now we are stepping into a new quarter. Crazy! Winter has ended, and spring is here. Seasons come and go but we’re still reading – at least, even for a little bit.

For this first quarter of 2025, yours truly has managed to finish a staggering… three books. 😅 I am technically 2-3 books behind per my Goodreads schedule. But these past couple of months were focused on me trying to be more patient and gentle with myself, so I let it go. The main change is that I am not listening to any audiobook (or any audio, for that matter) during chores, walks, or any quiet time at the moment — as I’m trying to practice not relying on these things to silence my brain. It’s been pretty transformative, but that meant that my reading count suffered. It’s something I’m willing to give up, though. Still, I strived to finish at least one book per month, which meant that I get to slowly read stuff and savor them like something I didn’t want to end.

I also bought a new e-reader (on account of me retiring my old Kindle Paperwhite and giving it to my little sister), a Kobo Libra Color! I feel like it has energized me to read more these days. It’s been just almost a month, so I will probably do a review-of-sorts after a longer period of using it. First impressions are leaning toward being pretty good, though!

RELATED: A Case for E-books and E-readers

In any case, these are the 3 books I’ve read in the first quarter of 2025:

• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1) by Satoshi Yagisawa – 4/5☕
• Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King – 4/5☕
• How Kyoto Breaks You Heart by Florentyna Leow – 4.5/5☕

I intentionally selected a feel-good book to start my year and somehow settled on Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. I took a while for me to finally get into the bandwagon because, man, this book was everywhere. But now, I do understand its charms. It’s a slow book, so focused on introspection. We follow Takako, broken-hearted and wanting to have a bit of respite from her tumultuous city life, as she retreats into her uncle’s bookshop. In a neighborhood full of secondhand bookshop and quirky characters, we witness Takako slowly fall in love with reading and mending her heart in the process. I feel like I would’ve considered this a complete book already if it ended when she left the shop to go back to her old life. I kind of feel like the second half of the book is a bit disjointed from the first part, but it was still a really nice read.

Then comes Lily King’s Five Tuesdays in Winter – my last chance for a winter book for the year. I randomly saw this on display in one of the secondhand bookshops we frequent, and immediately snatched it up and checked it out. Writers & Lovers is one of my favorite books, so I was expecting a lot when I picked this one up. This is a book I was reading through various flights and that accompanied me through multiple breakdowns, so this holds a special place in my heart. I love how Lily King spotlights emotional introspection across her stories and her characters, and how she weaves subtle nuances into each of them. Above all else, though, it’s her prose that pulls me in time and time again. I love Lily’s writing so much it hurts, and she’s slowly becoming one of my most sought-after authors when it comes to contemporary literary fiction.

Last but not the least, I finished How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart this March. I savored this 96-page book oh so slowly. I came across it almost in happenstance, while scrolling through various Substack newsletters (I can’t even remember which one now). And I’m glad I did, because it is one of the most beautiful things I’ve read lately. Admittedly, a huge factor is where I was in life when I read it (still am), so I am probably a little biased here. But Leow captures vividly that feeling of falling in love with a place (and it’s people along with it), and then being able to describe in heartbreaking accuracy that slow (or maybe it happens all at once) disillusionment that makes one leave a ‘home‘ behind – like growing out of it, inevitable. It’s a meditation on friendship, and finding your place. Of appreciating the little things, and making a life for yourself. It’s crazy when you encounter things right when you need them; it’s actually creepy sometimes. It was bittersweet finally finishing this because it meant this book won’t be accompanying me in my quiet evenings anymore. But I’m a better person by having read it. My favorite of 2025 so far. ⋆.˚

“To love a place is to love its people, and to love a place is to let it break your heart.”

What I am Currently Reading

I’m currently only reading one book right now:

• In Search of Perfumes: A Lifetime Journey to the Sources of Nature’s Scents by Dominique Roques – Being interested in niche perfumes lately, this has been such a good read. Travel, people, tradition, hope, respect, awe — it just about summarizes it. I’m at 45% already as of writing, and it has been so fun delving into each of the natural ingredients mentioned in this book. Part informative, history, travelogue, and memoir, this book reflects so clearly how much Roques loves his trade and how much respect (and admiration) he has for the process and the people involved in it. I haven’t finished it yet but I now have a newfound (and increased) appreciation of artisan perfumes because of it. Excited to go through the rest of the chapters!

What I am Looking Forward To

I am at a point where I don’t want to be strict with my reading lately, so I won’t have a definitive list for this. But if there’s one thing I want – and one thing that I am definitely looking forward to – it’s reading at least one book that is spring-themed or spring-related this season (till May). I have a couple of books in mind (particularly those already on my shelves), but I’ll see where my mood-reading will take me. 🌷

2025 Book Read Count as of writing: 3 /24

HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW WAS YOUR READING MONTH THIS past quarter? DID YOU HAVE ANY NOTABLE FAVE? 

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