I read more books than ever before in 2024
how I did it, and why I'm not trying to repeat it in 2025
The title isn’t clickbait; I read (at least) 65 books in 2024, which is more than I’ve read in a single year ever before. In years past, I’ve often set my sight on reading 52 books in a year. I read, at minimum, every night before bed, so a book a week seems pretty achievable. Still, I can’t think of a year in the last decade when I met that, although usually I get close-ish with around 40 books. Nothing to sneeze at, since the average American adult reads far less than that, but also not very noteworthy.
So why was this year, (which was a very difficult year!) so prolific, reading-wise?
7 Reasons I Read A Lot this Year
Reading with others. I joined a book club at the end of 2023. I read 9 books I would not have otherwise read simply because I enjoy attending a book club! My club reads a little bit of everything, but psychological thrillers are often on tap for whatever reason. I often listened to that month’s pick as an audiobook while knitting in waiting rooms while my kids had appointments for various therapies. (This is probably how I also got so much knitting done this year.) It is truly a treat to get together with friends at the end of the month and discuss what we read (and our current organizer is particularly amazing at coming up with fun activities that correlate to the book). I love hearing how everyone reacted to that month’s pick; often our personal ratings are all over the map. No book is universally loved, which is a good reminder for me as a writer: your audience isn’t everyone.
2024 also contained a decent amount of novel-reading to one child, both for homeschool and bedtime reading. That’s another 6 books I might not have otherwise read. I’m moving away from reading with him for school, but bedtime reading will remain for as long as he will let me (and we still have many Percy Jackson books to get through!).
A reading challenge. This was the big one. Writerly Love did a summer reading book bingo and I was allll over it. I blacked out my board, which meant I read 25 books between May and September alone. I was super motivated by this challenge and my reading was extremely focused during this time. The challenge prompts forced me to expand my horizons a bit and I’m grateful! In general, I don’t read a lot written by cis het white men but I can always seek out more diversity in the voices that I read.
Reading a variety of formats. Thanks in part to the reading challenge, I incorporated more poetry and graphic novels into my reading life. The graphic novels have stayed (no surprise, I enjoy the same genres in graphic novel form and am currently reading the Heartstopper series), and I’d like to be more diligent with regularly reading poetry in the new year. I can typically get through a graphic novel much faster than a novel or memoir, which helps my total book count for the year a lot.
Reading for my mood. I definitely read East of Eden earlier this year; I am probably going to end the year reading exclusively romance novels. My kids will be off school, and I need something escapist and light. I’m glad I make room for more challenging reading in my life, but also sometimes I just want to be entertained and I’m learning not to apologize or make meaning of the times that my brain just needs a freaking break.
The delight of rereading. I read The Idiot for the first time in early fall and fell in love; I instantly understood why it’s often recommended as a read alike to Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I first read Prep in undergrad way back in the mid-aughts and the story has stuck with me. I don’t often find books that I want to reread but Prep is one of them, and after finishing The Idiot (and not wanting to say goodbye to the characters), I decided to do a reread of Prep since it had been a few years. My reread surprised me; a particular plot point that I had remembered as occurring over most of the book was actually a smaller part than I had thought. It’s so interesting how some stories become a part of us, and what we take from them when they do.
After reading Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book for the first time in 2023, I vowed to reread it every summer. It’s just the perfect little book. I did indeed reread it this past summer, eagerly anticipating my favorite parts and finding myself engaging with the text on the deeper level than can only come from familiarity. I love it so much that I brought a copy to my book club’s holiday exchange (the bookseller at First Light also gushed about how much they loved it).
6 books on my “read” list this year were rereads. It felt like catching up with old friends, and I’d like to make rereading a bigger part of my reading life going forward.
Solo travel. I took two trips without my kids, and Iceland in particular involved a lot of travel time. I think I started and finished four books this year while at the airport or on a plane. I don’t think you should plan an international trip just to get your book count up, but it’s always worth considering where you can fit more reading time in. I do spend a lot of time in the car, ferrying my kids around, and while I like audiobooks, I have a hard time listening to them while driving (and often I have to deal with my kids wanting to play DJ). Unfortunate, because I think I could easily finish another 10 books a year if I did!
Reading as care. Reading is central to my self-care; with so much of my time and energy going towards my family, my reading life is my own little room. I can go in and lock the door! But 2024 was a year in which others extended care to me in the form of books; I am so grateful. When our dad died, my brother’s partner slipped a book for me into his bag; a romance novel, probably one she had just finished reading. She scrawled a note to me on the inside and wow. I didn’t always feel cared for by the people who should have been there for me during that time, and that tiny act was a beam of light. And when I posted about my dad’s death in an online writing group, seeking book recommendations to process my grief, Suzanne Roberts reached out and offered a copy of her memoir, Animal Bodies, which explores the link between death and desire. While I wouldn’t say either book ranked as a favorite for this year, the extension of care in the form of books and stories felt profound.
My favorite reads in 2024
This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris Just a stunning memoir of parenting a child with special needs.
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez and In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros I read these at the beginning of the year and no longer remember specifics about why I liked them… they’re both romance novels and I believe I inhaled both of them, which is a good enough reason for me to mark them down as favorites.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong warning that this book will devastate you, but I’d still encourage reading it.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman I really did not want to say goodbye to these characters. Fortunately for me, there’s more! I’m currently on the list for Either/Or at the library and I believe Batuman has a third book on the way featuring Selin.
Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff I can’t remember how I found a link to 831 Stories but I knew very quickly that I’d adore anything they published. My only complaint is that the books are too short! If, like me, you can be very particular and demand that your romance novels are both smart and sexy, I think you’ll be pleased.
My Work by Olga Ravn A must-read for moms who are also trying to make art
In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee a moving graphic novel memoir exploring otherness
Shopgirl by Steve Martin I am unclear on why I enjoy this novella so much; perhaps it’s the factual exploration of a confusing relationship?
Stray by Stephanie Danler one of my favorite memoirs, which is both coming-of-age and the ripples into adulthood of growing up in a dysfunctional family
Ariel by Sylvia Plath Powerful, and haunting, because we know how it ends.
Spilling Open by Sabrina Ward Harrison Sabrina is a treasure, I’m still finding wisdom in her books over 25(!) years later
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld coming of age boarding school perfection; Lee is a complicated, likable character
A Little Less Broken by Marian Schembari a memoir of an autism diagnosis in adulthood
The Shame Mackenna Goodman another weird little motherhood book; I loved it
What I dnf in 2024
Ali Hazelwood’s Not in Love This was such a bummer as I adore Hazelwood’s style and gotten a couple of friends hooked on her books, too. This book was just not hitting the mark and because I had been hoping it would be just a quick detour from my book bingo list, I gave up about 30% in. A friend did finish it, but was also disappointed with it and said I shouldn’t worry about going back to it. That said, I am optimistic about Hazelwood’s next book, out in February.
Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing This was a book club pick I was going to give my best shot, knowing that I rarely like fantasy novels. I think I really hate the world building that is necessary to include in a fantasy novel. It’s unappealing to me as a reader! (That said, I know a lot of people are obsessed with this series and I’m happy for them!)
Honestly, there’d probably be a few more titles on this list, if not for my summer reading challenge. I finished a few books that I was not connecting with simply because I needed to read them to complete my bingo card.
Reading Plans for 2025
It is tempting to try to beat my record. So why not shoot for 70 books in 2025? Because reading more books didn’t really improve my reading life. What made this year satisfying, book-wise, is that I made an effort to go beyond my memoirs-and-romance-novels comfort zone. Reading was also a priority for a season. And I allowed myself to revisit books I’d read in the past and enjoyed. None of those things have much to do with volume!
Here’s what I’m thinking about doing instead:
A daily reading practice. I’ve long admired
’s practice of reading a short story and poem daily; I was pleased to see she’s starting a newsletter about it! Historically, I haven’t read a lot of short stories, but I’d like to try this practice, too. Short stories tend to be a little weird and I could stand to be a little weirder in my CNF, so I think there’s something I could learn here. (If you have any short story collection recommendations, pls drop them below!)Slow, close reading. For the past few years, I’ve had it in my mind that I would reread some of my favorite memoirs that are close, thematically, to my own memoir-in-progress, and really mark them up to see what I could learn from turning them inside out. I haven’t gotten to it, and I still want to! I think annotating is just a different type of reading than my typical “hour before bedtime, cozy under a quilt with tea and dark chocolate” reading routine and I’ll need to figure out a different approach to getting this type of reading done.
There’s like a bajillion book clubs on Substack these days. Footnotes and Tangents is a good resource, should you need one. I’m tempted to join all of them before remembering that I am not, in fact, a lady of leisure with endless amounts of time to fill.
If I do join in on any Substack book clubs, it will likely be Closely Reading.
Finishing/ restarting Red Comet. Maybe? Published in 2020, this definitive biography of Sylvia Plath is a real door stopper, with over 1000 pages of text (some of that is notes and the index, which you probably wouldn’t really read, but still). I read the first few hundred pages when it was first released and then got sidetracked by other reading goals. I came across this post recently and remembered how freaking fascinated I am by Plath, and how my interest in her and her work has shape-shifted around my life’s circumstances since I started reading her work at 17. (This quote from the post sums it up well: “When I was a teenager I wore the name “Sylvia” on a short silver chain around my neck. My Sylvia then was not a mother with a pyrex bowl.”)
Maybe 2025 is the year to do a deep dive into everything by and about our girl Sylvia.
Trying really really hard to not buy books. I have a love/hate relationship with our public library system. Obviously, as someone who literally went to grad school to study libraries, I am a fan! But living in Austin and using the public library can be annoying. Mostly because other people are using the library, too. Hold lists can be loooong for anything that has any amount of publicity. When I first placed a hold on Miranda July’s All Fours, I was something like #562 on 48 copies (I’m now #278 on 66 copies…).
In recent years, I’ve gotten a little FOMO about not having a book I was interested in close to release date, and typically pre-ordered books. But the reality is, I rarely read the book close to publication and a lot of them don’t live up the hype. There’s no reason why I can’t first try to borrow a library copy, and only buy books if it’s something I want to reread and/or mark up. Plus, I’m running out of shelf space, and my husband might ask for a divorce if I try to separate him from any more of his books.
I’ll be using the library as much as possible this year, particularly for ebooks.
phew! I think that’s a wrap on my reading life, past and future.
As always, I’d love to know what you read and enjoyed this year, and what you’re thinking about reading in 2025!