My 2024 in Books

Glossing over the fact that I'm a bad blogger and haven't done a book-year-in-review since 2021 (and I didn't even post that one), here is my summary of 2024 and a few thoughts about 2025:

According to the Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge, I read 39 books last year. That's 9 short of my goal of 48 (I thought I was a bit closer, but discovered that Goodreads had somehow double-counted several books). I'm a bit disappointed I didn't finish stronger. But I'm not surprised, given that I read some longer works, did not mix in enough shorter works and got a little too focused on phone scrolling. As a retired person I would think I could consume a book a week without breaking a sweat (which is the other problem, I should have walked and exercised more and knocked off several audio books). 

Here are some highlights:

1. Non-fiction. Only 7 titles of the 39 were non-fiction. A few stand out:
1. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee ★★★★★ - One of those longer books I mentioned. But well worth it to learn more about life on our planet and in our bodies.
2. Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis ★★★★ - Inspiration for the film "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" and a well-told-tale of true-life secret heroes of WWII.
3. The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margareta Magnusson ★★★★ - Essays about living from the author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
4. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★ - I didn't realize that this was not a recently released title until I was well into it (published in 1962). Even so, I was fascinated by the intricacies of pre-World War politics and early World War I warfare and all the things I (and probably most people) I did not know about it.
   
   
2. Inspirational. I had intended to expand my reading of Christian literature. But I only managed one and it's not worth mentioning. Aging Exuberantly was much more inspiring.
   
   
3. Netgalley. I stuck to my plan to limit myself to preview 5 or fewer titles on Netgalley this year and focus on backlist books and authors I don't usually read. But I was happy to post early reviews for 4 (5 if you count The Women, which I finished last December). The most notable:
1. The Women by Hannah Kristin ★★★★★ - Did I want to relive the years of Viet Nam War? No. But the author paints a vivid portrait of a combat nurse experiencing the horrors of jungle combat and an unwelcome homecoming.
2. A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor ★★★★★ - A classic locked-room mystery set in a small snowbound mountain town.
3. The Martian Contingency by Mary-Robinette Kowal - ★★★★ - Twenty-or-so years after a meteor hit Earth and forced mankind to reach for the stars, the first colony, sorry, habitat on Mars is trying to settle in for the long term and discovering how difficult it is to leave the worst parts of humanity behind. Fourth book in Kowal's Lady Astronaut retro space-program series.
   
   
4. Some other treats this year:
1. James by Percival Everett ★★★★★ - An amazing book that was an easy read with difficult content, worthy of your time and the attention and awards it's been receiving. I also read Everett's dramady Erasure ★★★★ and enjoyed it.
2. Matterhorn by Christopher Reich ★★★★★ - A ripping spy story. 
3. Starter Villain by John Scalzi ★★★★★ - A preposterous scifi romp about super villains. 
4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ★★★★ - A classic whodunnit. Charming beyond its outdated, clunky language. 
5. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John ★★★★ - Trippy novel unloosed in time. 
6. The Expanse (series) by James S. A. Corey - I read the last three books of the series this year. It's obvious why they were excluded from the television series: a severe time jump and huge set pieces with the main characters scattered around the galaxy. Still some very good reading.

You can read more about these and other books I read in 2024 elsewhere in Perpetual Reboot. My Goodreads.com 2024 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024/3195690 or https://www.goodreads.com/readingchallenges/gr/annual/2024. 

I'm going to keep the same goal in 2024: 48 books. Lowering the bar would serve no purpose. I have no hope of actually reducing my TBR pile, since I keep adding titles. But I do hope to balance things out by (re-)visiting some classics, mixing in some current titles, including authors I don't usually read and pushing hard to read some challenging non-fiction. Maybe I'll even write a blog post with a more detailed plan. Don't hold your breath!

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.