2025 In Review

Some recommendations from my 2025 reading list.

Image: Anarkali Art from Pixabay

As the sun sets on another year, as is my custom, I present to you some of the best reading material that I have engaged with over the course of 2025.

1. Leisure the Basis of Culture - Josef Pieper

   “Don’t just do something, sit there.”
   This quote in the forward to the book sums up the underlying theme of Josef Pieper’s philosophical master piece that is Leisure the Basis of Culture. Pieper explores the idea that our world (the Western world more precisely) is descending into a state of “total work”. The concepts of leisure, and work as a means to leisure, is fast being lost, instead people are living in a state of total work, devoid of leisure and rest. We work in our jobs, we work in our homes, we work as parents keeping our children busy, but we rarely engage in activities that are purely for leisure.
   
   The book is quite deep in parts and considers some sophisticated existential themes. Yet Pieper’s book is particularly relevant now just as it was three quarters of a century ago when it was first written.

   
   In TS Eliot’s preface to the first edition he laments the loss of a deeper philosophical capacity to address such a fundamental issue as a world without leisure. Elliot considers the shame of modern philosophy is that it has separated itself from theology. Pieper does not make this mistake, highlighting the importance of ceasing from work as an ancient idea embedded in the Abrahamic religions.
   

2. Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour - Helmut Schoeck
   Human motivation is an incredibly interesting topic and has been explored across social scientific fields. Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour unpacks a motivating factor in all of life that is said to be at the core of social behaviour from the time that two individuals are capable of mutual comparison.

   
   Across cultures and throughout proverbs, fairytales and other records envy receives widespread condemnation. Yet modern psychology has virtually deleted the word from its vocabulary. Helmut Schoeck takes a careful approach to proving that envy is more widespread than most people realise or would care to admit. He also shows how people who have achieved anything worthwhile in modern societies have to first inflict a defeat on envy. This is perhaps why socialism has failed time and time again in the last century, because its essence is based on an envious tendency.
   

3. Against the Tide - Roger Scruton
   Roger Scruton was prolific writer and once a year I am partial to picking up one of his many volumes. He wrote as part of his academic work, he wrote books and he wrote articles and essays for various outlets. Against the Tide is a collection of his essays, which are grouped thematically. A true conservative, Scruton’s writing is a fresh perspective on issues of perennial importance. Far from a one trick pony Scruton’s writing in this books covers education, politics, the environment, animal rights and sexuality.
   

4. And there Shall Be No Ebb - Arthur Burt
   Easily my top pick of 2026. No Ebb was written by little known author and minister Arthur Burt. Having met Arthur personally and read his engaging memoir — Around the World in 88 Years — I would recommend any of the half a dozen books he has written.
   
   No Ebb explores more broadly the theme of surrender to God, and that modernity has given rise to a people who want to use God to meet their end, rather than seeing themselves as a means to God’s end and responsible for surrendering themselves to Him. No Ebb was challenging and encouraging all at once and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

   Note: It is possible to get a hard copy version of this book, however, they are not widely available. If you would like a PDF version then please email me at crowhurstlearning@gmail.com