Note: I wrote this post, not AI.

2025 was, for lack of a better word, horrible. I never a had year that shook me to my core as much as 2025 did. From the beginning, I knew that the only way out was through, which meant a lot of time alone and thus a lot of reading. An interesting thing about reading - as all avid readers would attest - is that when you go through transformative times, the books you need have a tendency to find you somehow. Among the many books I had read in 2025, there were three that found me when I needed them the most. This post is about those three stories.

Writing a post like that feels strange to me, for I have always been reticent about my reading. In fact, during the 25+ years of my reading history, only one person truly knew (yes, in the past tense unfortunately) about what I was reading and why I was reading it. So if you came across this post, you may feel special. Let’s begin.

1. Metamorphosis by Kafka

At the beginning of 2025, I needed some time of and left for one of my favorite hotels for a retreat. While I was hanging around at the reception are I wanted to check the small library, filled with books other travelers left on their way out. There I noticed the Metamorphosis by Kafka, a book I knew about but had never read. I picked it up.

Metamorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, who, one morning, wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. At first, had you not read the book, this summary will not make any sense to you. Bear with me and just look at Samsa’s first reaction when he realizes that he is now an insect: his immediate panic is not about his body, but instead about missing the train and being late for his menial job. Yes, he is now an insect because he simply forgot who he was as he prioritized his work and family, but neglected himself. What is worse, people he sacrificed his life for now jumped at the first opportunity to crush him like an insect, as expected.

This story resonated so much that I often found myself closing the book and staring around for a while before I could continue. The lesson was simple: you either walk away the situations you can’t save or you begin walking away from yourself. And I had been walking away from myself for years. This was when it ended, as I walked away from the hotel and began walking back to myself.

2. The Undefeated by Hemingway