Hey everyone. I've got a book goal this year of 120. That's 10 books per month, if you believe in the Gregorian calendar. I've gone through 50 so far, and today I'm going to tell you about my top picks and a few of my least

favorites in that order. This is The Book Pile, a podcast about the best of books and the

worst of books. We've got over 200 episodes at this point featuring plenty of both,

best and worst, and usually featuring my co-host, David Vance,

who is currently on sabbatical from the podcast, and we wish him a happy summer, as well as a happy

birth month of June. That's right. His birth took the entire month. And speaking of Dave, I know that he and I do a favorite

books of the year episode at the end of each year, which is always a blast, but I thought I'd

pop in with an update of this year so far just from my side of things. All right, and without

further ado, here are the highlights and low lights of what I've read and listened to so far this year.

I'll start real quick with a few that I enjoyed again as I reread them, those being Project Hail Mary, my favorite sci-fi novel.

4,000 weeks, my favorite book from last year, the most impactful on my life decisions, and

creativity, a short and cheerful guide. I've brought this book up a few times at this point,

and I will continue to until I can get John Cleese on the podcast. Now, for the books that were

new to me. I'll start with my favorites and then end with my non-favorits. Also, I should

have mentioned these aren't like the top books published just this year of 2025. I'm actually

years late on most of my reading, especially for counting classics that I should have read already

but haven't like Don Quixote. I'm still four centuries behind.

So no, this isn't exclusively a 2025 list. You'll have to wait for the year 2400 for that one.

So in no particular order, coming up first is a book called Self-compassion. And it is what it sounds have you ever said i'm such an idiot to yourself well you're not and it's crazy that it took me 40 years of book reading uh to discover this you can say nicer things to yourself and there is science that says that you should.

Also, your self-worth and identity are not defined by your accomplishments.

I'm going to repeat that one more time, not because this is a TED talk where I'm convinced

that they just need to fill that 18 minutes exactly.

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