Books 2024: Round-up

[lobelia321]

Cross-posted from Goodreads:

 In 2024, I read 184 books (compared to 159 in 2023). The increase is mainly due to an increase in non-fiction. My goal was 120. I reached that goal in August (and what? was I just going to stop reading?) I read the most books in October (20). I read the least books in April (10) and December (10).

5-starred books: 29

Fiction: 129
Non-fiction: 53



Men authors: 50 (27%; about as many as last year).
Non-binary authors (as far as I am aware): 6 (last year: 3) plus Preciado who refuses to be classified
Women authors incl. 1 trans: 132 (71%)

Non-white authors: 70 (38%); this is more than last year but in % terms, about the same (and last year was lower than in previous years); of whom: Black: 31 (17%); Indigenous in settler colonies: 4 (2% ); other: 40 (22%).
Disabled authors and neurodiverse authors: 3 known.

Books read in translation: 22 (11%, down from last year)
Books read in German: 25 (13%; up from last year)
Books read in French: 1
Books read in Italian: 1
Books published before 1900: 4

My landscape theme was: open ocean (11 books).

I listened to 11 non-fiction audiobooks. This is a sharp increase due to Spotify making 10 hours a month available as part of a subscription. This has been a real enhancement (of my dog walks) and accounts for much of the non-fiction increase.

I coloured in only 12 new countries / territories on my world map of reading. That's fewer than the 21 of last year and a lot fewer than 2021's 40.

South America: Uruguay, Bolivia, El Salvador, Panama.
Africa: Tunisia, Cameroon, Botswana, Gabon, Uganda.
Asia: Sri Lanka, Lebanon.
Europe: Czech Republic.

My tally 2020-24:
Luxembourg, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland; Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Malta. Faroe Islands, Scotland, the Ukraine, UK, Russia, Albania; Greenland; Ukraine, Montenegro, Iceland; Czech Republic.
Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala; Suriname; Brazil; Uruguay, Bolivia, El Salvador, Panama.
South Africa; Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe. Liberia, Togo, Libya, Morocco, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Madagascar, Sudan; Cameroon, Botswana, Gabon, Uganda.
Jamaica, Haiti, Antigua; Cuba, Bermuda, Trinidad; an anthology of short stories set on islands, incl. Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent.
New Zealand, Australia; Tahiti, Torres Strait Islands; an anthology of short stories set on islands, incl. Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tonga.
People's Republic of China, Macau, Turkmenistan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, India (English, translated from Malayalam, translated from Tamil); North Korea, Hong Kong, Armenia, Malaysia; Sri Lanka; an anthology of short stories set on islands, incl. Mauritius.
Qatar, an anthology of short stories from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates; Iraq; Lebanon.
US, Canada; Alaska.

Challenges: I completed 4 challenges (in addition to my landscape theme and my quest to 'read the world').
#the52bookclub Reading Challenge 2024. 52 books read. Completed 18.10.24.
#SomethingBookish 2024, hosted by lipglossmafia. 24 books read. Completed 13.10.24.
#Diverse Reading Challenge 2024, hosted by bookasaurusbex. 30 books read. Completed 25.8.24.
And my favourite: #Diversity across genres 2024, hosted by booksandadventures and reading.and.roaming. 32 books read. Completed 30.10.24.

My top favourites of 2024:

Fiction:
• AJ Demas, The House of the Red Balconies
• Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz
• Percival Everett, The Trees
• Andrew Hunter Murray, The Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering
• Sarah Brooks, The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

Non-Fiction:
• Shoji Morimoto, Rental Person
• Thomas Halliday, Otherlands
• Riley Black, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs
• Kristian Nairn, Beyond the Throne
• Cynthia Enloe, Twelve Feminist Lessons of War

2024 book acquisitions:
232 books, incl. 26 freebies and 206 purchases.
I purchased 48 more books than I read. (to be completed)
29% of money was spent on 0.99 amazon deals which makes 0.99 the mode. The average was £5. The most expensive was £33.55 (Gloria Köpnick, Vereinigung Kunst Oldenburg) -- this is not even the high end of scholarly art history books with colour images. My own costs £80, alas,

My plans for 2024 (did I achieve my goals?):
• Challenges for the fun, not for the 'win'. ACHIEVED
• Diversity challenges. ACHIEVED
• Keep on reading for fun. ACHIEVED
• Landscape theme: set in the open ocean / on the high seas. ACHIEVED
• One book in Italian. One book in French. ACHIEVED
• More non-white authors. NOT ACHIEVED
• More authors in translation. NOT ACHIEVED
• Purchase fewer books. HAVE YET TO CHECK

Plans for 2025:
• Use challenges to make inroad on books wot i own.
• But do buy exciting new books discovered via challenge research.
• Host my own personal challenges on Storygraph.
• Use Storygraph to track challenges but post all reviews and all books, incl. non-challenge books on Goodreads.
• Read 1 book in Italian. Read 1 book in French.
• Read more books in translation. Aim for 30.
• Read more non-white authors. Aim for 42%. (77 books if I read 184 books again; 50 if 120.)
• Read more books published pre-1900.
• Re-read stuff.
• But mainly: keep on reading for fun! Even if it means ignoring all of the above.

Reading goal for 2025: I set it at 120 but it will likely be at least 157.

Comments

[tadorna]

I wouldn't attempt to compete with the kind of impressive cataloguing you do, but I've decided to at least keep track of the things I watch and listen to this year, as well as read. I've been making a very simple tally of books read for the last 5 or 6 years, and while I have absolutely no particular reading goals, I quite enjoy writing them down and seeing the number at the end of December. I've realised I pretty consistently read between 40 and 50 books per year (in 2020, I read 80, which is pretty telling). 2024 was on the lower end of the scale, but I've finished two in 2025 already!

[lobelia321]

2020 as an anomaly makes sense! I am a list maven. I have listed my books read since the 1980s and transferred the list to bullet journal in 2017. Then I discovered (or rediscovered; I think I actually joined about the time you did) Goodreads and TheGreat Women's reading challenge. It is defunct now but I am challenge addict; those challenges have boosted my reads per year. I have much think about this. Before that I was like you: 40 books per year on average, the max was 80. I didn't count non-fiction which now I do. I didn't finish all books which now I do (mostly; I have to force myself not to self-torment with a terrible read). But mainly: I used to have nothing to read and no way to find anything I wanted to read (besides LJ and Closer than Brothers; I logged very few books in the heyday of fandom). And now thanks to Gooodreads and Bookstagram, I have a surfeit! There is always something to read so I'm always reading something. But then, I don't knit or crochet or watch much TV.

[delphi]

Wow, congratulations! Best of luck with your 2025 goals, above all the one about having fun. <3

[lobelia321]

Absolutely re the fun! Happy 2025 to you!