SusanJ's categories for 2025 - Thread 1

Welcome to my 2025 Category Challenge.

I’m Susan and I live in London, where I am now retired and living my best life :-) I’m a Kiwi, but I’ve lived here most of my adult life (most of my entire life, in fact).

My categories this year are inspired by English or British monarchs.

King Charles III is our newest monarch, so this category is for books published in 2025. I did really well with this category in 2024 and I want to keep up with new things as well as reading all the goodness on my Kindle. Here is the King looking pretty new himself.

Queen Victoria represents Victorian literature. This category is a repeat of 2024, as I still want to read more Victorian literature. I love participating in Victober, which is a whole month devoted to Victorian literature.

I’m also interested in reading some works published earlier than the Victorian period, but not necessarily just “Regency” things, of which there are gazillions. So I’m going to call this my Georgian category, represented by George I.

We’ve had more kings called Henry than any other name* so King Henry VIII represents series reads.



*There were also eight Edwards, but the last one didn’t even make it as far as his coronation, so the Henrys win for seeing the job through to the end.

Athelstan is regarded as the first English king, so he represents historical reads.

King Arthur is a legend (maybe) so he represents my fantasy category.

Charles II established the Royal Society, and represents my science and nature category.

Alfred the Great lived an exciting life, which included fighting off Vikings. He represents my thrillers category.

Monarchs have always been fond of freebies, and this picture of Elizabeth I (known as the Ditchley portrait), was a gift to her from Sir Henry Lee, intended to make up for a falling out between them. If you look at the bottom of it, you can see she is standing on Oxfordshire, which is where Sir Henry lived (at Ditchley) This is going to be my category for freebies, and I have many thanks to all the Kindle deals.

George III was the king whose book collection started the British Library, and he represents my hard copy books. I don’t have many due to lack of space, but I do want to make some progress with them.

Bonus category: Other things

Queen Elizabeth II lived through a time of tremendous change and amazing invention (Antibiotics! Television! The moon landings! Concorde! Broadband!). This category is for books that don’t fit into the other categories, as so much of her reign was about things that were new and different.

These are so interesting and great pictures. I love visiting London and also loved visiting New Zealand. >12 susanj67: Such a wonderful woman. I have been to where she is buried at St George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Wonderful categories! I love the way you have teamed them with monarchs.

What a great theme and wonderful pictures. Good luck with your 2025 reading.

What a clever (and educational) theme! Good luck and have fun with your Royals.

I love this theme being a total Anglophile and royalist. I totally let myself down with Victober this year but hope to do better in 2025. Look forward to seeing all your Georgian and Victorian reads.

>13 mnleona: Thanks Leona! I miss Queen Elizabeth. The other day there was a news item saying that the Queen had a chest infection and I thought "But wait..." and then remembered there is a new Queen. I don't think I'll ever get used to it, but unless I live to be 112 (as a man here did recently) the majority of my life will have been spent as an Elizabethan.

>14 VivienneR: Thanks Vivienne! Fortunately there are plenty of monarchs to choose from :-)

>15 Tess_W: Thank you, Tess!

>16 kac522: Thanks Kathy! There are usually royals to be found on my threads somewhere :-)

>17 JayneCM: Thank you, Jayne! I really want to read Victorian things consistently in 2025 and not leave it all until Victober. I thought for the Georgian category I might start by reading Ann Radcliffe, perhaps in order of publication.

I love your theme and the clever way you connected the categories to the monarchs! I recently watched a three-part documentary on the four Georges and hope to read up on them next year.

>18 susanj67: I am 86 so watched when she became Queen so I also think of her when they say Queen. I also still say Prince Charles and then correct myself.

>19 MissWatson: Thank you, Birgit! I can recommend The Strangest Family, which is mostly about George III but does discuss the others.

>20 mnleona: Yes, "Prince of Wales" still gets me, particularly if I'm reading something from the recent past. "Princess of Wales" is less of an issue as we haven't had one for so long (using that title, anyway).

Get theme and some interesting facts I wasn't aware of.

I love your theme and categories!
>8 susanj67: I'd rock that ensemble.

Wishing you a happy and glorious reading year.

>22 dudes22: Thank you, Betty!

>23 mstrust: Thanks Jennifer! They do have some great outfits :-)

>24 pamelad: Thank you, Pamela!

What a regal challenge

Wonderful theme. I hope you have terrific reading year.

Popping in to drop a star for another year's reading.

Hi Susan, adding my star and looking forward to following along!

Following along Susan for 2025.

Exciting categories, Susan. I will also follow you in 2025.