Hooked by the book in 2025: Writers and thinkers on the reads that shaped their year

Read just this one line in an avalanche of words to know why this is ‘The Book of the Year’ for me: “The worst truth of this new order is that they, who received the finest education and other opportunities, and who consider themselves the most intelligent and informed among Indians, have been shown as inaccurate, unreliable, and incompetent political analysts of their own nation.” I am who Manu Joseph writes about. And I have tried, and failed, to fix myself.
Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia

Hospitality matters

For me, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara stands out as the book of the year because it captures a fundamental shift in how modern restaurants are thinking about service and experience.

The author goes beyond food and technique to focus on something far more lasting, how guests feel when they walk through your doors and long after they leave. The book is a powerful reminder that hospitality isn’t about grand gestures alone, but about intention, empathy, and attention to detail. It reinforces the idea that creating memorable moments often comes from small, thoughtful actions done 
consistently.
Hussain Shahzad, executive chef, Papa’s, The Bombay Canteen, O Pedro & Veronica’s

Keeping it real

Having read it many years ago, I decided to read Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey again in 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed it with its realistic setting of a typical Parsee colony (baug). Plus, it included a few historical events during Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial regime.
Vispi Balaporia, president, Asiatic Society of Mumbai

Rostov and Roy

The first book is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It’s a beautifully written poetic book about resilience and resistance in the face of extraordinary challenges. Count Alexander Rostov, a Russian aristocrat is caught in the throes of the Russian Revolution, and must give up everything that defines him. But his charm, grace and encyclopaedic knowledge prove the enduring strength of the human spirit in the face of appalling adversity. I must add another book by my friend Anindyo Roy — The Viceroy’s Artist. It captures Edward Lear’s time in India beautifully and in poignant detail.
Tasneem Mehta, director, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum

Gandhi, Tagore, and the rest

With a thousand-plus collection, I didn’t really have ‘A Book of the Year.’ But yes, there are books for all times, each one carrying a quiet impact. Throughout 2025, I have mostly read Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Friedrich Nietzsche, as a way of returning to the influences that have shaped me. What was particularly interesting was how Tagore and Gandhi debated their differences through their writings and yet maintained such enormous respect for each other. No acrimony, no impunity — just a genuine exchange of ideas and intentions. In fiction, I returned to the works of Isaac Babel and Richard Yates, both writers with an amazing sense of nuance and observation and who did not receive their dues in their lifetime. 
Murzban Shroff, author

For planet Earth

One of the most vital and necessary books that I had the privilege of reading this year was Sunil Amrith’s The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years. I read it in March while preparing, with Ravi Agarwal and Amruta Nemivant, an international anthology of essays around the climate catastrophe, 
Practices of Hope. In October, The Burning Earth most deservedly won the prestigious British Academy Book Prize. Surveying and annotating humankind’s brutal exploitation of the planet across the oceans and the continents during the last half-millennium, Amrith weaves together the themes of empire, colonialism, war, genocide and environmental violence, to present the tragic portrait of a species — our own — whose greatest triumphs are its greatest disasters. He shows how our unchecked greed for resources has brought nature to the edge of collapse while trampling human dignity and freedom underfoot. Sustained by rigorous, extensive research and written with persuasive eloquence, the book is absolutely required reading.
Ranjit Hoskote, poet, art critic and cultural theorist

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