5 Books That Changed Me in 2025

I read 50 books last year. These were the 5 that transformed me the most.

Welcome to Making Time. What makes a life feel vivid rather than rushed? These are my reflections from rural Oregon on attention, ritual, and making things by hand. If you’d like to follow along, you can subscribe for free.

Every morning starts with a book.

At this time of year, mornings are dark. The animals all gather round me at the sofa as the fireplace warms the room, and I settle in to read for the first hour of my day.

In the morning, it’s nonfiction. Before bed, it’s usually a novel. Of the 50 or so books I finished last year, these are the five that have stuck with me the most.

1. The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

I’ll be honest. I’m pretty burned out on “happiness research.”

It’s not that it isn’t useful; it just feels a bit limited to me. The whole idea of pursuing happiness as a goal feels like a mental trap; the more you grasp for it, the farther away it seems.

But I picked up this book after watching this video with Bob Waldinger, head of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a longitudinal study spanning over 80 years. The study has followed two cohorts of men (and their family members, gradually incorporating more women) throughout their lives to understand the factors that most contribute to human wellbeing.

There are no big surprises here. The most important factor in creating a happy life is having strong, intimate relationships.

It’s the stories that bring this idea to life: the elderly couple holding hands and serving oreo cookies as they articulate their bond; the vermont schoolteacher passionately serving his community; the distant father who prioritizes career.

One story in particular has stuck in my head, of a man at the end of his life, alone in a trailer in Montana without friends or family, simply because he had lost touch with the people who loved him and could not bring himself to make an effort to connect.

These stories showed me that there are many ways to build strong relationships, and all of them take consistent, sustained effort. It’s hard, but few things matter as much.

2. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

This book changed my life.

Cal Newport advocates for a more considered approach to technology, one that feels less overwhelming and gives you more capacity to focus on what matters to you.

In the spring, after finishing this book, I decided to try out the 30-day “digital declutter” he recommends. Just the act of making choices and setting stronger boundaries around technology felt empowering. My attention felt less fragmented, and I had more time for people and activities I actually enjoy.

Since then, I’ve looked for more ways to pare back to what’s essential and waste far less time zoning out on internet brain candy (though I also haven’t completely given it up).

The biggest lesson I took away is that everything has tradeoffs, and it’s better to consciously weigh them so you can decide for yourself if they’re worth it. Just because something provides a benefit to you in some way doesn’t mean it’s worth what you’re sacrificing.

3. Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation by Bruce Tift

Sometimes, there are different philosophies about life that seems completely at odds with each other, yet somehow both true.

Here we have Buddhist thought. It teaches us to accept our direct experience in each moment. If we stop resisting, we have access to freedom, no matter what our circumstances.

Then we have western psychotherapy, which says that we can improve our circumstances if we learn to live more skillfully and understand ourselves better.

Instead of arguing between these two approaches, therapist and Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner Bruce Tift notes their respective strengths. There’s a tension between them that we can simply appreciate.

This book helped me realize that, on many levels, not everything is a “problem” to be solved.

4. I’ve Got Time: A Zen monk's guide to a calm, focused and meaningful life by Paul Loomans

This short book advocates for a simple, more intuitive approach to how you view time.

While some of the ideas seem difficult to implement if you work on long term, complex projects with other people, I found that there were many aspects of my life where a looser, more present-minded focus made perfect sense.

This is a book I’d love to reread, as I think I could harness more and more from it with each pass.

My favorite was the practice of focusing on doing one thing at a time and naming it to yourself. For example, silently saying to yourself “doing dishes” as you wash up. I love the way this simple naming snaps me into the present moment instead of rushing towards the next task.

5. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

This is my new favorite novel. I loved it so much that when I finished this nearly 900 page book, I immediately read the other 3 books in the series.

This western novel follows a pair of former Texas rangers, partners for decades, who attempt to drive their herd of cattle to Montana. It’s a novel about loyalty, friendship, regret, adventure, work, and love.

Captain Gus McCrae is the single most charming, lovable, courageous (and yet deeply flawed) character I’ve encountered. Woodrow Call is perhaps one of the most tragic, isolated by his own avoidance of emotion.

When I finished the last book, I wanted to start them all over again.

PS: If you like westerns, I also read True Grit this year and loved it too. Another adventure story with a lovable, funny, drunken rascal and a stolid, determined hero (only this time, she’s a 14-year-old girl).

I hope one of these books resonated with you. And if you’ve read any of them, I’d love to know what you thought.

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