End of Year Book Roundup

A lot has happened to me this year and the books I’ve read certainly reflect that.

From self-help to Stephen King, from journalism to theatre, this eclectic mix represents me trying to find out what I love to read - and looking at the stats I’m not suprised.

The majority of the works I read were fiction, and the majority of those were fantasy. I was suprised to see that only a few of the late Pratchett’s books adorned my list, partly because of how much I love his work and how much of his work I bought this year (there’s an excellent antique store not far from my house that is always stocked up with his vintage paperbacks).

Smaller pagecounts seem to be a trend, with the odd brick sneeking in (I’m looking at you, Babel). This’ll be a habit I hope to keep up as I hope to expand my horizons with sci-fi and shorter non-fiction texts in the new year.

Audiobooks were definitely a boon for me at the start of the year, which is why I came out swinging with so many books read and although I don’t note which books I listened to (as opposed to read) I may do in the future just so that I can keep track.

As we go down the list I can notice where my infactuation with older texts begins (around may) and is exaggerated by historical fiction and poetry. In December especially I dove into theatre, reading eveverything I could by the great Athenian tragic playwright Sophecles. This is something else I hope to keep up with in 2024 as I went a bit overboard in secondhand bookshops, buying up everything ancient Greek + Roman related I could afford.

Into the new year I hope to finish the Monkey Wrench Gang and move onto Howard Fishman’s To Anyone Who Ever Asked, a biography about a mysterious singer-songwriter from the 1950s. After that I plan to re-read Dune ready for the new movie in March.

P.S.

I should add, for posterity’s sake, that I read 39 books. Not a bad number but I’m aiming for at least a book a week in 2024. Knowing my track record of sticking to goals, let’s see how that turns out.