Each year I feel like I’ve grown and changed, and each year I hope that this growth and these changes have been positive.
This year I think the changes have been positive. I always worry that I’m going to grow into someone who sees the world as a smaller and smaller place, who perceives challenges as personal attacks, and who holds others responsible for my moods. So far, I don’t seem to be doing that, but staying vulnerable and setting healthy boundaries does involve a level of reflection and awareness and intention that feels exhausting at times. In some ways I wish I could have done this work when I was younger, but I don’t think I had the perspective or context necessary in my 20s or 30s. Plus, I was doing other work then. So, in addition to the reflection, awareness, intention, and vulnerability, I guess there’s also a certain amount of faith that I am where I need to be right now and that I can grow from here.
My spouse asked me, “And how does all of this relate to reading?” I’m not positive that there is a direct connection except in the sense that reading helps to keep my world bigger. The act of living in the heads of other characters helps encourage my own self-reflection and helps me see patterns of behavior in myself that I would like to address. Observing the connections that authors make help me to see new ways of connecting things in my own life. It helps give me perspective.
Most of all, though, reading is just really fun.
I hope that this year brings me opportunities to participate in the creativity of language through narrating audiobooks and perhaps, if I’m super brave, writing my own fiction again.
But first, here’s where my reading journey took me in 2024:
Number of books read: 126 (9% fewer than 2023)
Number of books I didn’t finish: 5 (two fewer than in 2023)
Pages read for the year: 40,643 (13% fewer than in 2023)
Audiobook hours: 700.8
I spent a lot of time with dark stories (mysteries, horror, thrillers), and my top ten authors were:
- Agatha Christie
- Martha Wells
- Dorothy Sayers
- Jane Harper
- Clay McCleod Chapman
- Paula Hawkins
- Karen Thompson Walker
- Stephen Graham Jones
- Joe Hill
- Johnny Compton
2024 Cover Collage!
You can see the whole beautiful wrap-up on TheStoryGraph.
And that’s my reading for 2024.
Bookish Goals for 2025
My first two bookish goals for 2025 are to read as much of the Tournament of Books Shortlist as I can (I’ve finished 7 of 18 and am working on my 8th (Colored Television by Danzy Senna)) and to do a deep read on at least three more titles to explore how I could interpret them as an audiobook narrator. Deliberate practice!
My primary non-bookish, non-career goal for 2025 is to travel more. I’ve got some plans along those lines, so stay tuned!
I hope that your own 2024 Year in Books was pleasant and that 2025 brings you many welcome adventures, both bookish and otherwise.
Imperfect Happiness 