Goodreads has released its list of the 144 Most Read Books of the 2025 Reading Challenge (So Far), separated by genre. Each category has 12 titles, and the genres are: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Fantasy, Romantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Young Adult, Memoirs, History & Biography, and General Nonfiction.
Some authors dominate their categories: Sarah J. Maas has 11 titles split between Romantasy and Young Adult, and eight of the 12 books in Mystery & Thriller are by Freida McFadden.
This list includes both new and backlist titles, and it shows that despite new releases getting the vast majority of marketing and publicity, they’re not the be-all end-all of popularity. In fact, there are even some classics on this list, especially in Science Fiction, including 1984 by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. (Hmm, I wonder why dystopian novels are so popular right now…)
If you’re looking for just the biggest new releases of 2025 so far, Goodreads has a separate list for that: Readers’ Hit New Books of the Year (So Far).
Here are just a few of the most read books of the first half of the 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Fiction)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction)
James by Percival Everett (Historical Fiction)
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Historical Fiction)
The Crash by Freida McFadden (Mystery & Thriller)
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Mystery & Thriller)
Babel by R.F. Kuang (Fantasy)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot (Fantasy)
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (Romantasy)
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz (Science Fiction)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Science Fiction)
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (Horror)
Bunny by Mona Awad (Horror)
Twisted Love by Ana Huang (Romance)
Funny Story by Emily Henry (Romance)