Gradually I am reclaiming my reading life. 2025 saw me further returning to a certain freedom, not only with the books I tackled and when I tackled them but with collecting them. In the first instance, over the last few years I grew excessively concerned with what to read next, over-examining the length of the book versus the time period I wanted to devote to it. This year, if something called to me from the shelves, I pulled it down and dug in. A lot of this freedom comes from the permission I’m giving myself to pull the plug on a book if it is not what I expected or what I wanted. A 500-page book should no longer scare me; if I love it then it could never be long enough and if I hate it, well… she gone.

And when it comes to collecting books, this year I have fully embraced tsundoku. This is a Japanese word that refers to the act of collecting more books than you can read. The idea being that you will always have a full library stocked with stories yet to be discovered. This concept has made me feel better about having bookshelves that are “groaning with their load”. I also like the idea of Umberto Eco’s similar concept of “antilibrary” and the suggestion that many books are for reference and should always be kept for that purpose even though they may never be read cover to cover. I also like the idea that the unread books have more value than the read books. A shelf full of unread books is a constant reminder of all we do not yet know. Unread books are a challenge and this, I like to think, can keep up one’s vitality and keep one engaged. Because it’s an optimistic outlook – “I have all the time in the world. There is time enough at last. I will get to these books”. Now, just don’t remind me of James Bond and his wife, Tracy, or Burgess Meredith in that horrific Twilight Zone episode.

But what about space, you may ask and I get it. We all must have room for these books to be housed properly and displayed well. I’m still trying to be choosy and to be careful when buying books and when deciding whether or not to keep them. For the record then; this year I started 23 books, finishing 20 (up 4 from last year) and I will be passing along fully 9 of them.

I started reading Briton Ray Connolly’s book Being Elvis during Elvis Week in August but it was a tough go, owing to Connolly’s book being very simplistic and basically for Elvis neophytes. No sweat, though. I will pick it up and finish it for Elvis Week in January of the new year. It won’t take me long and I’ll be off to the next book. I had an interesting journey with William Faulkner’s Sanctuary. In January of 2021, on a pre-Code film kick, I watched the astonishing The Story of Temple Drake (1933) with dishy Miriam Hopkins and cool dude Jack LaRue. It was based on Sanctuary and I thought it would be an interesting read. I was wrong again with Faulkner; I have stumbled reading his work before. It can’t be just me. Even though he is writing in English, a language I have somewhat of a nodding acquaintance with, I don’t know what he’s saying half the time. I cannot picture what he is describing and I just don’t get what he’s on about. I cheated a bit while reading this book and looked up the plot – one, to have it explained what I just read and two, to get some help with what was coming next. Well, let me tell you – what happens to Temple in the book is much more than just astonishing and I hoped to make it through it but I just couldn’t and pulled the plug. My printing was a movie tie-in for the 1962 version with Lee Remick so I added that film to my watchlist and called it a day. Bought the book on a whim, let it sit for many years, tried to read it, didn’t like it, passed it along. Easy come, easy go.

The other book I gave up on was less about abandoning. I had often heard about Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, a famous 5th century BC Chinese military treatise that has been referenced in films like Wall Street and has been adopted to apply to fields of endeavor other than war. I was thrilled to find a fairly new copy with a forward by James Clavell. I admit part of the appeal for me here was to be able to say I had read The Art of War but I didn’t latch because it read like a 5th century BC Chinese military treatise. Oh, well.

I was excited to start the year with Suzanne Finstad’s Child Bride for Elvis Week. Here is a well-researched and illuminating biography of Priscilla Presley that proved eye-opening. My growing fascination with exploring the wilderness had me excited to read the story of Chris McCandless in Into the Wild. The story is riveting but I’d be more likely to re-watch the film by Sean Penn than to re-read the book.

Non-fiction highlights include Nathaniel Crosby’s book about golf and his dad, Bing, and the wild story of the Rolling Stones recording Exile on Main Street in France. I revisited the harrowing tale of the Black Dahlia with Piu Eatwell’s book Black Dahlia, Red Rose, a book that claims to have solved the case but just take that claim to the internet and wait for the beat down.

Summer was spent on the figurative beach when I finally got to a book I’ve owned for a while. All for a Few Perfect Waves is the amazing story of legendary rebel surfer Miki Dora. Now, will someone please get a screenplay going or do I have to do it myself? Speaking of books becoming screenplays, I went to the theatre to watch the riveting story of the recording of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska album, Deliver Me from Nowhere. Amazing to think that such a film could come not from a performer’s whole life but just from one significant moment in that life. My son loaned me his copy of the book and it was equally compelling. Throw in bios on Natalie Wood and Robert Redford and it was a great year for learning about fascinating people and events. The downside was Sly Stone’s memoir, read in the wake of his passing. I was pleased with how I chose the book – oh, no, Sly is gone. Hey, I have this book and now I’ll read it – but I didn’t enjoy his “voice”.

Colossus was a good, old fashioned science fiction paperback that had been made into the excellent 1970 film The Forbin Project, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud was about – believe it or not – reincarnation and this year I watched the film (Cinema 75 with Michael Sarrazin and Margot Kidder) as well but both were meh. But I found the book at a garage sale during the very year I planned to watch the film for its 50th anniversary so that was cool. I actually found this book and another I read this year by the same author, Max Erhlich, The Big Eye, at the same sale. So – couldn’t stand a book by literary giant Bill Faulkner but read two books by unheralded Erhlich. Whatever. Good for me for reading books that have sat on my shelves forever this year including the debut novel from Kirk Douglas, Dance With the Devil, that dealt a lot with Judaism and was top-heavy with sex and then there is the non-fiction The Luciano Story. This is a frustrating tale for me. I recall buying this book about Lucky Luciano in a thrift store – no word of a lie – over 20 years ago. As much as I am interested in mob culture, I never pulled it down off the shelf until this year. I found it uninteresting and – worse – written much like a paperback novel you’d buy at the bus station to read on your trip to Virginia to visit your cousin. Normally, I would have pulled the plug on this but I powered through and read it and then put it in the pile to donate. What bugs me is that I had no idea that this book that sat on my shelf for over two decades was a dog I would not enjoy. If I had known I could have passed it along years ago. Again – easy come, easy go.

I find I’m looking forward to the new year and to scanning the shelves to see what jumps out at me. I’m determined to make the time to sit and read and take it all in, be it biography or novel.

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I’m looking forward to presenting book reviews on Words With Wellsy on the Cocktail Nation radio show podcast again in 2026 but throughout the year I’ll also be on the show to talk about other pockets of history like those we explore here at Vintage Leisure. So, tune in to Koop Kooper’s show for the debut of The Retro Zone, my new segment uncovering the music, the movies and the personalities of the 20th century.

“This is Gary Wells from SoulRideblog.com and I’m encouraging you…to pick up a book”

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My rating out of 5 represents my overall experience with the book

Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley — Suzanne Finstad 📚📚📚

Alone – Rod McKuen 📚📚

Into the Wild — Jon Krakauer 📚📚📚📚

Star Trek Memories — William Shatner 📚📚📚📚

Darker Than Amber — John D. MacDonald 📚📚

The Big Eye — Max Ehrlich 📚📚📚

Sterling’s Gold: Wit & Wisdom of an Ad Man — Roger Sterling 📚

18 Holes with Bing: Golf, Life, and Lessons from Dad — Nathaniel Crosby and John Strege 📚📚📚📚

Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones — Robert Greenfield 📚📚📚

The Case of the Silent Partner — Erle Stanley Gardner 📚📚📚📚

Black Dahlia, Red Rose — Piu Eatwell 📚📚📚📚📚

Colossus — D.F. Jones 📚📚

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir — Sly Stone 📚📚

All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora — David Rensin 📚📚📚📚

Natalie Wood: A Life — Gavin Lambert 📚📚📚📚

Robert Redford: The Biography — Michael Feeney Callan 📚📚📚📚

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud — Max Ehrlich 📚📚

Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska — Warren Zanes 📚📚📚📚📚

Dance With the Devil — Kirk Douglas 📚📚

The Luciano Story — Sid Feder and Joachim Joesten 📚📚