At the beginning of 2025, I completed the 75 Hard Challenge, which required reading at least 10 pages of a non-fiction book each day. This wasn’t a challenge for me as sometimes I read my 10 pages (really a chapter or two) and then read a book for pleasure. And honestly, I read a fair amount of non-fiction so it was more about being intentional during the 75 days. I read a total of 16 books 7 of which were non-fiction. The books I read included:
- HWPO: Hard Work Pays Off: A Strength Training Book by Mat Fraer
- A Runner’s High: My Life in Motion by Dean Karnazes
- Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
- The Heart is the Strongest Muscle by Tia Toomey
- Chasing Excellence: A Story About Building the World’s Fittest Athletes by Ben Bergeron
- Resilient: The Untold Story of CrossFit’s Greatest Comeback by Brooke Wells
- Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
- The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter (finished the day after 75 Hard ended)
I also started the year off reading Along Came a Spider. This is the first novel in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series. I don’t know how it took this long to learn about Alex Cross, but my sister recommended the show Cross on Amazon Prime and that got me hooked! I made it through the first 10 books of the soon to be 37 books in the series. They are relatively quick reads and I enjoy them even if they aren’t high literature!
Salvage the Bones is a book you’ve probably not heard of but I’d recommend. The story is set over 2 weeks as a hurricane approaches and the realities of coming of age in a high poverty area of Mississippi. A variety of twists and turns will leave you feeling all the different emotions.
Of the non-fiction books I read during 75 Hard I would highly recommend The Comfort Crisis.