26-ish books 2024

[Tinkhasflown]

A shiny new thread for 2024.

All welcome and note 26 is just a number. Everyone can set their own target and you are welcome here even if you only read 3 books a year.

I personally count the larger novel style books I read to my children and audio books I listen to. Others don't and there are no rules.

I look forward to all your suggestions again this year.

Book 35 My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Stroud I listened to the audio version after not being able to get into the book version. It was a good listen and I'd recommend it.

This has been my worst year for reading since before the pandemic, I'll be nowhere near 25 for the year.

Haven't posted in a while so these are ones I've finished since the summer.

12. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
    Listened to the audiobook which was read beautifully by Andjoa Andoh, but I think it was abridged which is a bit annoying.

13. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
    Re-read this and to my astonishment I'd completely misremembered the whole plot and found it all rather boring. Which was completely disconcerting as I've spent the past two decades feeling like it was one of the best novels I've ever read. What happened?!

14. Tenement Kid - Bobby Gillespie
    Loved this autobiography, Bobby G has lived an interesting life. Listened to the playlist on Spotify whilst reading it, which has all the records he mentions. He is obsessed with music and it was really good to hear those influences whilst reading his strident opinions!

15. Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang
    I know this has had some mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it and thought it was pretty well done and very readable.

16. Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn
    An epistolatory novel based on the premise that a town bans various letters of the alphabet one by one, so the writers gradually become restricted in their vocabulary. A much better idea in theory than it turned out to be, I nearly abandoned it but it was pretty short so I ploughed on until the end.

17. One Word Kill - Mark Lawrence.
    I think I got this as a freebie on my kindle. It was ok; time travel/80s.

I've started several books over the Christmas holidays and should finish them all in January so will hopefully begin the new year with motivation to read more and scroll less! See you all on the new thread 📕

19 - All The Little Bird Hearts - Viktoria Lloyd Barlow
My final book of the year and it was so good - very glad to have ended on it.
Hoping to make 26 books next year !

@MargotMoon in fairness you have had some cracking books though! Both you and @Yuja shouldnt beat yourselves up, I like the 26 books a year thread because it’s basically for anyone under 50 and even if that’s only 5 books it moves at a nice pace rather than the terrifyingly competitive bigger thread! I’m really surprised I’ve read as many as I have after several years of very low read counts, and felt a bit bad for having substantially more than 26 but the 50 books is too much for me - I love getting ideas from this thread no matter how many books folks have read

@Citygirlrurallife Thanks and yes, you are right! I love that this thread is for slower/less frequent readers and the pace is manageable on here. That 50 book thread is bonkers and I find it intimidating rather than encouraging that people are able to read 2+ books a week.

Totally agree with this.
Love this thread, so thank you to all contributors!
I managed 22 books this year but as others have said, it doesn't really matter if you read 6, 16 or 26, it's whatever suits you - it's just nice to share on here (and use as a log for what I've read!).
Thanks again!

I agree it's nice to log them here, I have just copied and pasted all my comments on my reads to a word document for posterity

Just to summarise the year here:

1: Lady in Waiting - Anne Glenconner
2: Whatever Next - Anne Glenconner
3: Dead Lions (Slough House 2) by Mick Lyons.
4: Real Tigers (Slow Horses 3) by Mick Herron.
5: One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry-Up by Wes Streeting.
6: The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.
7: Kammy by Chris Kamara
DNF (so no number) Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley
8: Spook Street (Slough House 4) by Mick Lyons (audio)
9: None of This is True by Lisa Jewell.
11/12/13 Slough House 5-7, London Rules, Joe Country and Slough House by Mick Herron.
14: Neither Her Nor There by Bill Bryson.
15/16: Notes from a Small Island and Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson.
17: The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid
17 The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson.
18: At Home - A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson.
19 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
20: Free by Lea Ypi.
21: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.
22: Poor by Katriona O'Sullivan.
23: When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson.
24: What are you doing here by Floella Benjamin.
25: Started Early Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson.
26: A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater.
27: Big Skies by Kate Atkinson.

Finishing the year half way through the audio of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and loving it. I've enjoyed being on the thread with you all and looking forward to another year of reading. Thanks to everyone who has posted

@EffortlessDelegation I like your list! 👍

100 in 7 months!!! I'd be a terrible Booker judge 😂
thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/how-to-read-more-in-2025-according-to-booker-prize-judges

I really like the leisurely pace of this thread too and the complete lack of competitiveness. This year I managed 29 books but last year I read 14 and it really doesn't matter if you don't hit 26. I also love the recommendations here and look forward to next year's thread. However I am going from PT work to FT and an MSc so sadly I don't think I'll have as much time to read, but I'll read as much as is possible be that 1 book a month or possibly less.

Yes, I like the non-competitive vibe too, it is nice to have a thread where you can just drop in and out of and that isn't so busy that you can't catch up if you don't check in for a few weeks.

Also checking in at the end of the year and another one who loves the chat here, it really has been transformational in helping me to get back in to reading.

My last of the year....

31. Daisy Jones & The Six. Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I enjoyed this as much as her other one, (the 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo) . Its unusual for me to go straight on to another book by the same author but I enjoyed both the story and the format. An easy but interesting read.

I don’t think I’m going to finish my current book by midnight tonight so here’s my list for this year, with favourites in bold:

2024

1. What the T - Juno Dawson
2. Siblings - Brigitte Reimann
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
4. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twang Eng
5. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
6. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
7. Scythe - Neil Shusterman
8. Unbearable Lightness - Portia de Rossi
9. 2nd Scythe book
10. 3rd Scythe book
11. Away with the Penguins - Hazel Prior
12. The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson
13. Maps of our Spectacular Bodies - Maddie Mortimer
14. Trust- Hernan Diaz
15. Until August - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
16. The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
17. People Like Us - Louise Fein
18. I Am An Island - Tamsin Calidas
19. The Omission of Sin - Marguerite Poland
20. The People on Platform 5 - Clare Pooley
21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling
22. The Women - Kristin Hannah
23. Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad
24. The Wall - John Lanchaster
25. What You Are Looking For Is In The Library - Michiko Aoyama
26. Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys (A)
27. The Bone People - Keri Hulme
28. The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimimanda Ngozi Adiche
29. A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe
30. Held - Anne Michaels
31. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
32. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
33. My Friend Mat and Hena the Whore
34. The Silent Patient - Alex Michealides
35. Porpoise - Mark Haddon
36. Reykjavik - Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir
37. Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
38. Water - John Boynes
39. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
40. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson

32. The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing

I thought I'd find a random novella to read today to finish the year and landed on this. Its a hard read, appalling and horrifying at times, especially harrowing as a mother of a child with SEN. But, I was also transfixed and devoured it in a couple of hours.

2024

1. My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologies - Fredrik Backman
2. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
3. The Maid - Nita Prose
4. A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore
5. The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
6. Careless - Kirsty Capes
7. The End We Start From - Megan Hunter
8. Yellowface - Rebecca F. Kuang
9. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

10. The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams

11. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

12. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan

13. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargave

14. The Prophet Song - Paul Lynch

15. And Furthermore - Judi Dench

16. Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

17. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

18. A Keeper - Graham Norton

19. The Lightness - Emily Temple

20. This Other Eden - Paul Harding

21. The Scarlet Sisters - My Nanna's story of secrets and heartache by the banks of the river Thames - Helen Batten

22. Tell Me How This Ends - Jo Leevers

23. Home Stretch - Graham Norton

24. The Familiars - Stacey Halls

25. The Wall- John Lancaster

26. Landlines - Raynor Winn

27. Winter People - Grainne Murphy

28. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. - Gabrielle Zevin

29. Island of Sea Women - Lisa See

30. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

31. Daisy Jones & The Six. Taylor Jenkins Reid

32. The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing

This is my list this year. I feel I have really read some great books, some that will stay with me. I could highlight my favourites but I think there are too many. My favourite? Pachinko perhaps? Or The Hearts Invisible Furies? Or Prophet Song? The God of Small Things? Fried Green Tomatoes? The Mercies? Island of Sea Women? Hmmmm. So many good books.

I also didn't finish a couple, I have realised that if its a real chore and I am not enjoying it, its better to put it down and move on or it stops me from reading.

And, I feel I always say this but if , like me 2 years ago you are keen to get back in to reading after a lull then this thread is such a great way to do it. As said above, non competitive, just encouraging.

I am very much looking forward to joining you all tomorrow for another year of inspiring reads.

It has been a pleasure as always to share this thread with you all. I think my favourite book of the year was The Mercies.

I'll try to get a new thread up and running and hope to see you all on the other side 😊

Shiny new thread 2025 thread!

Thanks for setting up this chat. Got me reading more than I have in a long time but didn't hit as many as I wanted. Aiming high this year 😀

1. Holly, Stephen King
2. The Push, Ashley Audrain
3. The Killing Kind, Jane Casey
4. Kala, Colin Walsh
5. The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
6. Strange Sally Diamond, Liz Nugent
7. Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
8. Long Island, Colm Toibin
9. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney

@Breathmiller I totally agree about abandoning books you're not enjoying - there are so many good books and so little time!

I managed 17 which was more than I expected. I really enjoyed a good few of these with Cloudstreet, The Mercies and The Night Tiger being my favourites. I have started my 2025 reading off with The Bee Sting.

2024

1. Stone Yard Devotional - Charlotte Wood
2. Strange Sally Diamond - Liz Nugent
3. Normal Rules Don’t Apply - Kate Atkinson
4. The Drowning Girls - Veronica Lando
5. Lessons In Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
6. Limberlost - Robbie Arnott
7. Back to Bangka - Georgina Banks
8. Zeus is a Dick - Susie Donkin
9. Water - John Boyne
10. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson
11. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
12. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
13. Prima Facie - Suzie Miller
14. Joe Cinque's Consolation - Helen Garner
15. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
16. The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo
17. Death at the sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson