Three Books I Revisited in 2025 — and Why They Still Matter

In 2025, I found myself returning to books I’d already read. Not out of habit or nostalgia, but because something in me wanted to slow down and listen again.

Revisiting a book is a different experience to reading it for the first time. You bring more of yourself to it — more life, more perspective, more questions. As an illustrator who works with stories, this feels especially important. Stories don’t change, but we do.

These three books stayed with me this year, each in very different ways.

To Kill a Mockingbird — empathy as action

Every time I return to To Kill a Mockingbird, I’m struck by its quiet strength. It’s a story about justice and morality, but more than that, it’s about empathy — not as a concept, but as something lived and practised.

What resonates most with me now is how often doing the right thing means standing alone, without applause or certainty. The book doesn’t shout its message; it trusts the reader to notice the details, the silences, the human moments.

As someone who translates stories into images, this reminds me that subtlety matters. Not everything needs to be loud to be powerful.

Man’s Search for Meaning — perspective and purpose

Man’s Search for Meaning is not an easy book, but it is an important one. Reading it again, I was reminded that meaning isn’t something we find only in joy or success — it’s something we create, often in the hardest circumstances.

This book has a way of recalibrating perspective. It strips life back to what truly matters: dignity, purpose, choice. Reading it now, with more lived experience behind me, it felt grounding rather than overwhelming.

It reinforced my belief that stories don’t just entertain — they help us make sense of being human.

Wreck This Journal — letting go of perfection

At first glance, Wreck This Journal feels worlds apart from the other two. But creatively, it might be just as important.

This book is an invitation to release control, abandon perfection, and reconnect with play. To make marks without worrying about outcome. To trust the process rather than polish.

As someone who works in a hand-drawn, textured, imperfect way, this book reflects how I approach creativity — with curiosity, openness, and permission to explore.

Why revisiting books matters to my work

Returning to these books reminded me why I’m drawn to illustration for the book world. Stories reveal themselves differently depending on where we are in life, and the same is true visually.

My approach to illustration is rooted in listening — to the story, to its themes, and to the human experience beneath the words. Revisiting books helps me do that with more depth, patience, and care.

Stories stay with us because they grow alongside us.

If you have a book you return to again and again, I’d love to know what it is — and why.