I love keeping track of things. Which is why I love Goodreads. I love finishing a book and adding it to my Goodreads bookshelf. Knowing I can rely on the world of Goodreads to keep this information stored so that when I’m being forgetful* I can pop into my Goodreads app** to see not only if I’ve read a book, but also what I rated it.
*Which, let’s be real, happens all the time.
**I’m trying to do this with movies on the IMDB app, but it isn’t quite the same experience.
Some people use Goodreads as another social app, checking to see what their friends have read and following their recommendations. Though I have a handful of friends there, I really, truly hope they:
- Don’t read my blunt thoughts about what I’ve read
- Don’t look at my ratings
- Don’t look at my book list at all
I’ve nothing to hide, promise, but the thing is, I read like I live. My bookshelf is a wild eclectic group of things without a common thread, all given ratings hovering around three stars.
Looking through what I read in 2024, I realized, I read a lot of things:
- out of intrigue
- because other people read them and liked them
- because they were made popular by Tik Tok, Netflix, or movies
And for the first time, I don’t have very many nice things to say about my list. Nothing especially wowed me; nonfiction reads being the exception.
Here are the highlights I could scrounge together about my 2024 Read:
Four Star Reads:
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbottham
Five Star Reads:
(Both of which are classics I’ve read before)
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens
*Full disclosure, I don’t even have it rated on Goodreads, but it’s a classic I return to, so…5 stars.
Honorable Mention:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
I think I’m wanting to be blown away by a book, and sometimes the beginning of a book will make me think This is the one, and then the end keeps me from giving it a high rating and standing on the mountaintops (social media) shouting about it.
One thing I have realized in looking over my books read lists of the past few years is something I heard another reader say on a podcast: I’m not reading enough for pleasure. Or, like I’ve said above, I start reading a book for pleasure, but then get frustrated because the concept is good, but the author didn’t flesh out what they really want to say* and by the end, I’m no longer enjoying the book, but annoyed and pushing through with hope for a redeeming ending.
*Ugh, I think I need to apply this advice to my own writing.
For 2025, I made the goal to read 50 books—let’s hope I not only do it, but find pleasure in doing it.
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