My Book of the Year 2024

Hello bookish friends! Welcome to my traditional annual reading wrap-up.

This year I read a ludicrous amount of books. So many I’m not sure how I did it. The count stands at 208 so far - which is more than 17 books a month. Goodreads tells me I read about 62,000 pages - 170 a day. Mostly this was an attempt to make a dent in my TBR - which I did - but there were also some other reading challenges that I will tell you about too.

However, before we begin to look at the books, here’s a quick recap of what the last year was like for me:

2024 was a very decent year for me and an interesting one for my family. My youngest daughter left her special educational needs teaching assistant role, going back to university in Liverpool to study to become a qualified teacher. My elder daughter has taken a six month sabbatical from her job to travel around Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Phillipines and Japan. I’m very proud of them both. Our remaining ‘child’, Ted, the family shih tsu, who features regularly in my Instagram stories, turned seven, and continues to be as entertaining as ever.

I had my second full year working for the National Trust, and the more I see of it the more I love it. It’s well-led, and has the best values and ambitions. It is by far my favourite employer from a long career.

As you will know, I love to travel, and have made a self-commitment to visit a new foreign country ever year for the rest of my life, finances permitting. This year it was Iceland, and the trip was truly epic and unforgettable. Mrs PlacesandBooks and I visited in January (if you are going to go somewhere famously cold, go in winter!) and it was utterly epic. The sights, the weather, the people and the food were incredible.

From the colourful houses of Reykjavik, to the waterfalls, to the Blue Lagoon and wonderful museums, it was a holiday I will never forget. I’ll say something about Icelandic literature later too.

We also managed a quick visit a quick trip to Mallorca to help celebrate my sister-in-law’s big birthday, and a tour around Dorset, Cornwall, Dartmoor, north Devon and Somerset, which included visits to Ilfracombe sea pools, Lynton and Lynmouth, and a pilgrimage to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s house in Nether Stowey. I also had a long weekend in Hay on Wye, books shopping, walking in the Brecon Beacons/Bannau Breichiniog and sitting in cafes reading.

Finally I managed to get to my beloved Lake District twice, one solo walking trip and one with my brother during which, among other things, we climbed the very beautiful and rugged Haystacks - Alfred Wainwrights favourite Cumbrian hill.

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Now on to my 2023 reading summary…

I really focussed on new reads in an attempt to reduce my TBR pile, and did very little rereading. My reading included four little sub-themes:

1. Reading Icelandic literature and books set in Iceland in January.

2. Reading all of Shakespeare’s plays

3. Reading the first ten penguins published.

4. Reading 24 for 24 - twenty-four specific books from my to be read pile.

Icelandic reading

I read six books - Snorri Sturluson’s epic sagas, a thriller by Ragnar Jónasson, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, a genuinely terrifying chiller called I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, and the quirky Summer Light and Then Comes the Night by Jón Kalman Stefánsson. The personality of the people and the country, the constant battle with the elements, and the black humour, is really apparent in their writing.

Reading all of Shakespeare’s Plays

Don’t ask me why I did this, I just did. As a result, I have a new favourite. I used to say it was between Macbeth and Henry IV part one, but Hamlet just blew me a way this time. It’s flawless writing, perfect from the first scene to the last and you can see how much it influenced literature across the world, especially Dostoevsky. Some of the other plays were noticeably weaker, but the strength in depth is outstanding.

Reading the first ten penguins

Reading a selection of books all published within a year of each other is like literary time travel. You become immersed in the issues and the values, the humour and the biases of the age. While some of the books were a bit patchy, there were some hidden gems like Eric Linklater’s Poets Pub and Beverley Nichol’s Twenty Five, as well as recognised quality from Hemingway, Christie and Dorothy L Sayers.

24 for 24

The unpredicted thing about reading a stack of books that have been staring at you for quite some time is the role the subconscious has played in you not reading them to date. Consequently these books were a mixture of difficult reads, books that aren’t really my thing, and books that weren’t actually that good. I got through them, but it was often quite a drag. On the plus side I can free up space on my shelves now I’ve finished them and they have left the house.

Reading Diversity

As I was reading from my TBR, my reading diversity was often a bit imbalanced. Discounting Shakespeare (35 books), I read 100 books by male authors and 65 by female authors.

I read books written by writers with 42 different nationalities, including American, Angolan, Argentinian, Australian, Austrian, Belgian, Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Guinean, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kenyan, Lebanese, Malaysian, Mexican, Mozambican, Nigerian, Norwegian, Palestinian, Paraguayan, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scottish, South African, Spanish, Trinidadian, Turkish, Venezuelan and Welsh.

That’s a really good range, and it wasn’t just the odd book - there were five Icelandic books, five German, eleven French, seven Belgian, two Nigerian, three Japanese, etc.

I don’t keep a special note of LGBT+ writing, but do check out my Goodreads account if you want to explore what I have read. Link below...

My 2024 Book of the Year

I have broken down my 2024 reading into five categories – new fiction, non-fiction, poetry, re-reads and children's/YA. I’ll start with non fiction…

Non-fiction

It was an exceptionally strong year for non fiction, with some amazing books. Could it be that my Book of the Year is non fiction in 2024?

1. Black History for Every Day of the Year, by David, Kemi and Yinka Olusuga

2. Alexandre Dumas, a Biography and Study by A Craig Bell

3. The Years by Annie Ernaux

4. Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

5. No Future Without Forgiveness, by Desmond Tutu

6. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks

7. The Dark Child, by Camara Laye

8. Emperor of Rome, by Mary Beard

9. Why Does Israel Far Palestine, by Raja Shehadeh

10. Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown

Books 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 I would recommend to anyone.

Poetry

It wasn’t a very strong year for poetry, so I’ll just mention my favourite: Dream Work by Mary Oliver. Absolutely outstanding. Also The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry

Re-reads

Other than Shakespeares, I re-read so few books that again I won’t rank them, I will merely list them. The best were:

• Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

• Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

• Regeneration, by Pat Barker

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie

• The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendhal

• A Room with a View by EM Forster

• Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens

• The Fellowship of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien.

New works of fiction

Some great books in here, so many that I'm doing a top twenty rather than a top ten:

1. Foster, by Claire Keegan

2. O the Brave Music, by Dorothy Evelyn Smith

3. The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng

4. The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse

5. Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent

6. Martin Eden, by Jack London

7. The Book of Chameleons, by José Eduardo Agualusa

8.  Baron Bagge, by Alexander Lerner Holnia

9. Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham

10. Maigret and the Ghost, by Georges Simenon

11. Wise Children, by Angela Carter

12. The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes

13. Black Narcissus, by Rumer Godden

14. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 years old (by himself)

15. The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope

16.  Felix Holt the Radical, by George Eliot

17. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, by Elif Shafak

18. The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon

19. The Ghost Road, by Pat Barker

20. The Belly of Paris, by Emile Zola

Looking through the list I see writers of thirteen different nationalities, nine women, and eleven men - a good spread.

Children’s / Young Adult Books

My favourite books aimed at younger readers this year were all very enjoyable, although none were head and shoulders above the others:

• Moonfleet, by J. Meade Falkner

• The Hobbit, graphic novel, by Chuck Dixon

• Fairy Tales from Hoffman, by Marjorie R Watson

• Stalky and Co, by Rudyard Kipling

• Look Both Ways, by Jason Reynolds

• The Night Circus, by Erin Morganstern

• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken

• The Prince of the Mist, by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

• Which Witch?, by Eva Ibbotson

Which book wins the big prize?

So finally, out of all this lot, thinking about fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, poetry, and rereads, my BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 is…

Foster, by Claire Keegan

I think she is a generational talent. In her two best books (of the ones I have read), Foster and Small Things Like These, she has a Chekhovian touch, saying more with fewer words than any writer I have ever read. Reading her prose is a beautiful experience, and she also writes with great humanity.

Do check out my Goodreads account www.Goodreads.com/places_and_books for more of my thoughts on any of the books mentioned in this piece. And do comment below what your favourite book of the year was.

And finally…

And in case you are interested, here are my favourite books of the year from when I first started keeping records:

1982 Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, England

1983 Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger, USA

1984 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, USA

1985 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, USA

1986 Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, France

1987 Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy, England

1988 A Room with a View, EM Forster, England

1989 Middlemarch, George Eliot, England

1990 Villette, Charlotte Bronte, England

1991 All Quiet on the Western Front, EM Remarque, Germany

1992 The Scarlet and the Black, Stendahl, France

1993 Crime and Punishment, Fyedor Dostoyevsky, Russia

1994 As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Laurie Lee, England

1995 Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, Russia

1996 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte, England

1997 Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, France

1998 Kim, Rudyard Kipling, England

1999 The Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournieres, France

2000 Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan, France

2001 Catch 22, Joseph Heller, USA

2002 The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, USA

2003 A Secret History, Donna Tartt, USA

2004 David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, England

2005 Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, England

2006 A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, USA

2007 White Teeth, Zadie Smith, England

2008 The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Australia

2009 A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz, Australia

2010 Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel, England

2011 Any Human Heart, William Boyd, England

2012 The Road, Cormac McCarthy, USA

2013 We, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russia

2014 The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, USA

2015 Quicksand, Steve Toltz, Australia

2016 Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbons, Scotland

2017 Just Kids, Patti Smith, USA

2018 Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, USA

2019 Underland, Robert Macfarlane, England

2020 Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf, England

2021 Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead, Olga Tokarczuk, Poland

2022 The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel, England

2023 Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo, England

2024 Foster, by Claire Keegan, Ireland