Books Read in 2024

Summary of My Books Read in 2024

In 2024, I read 43 books. This is the most books that I have ever read in a single year, by a lot. Part of the reason is an increase in audiobooks which at 14 titles accounted for 32.55% of my reading. Still, the 29 (67.45%) print-based titles makes this year one of my biggest eyeball years ever. I’ve been more intentional about practicing reading.

Committing almost fully to the Kindle was a big part of this. All but one of the print-based books (Crying in H Mart) were ebooks. Being able to have multiple books on me at all times and swapping rapidly between them is a game-changer for my easily distracted mind. I also allowed myself to read more widely than usual, shifting between creative self-help, Eastern spirituality, erotic sci-fi, franchise ownership, and Stanley Kubrick.

Only one book (My Brilliant Friend) was a re-read, which I undertook in anticipation of reading Ferrante’s full Neapolitan Quartet. Four books I finished in 2024 had been started in a year prior to 2024, including a collection of poems by Louise Glück, a selection of American essays published in 2022, a one-a-day compilation of Stoic quotes, and the Muhammad Ali biography.

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I have a lot more to say about my year in reading, and those thoughts are currently being drafted for a Library Futures post. In the meantime, here’s a list of everything I read this year.

My Books Read in 2024

These are arranged by genres, from least to most populated. The genre headings themselves are slightly arbitrary. I would put maybe 15 of these books in the top quartile for my year in reading. About eight of these books, I’m kind of embarrassed to publicize having read, for whatever reason, but I don’t regret reading any of these. The audiobooks have an asterisk after the authors.

Poetry

• Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück

Finance

• The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security by Scott Galloway*

• Become a Franchise Owner!: The Start-Up Guide to Lowering Risk, Making Money, and Owning What you Do by Joel Libava*

Non-Fiction

• Architecture: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Ballantyne

• The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

• The Best American Essays 2022 by Alexander Chee

• The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

• Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction by John C. Polkinghorne

Biography / Memoir

• Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig*

• Chasing Ozu by Shinnosuke Kometani*

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

• Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction by Gary Rogowski

• Kubrick: An Odyssey by Robert P. Kolker*

• Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima

Philosophy/Spirituality

• The Book of Tea by Kakuzō Okakura

• Discovering the True Self: Kodo Sawaki's Art of Zen Meditation by Kodo Sawaki*

• In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

• The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

• Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice by Kosho Uchiyama

Self-Help

• The Bullet Journal Method: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future by Ryder Carroll*

• Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg*

• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

• Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

• Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren

• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Culture/Criticism

• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman*

• Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America by Gail Pool

• Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka*

• Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism by Anna Kornbluh

• Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People by Thomas Frank*

• Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change by W. David Marx*

• You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier*
  

Fiction

• A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

• Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis*

• Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

• The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

• McTeague by Frank Norris

• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

• The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

• The Vegetarian by Han Kang