Final Books

I finished a book in the final week of 2025, making me uneven on Goodreads. 65 books instead of 64 books. I probably could have finished one of the other two books I was currently reading, but instead of committing to completing one of the existing books, I decided I had to read The Correspondent. Immediately.

It’s funny because when I first heard about the book, I was interested. But when it came up in the library, it felt like the last thing I wanted to read. Ever. I don’t like epistolary novels. But I suspended the hold rather than canceling it. Every time I saw it in the queue, I thought about canceling it — I was never going to read it — but then I was in the final days of 2025, and I needed a book, and suddenly, that was the only book in the world I wanted to read.

I unsuspended it, and it came in within a few hours.

It’s funny how that happens. Something sounds completely unappetizing (figs), and then it becomes your favourite food, a treat you buy yourself on special occasions. Or a book sounds uninteresting and then becomes the only thing you want to read.

The woman writing most of the letters in the book processes her world via her correspondence. She isn’t the best person at face-to-face relationships, but on paper, she asks probing questions that show how deeply she listens and remembers. But she is going blind, so this favourite activity (handwriting letters) will either need to change or go away as she loses her sight.

Moreover, her second favourite activity — reading — will also change. It’s not that she won’t have access to stories anymore, but she will need to consume them differently. For some people, there is something different about reading the words off the page vs. listening. I’m one of those people who prefer to read the words vs. listen to them.

So she mentions several times during the book that due to her older age and imminent blindness, she selects her books carefully. She re-reads her favourite books, knowing it may be the last time she spends time with those characters in that way, and she is selective about which new books she chooses.

I would probably first work my way through the books I’ve been hoarding; the ones I’ve been holding because I know they’ll make me happy, so I read one when I need one. And then go back to my old favourites because I’d rather consume something I know will be good vs. take a chance. Though if I did that, I would have missed this book, The Correspondent, because until it rose to the top of my TBR, it wasn’t even something I was considering giving a chance.

But this isn’t a hypothetical. One day, I will realize I’m nearing the end of my life (hopefully, I’ll get time to prepare for the end), and I’ll have to choose how I use my final reading choices after a lifetime of books.