Year in review, 2025
Another good year
A year ago there were 16,112 readers; today there are 29,184. Most years, reader numbers slightly more than double. This year they slightly less than doubled. Many thanks to all of you for reading! And to Substack for making it possible to find readers.
Mercatus
The biggest thing that happened to me this year is that I became a research fellow at the Mercatus Center where I am interested in literature and liberal ideas. My Mercatus work is currently in the draft folder, but perhaps it will start making its way out soon.
No paywall
One result of the move to Mercatus is that there is now no paywall anywhere on The Common Reader.
The Common Reader
This year’s most popular post was How to Get Started Reading English Literature. When I took the paywall off the post How to Have Good Taste it became the most popular thing I have ever written.
Other popular posts were:
My explainer of sympathy in Middlemarch
A rant about the decline of the humanities
My piece arguing we are in a “golden age” of writing
In general, the USA travelogue pieces were popular. People overall prefer reading rants and opinion pieces. Alas.
The things I thought were my best work, or that I most enjoyed writing, were:
Writing elsewhere
My best work this year was done for Liberties. I wrote about:
Virginia Woolf’s critical essays and their Johnsonian qualities — my favourite piece this year
An apology for Brideshead, including the Catholicism — it’s a truly great book
Podcast
I hate to say it, but my podcast has been one of the most successful things I have done in the last twelve months. The episodes with Tyler Cowen about Shakespeare and DOGE, Brandon Taylor about everything, Frances Wilson and Muriel Spark, and Hollis Robbins about Atlas Shrugged were especially popular. There are also episodes with Agnes Callard, Victoria Moul, Lamorna Ash, Kat Dee, and many others. All episodes here.
I thought about quitting the podcast—we are here to read, after all. But I get enough emails and messages from people telling me they pick up books they otherwise wouldn’t because of hearing them discussed on the podcast that it continues.
The podcast appearance of mine that performed best was with James Marriott where we talked about “How to be a Better Reader”.
I also discussed the question of good taste on Connecticut Public Radio with Becca Rothfeld.
Book clubs
There were also Shakespeare and Jane Austen book clubs this year. Shakespeare was the second year. Lots of people have told me that they read multiple plays and novels, often for the first time since school. Currently, there is no plan to run another reading group next year. I need the time to focus on other work. But I enjoyed these groups very much, and I think the people who attended all did good close reading and participated in very interesting discussions. This is the true literary life!
Thanks Henry. All the best for 2026. John
And in your annual review, don't forget moving to the United States!
We are glad to have you and your family here.
Dana