This is always one of my favorite blog posts of the year: Let’s recap all of the amazing books I read in 2024!

I expected that my total number of books read this year would be a little lower than usual. I still read before bed every night just like I’ve done every night of my life, but as my fatigue has worsened, my brain has gotten slower and my cognitive function has gotten worse. I can trace the progression of my hypersomnia throughout the year by seeing how my number of books per month declined over time (from 16 in both February and April, to just eight in November). And that’s really discouraging to see and to feel.

Anyway, my final number of books read in 2024 was 149, so it was actually just ~10 books less than my usual yearly average of 160:

2017 – 135 books 2018 – 153 books 2019 – 154 books 2020 – 174 books 2021 – 190 books 2022 – 157 books 2023 – 160 books2024 – 149 books

The first book I read in 2024 was The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury. I absolutely loved it (so much so that I got a signed copy for my birthday, and also gifted it to someone later in the year!). It was an incredibly fun, brilliant concept that was executed very well (and yes, it made me cry, lol).

The final book I read in 2024 was a reread of The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. The Melendy family books always feel like a warm, comforting hug. Even though it had been years since I’d last read this one, I still think about the quote below on a regular basis:

“You know, Rush, it’s funny, but we always did seem to be luckier than most of the people we know.”

I do the very large majority of my reading in bed, between 11 PM and 1 AM, before I go to sleep. It’s the best time of my day. But in 2024, I also read books on planes, in hospitals, in Airbnbs and hotels, in coffee shops, on my balcony, under trees…

Windy, who passed away in early October, was a literary cat! Nearly every book that I read from June 2019 through September 2024, she read with me, curled up in my leg triangle. She was a very well-read cat. Now, I’m trying to train up the boys in the way they should go, but so far they seem to prefer having a WWE smackdown each night as I’m trying to enjoy my latest read.

Of course, I have to give you the requisite list of books that made me cry this year:

The Mystwick School of Musicraft, Jessica KhouryBlood for Blood, Ryan Graudin (reread)Wildoak, C.C. HarringtonA Heart in a Body in the World, Deb Caletti (reread)That Sounds Fun, Annie F. Downs (reread)The Wishing Game, Meg ShafferCoyote Lost and Found, Dan GeimenhartThe Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages (reread)Revelle, Lyssa Mia SmithRemarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van PeltFunny Story, Emily HenryLessons in Chemistry, Bonnie GarmusLove, Theoretically, Ali HazelwoodThe Breakup Pact, Emma LordLeonard: My Life As A Cat, Carlie Sorosiak (reread)The Rom-commers, Katherine CenterAccidental Demons, Clare EdgeGreenwild, Pari ThomsonLasagna Means I Love You, Kate O’ShaughnessyThe Wrong Way Home, Kate O’ShaughnessyThey Went Left, Monica Hesse (reread)

What stands out about my reading experiences in 2024? I loved soaking myself in poetry this year (easily meeting my goal of reading at least one book of poetry per month). I barely read any series this year, but did enjoy a long-overdue HoO reread in the fall. And for some reason, the month of May was (just coincidentally) packed with a bunch of killer five-star reads. I read so many good books throughout this entire year that touched me and taught me and changed me–I wish I had the time and the energy to talk about them all. (I do post my thoughts about each one on my bookstagram and my Goodreads if you’d like to follow me there!)

Helping Hannah with her book tour–purchase a copy of Open Hands: A Journey to Trusting the Lord With Your Desires and Disappointments if you haven’t!My 2024 reading statistics

Let’s get into some statistics! Before officially adding everything up, I made some predictions. I didn’t think I had a lot of rereads this year, or a lot of DNFs, either. I was right on both counts: I DNF’d just five books, and had 29 rereads vs. reading 120 new books (as represented by the chart below).

Of course, I always read more fiction than I do nonfiction (this year, 108 and 41, respectively):

Out of the nonfiction books I read, most of them (17) were poetry collections. I absolutely loved reading so much poetry this year, and after making it a point for 12 months, now it’s simply become a habit to add a poetry book to my library hold list. My other nonfiction reads were mostly Christian nonfiction books or memoirs.

When it came to those 108 fiction books, I predicted that I read more middle-grade books this year than adult or YA. I just really wasn’t into young adult books for much of this year (at least, not contemporary or spec fiction ones); I wondered if I’d finally outgrown them. I enjoyed discovering/catching up on some new-to-me adult fiction. And middle-grade books will truly always be the genre of my heart. But when I looked at my actual statistics, it turned out YA and MG were almost exactly even.

The last metric I looked at: what fiction genres I read the most of. I was honestly surprised that I read so much historical fiction! (At 39 total, many of those books were middle-grade historical fiction.) Next came spec fiction (mostly fantasy–hardly any sci-fi or dystopian), which was also a surprise to me–but again, I think it was quite a bit of light MG fantasy rather than the YA dystopian stuff I favored in high school. And finally, contemporary novels (mostly YA and adult) + general children’s lit wrapped up the list.

Movies and TV shows I watched in 2024

Another of my goals for 2024 was to watch at least one movie per month. I accomplished this, too (although December was a little iffy tbh). Here’s the final list of the 16 movies I watched:

The Boys in the BoatCastle in the SkyCODA (rewatch) Dirty Dancing The Breakfast Club ()The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesTangled (yes, for the first time)Pollyanna (rewatch)CluelessMoana (yes, for the first time)10 Things I Hate About You (rewatch)Captain America: Winter Soldier (rewatch)The Young Woman and the SeaPrince of Egypt (YES, FOR THE FIRST TIME)When Harry Met SallyWicked(I also half-watched Elf and The Christmas Story on Christmas Eve but I feel like that doesn’t really count lol)

I didn’t watch very many TV shows this year, but I did watch the following shows/seasons:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (season one)The Artful Dodger (season one)Sex and the City (season one)America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (season one)Cheer (season two)

All in all, it was a beautiful year of books and stories and words. I feel so fortunate that it seems I can still read at more or less my usual pace (some genres, anyway), even with worsened cognitive symptoms, and also to have such a good library a half mile away from me. I’m so excited for another amazing reading year in 2025–so far, it’s January 11th and two of the three books I’ve read have made me absolutely sob, so we’re off to a great start!

How many books did you read in 2024? What were some of your favorites? Have you read any of the ones I mentioned here? What genres do you gravitate toward?