the hobbit | Bookshelf Fantasies

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.

This week’s topic is Top 5 books I want to reread in 2025, with the prompt: Are you planning to reread some favourites in 2025? Maybe that classic you read back in school. Or maybe there’s a new book coming out in a series, and you want to remind yourself what happened in the last book. Whatever it is, let’s share all of our reread plans!!

I have at least two rereads that I’m firmly committed to, and while there are a bunch that are maybes for me, I’ll share a few that seem most likely.

My five are:

1: Dracula by Bram Stoker: This is my most recent Classics Club spin book, and I’m committed to reading it by April. I originally read this book back in my school days, but that was eons ago!

2: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien: My book group will be reading this book in April, prior to launching into a lengthy group read of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’m excited to read The Hobbit again! I’ve read it several times, most recently with one of my kids, and I’m looking forward to experiencing it all over again.

3: Wolfsong by TJ Klune: It’s no secret that I adored the Green Creek series when I read it recently, and I’ve been wanting to do an audiobook reread. I’m not sure that I’ll get through the whole series right away, but I’d like to at least listen to the first book.

4 & 5: Two October Daye books: Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire: Books 17 and 18 in this phenomenal series — telling the same story from two different perspectives — were released one month apart in 2023. Now, finally, the next book is on the way! Book #19, Silver and Lead, will be released in September 2025. It’s been my habit to reread the previous books before each new release in the series, and especially with two years in between installments, I think it will be absolutely essential this time around!

Read in 2024:

Do you plan to reread any books in 2025?

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week.

This week’s theme is Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light and Fun. This was a harder list to put together than I’d anticipated! I now realize that most of my go-to books for re-reading, straight from my shelf of favorites, are not at all light and fun. Dark, sad, dramatic, intense — yes. Light and fun? Not so much.

With a bit of struggle, here’s what I’ve come up with for my top 10 this week:

Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)

1) Soulless by Gail Carriger: The first book in the Parasol Protectorate series is full of quippy dialogue, romance, supernatural hijinks, and is a Victorian comedy of manners to boot. Even when the characters are in peril, it’s light-hearted and humorous.

Bloodsucking Fiends (A Love Story, #1)

2) Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore: Or really, anything by Christopher Moore. Lust lizards? Stupidest angels? Sequined love nuns? Talking fruit bats? He cracks me up, every time.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)

3) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling: II’ve read the entire Harry Potter series about a gazillion times by now, and these books always make me smile. Of course, there are a lot of dark and terrible times ahead for Harry, but especially in book one (and really, throughout the series), the darkness is offset by the wonder of it all. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are adorable as younger children, and wonderful heroes as they grow up. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of this world.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)

4) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.The adorableness of this series cannot be overrated. Besides, 42!

The Princess Bride

5) The Princess Bride by William Goldman: I love the movie and I love the book. Either one will cheer me up on a bad day. It’s all about the twu wuv, people.

Pride and Prejudice

6) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: The Regency-era snarkiness, the sass and spine of Elizabeth Bennet, and the idiocy of the various other Bennet women are worth revisiting, time after time.

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)

7) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher: Look, bad stuff happens in this series, to be sure. And yet, Harry Dresden — Chicago’s only professional wizard — is just a total smart-ass of a bad-ass, and is so much fun to hang out with. This is one series that has not overstayed its welcome (cough *Sookie* cough). No matter how the plot twists and turns, it’s always great to spend time with Harry.

The Sleep Book

8) The works of Dr. Seuss: This may be more for my 10-year-old than for me, although I confess to being a total fan. Whenever my son, who considers himself quite grown-up these days, has a tough day or feels a bit sick, out comes the Dr. Seuss. Our go-to favorites are The Sleep Book and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, but really, you just can’t go wrong with a good dose of Seuss on a bad day.

Tempest Rising (Jane True, #1)

9) The Jane True series by Nicole Peeler. As with #7, bad stuff does indeed happen in this urban fantasy series, but Jane is just such an amazing heroine that these book can totally cheer me up and make me laugh.

The Hobbit (Middle-earth Universe)

10) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien: I love the Lord of the Rings books (oh, Aragorn…), but The Hobbit is a winner in terms of light, fun reading. Nothing like a thrilling quest, with good guys, questionable guys, wizards, dashing heroics, and piles of gold to brighten up a day!

Trying to put together this list has shown me that I need to read more happy books. Any suggestions? Let me know the books you can count on when you need a big serving of cheer!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies. Thanks for stopping by!