Reading Resolutions: A Reflection of 2024 Reads

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Reading Resolutions: A Review of 2024 Reads

Every year, my goal is to read 52 books. 52 books for 52 weeks of the year. This year I came up two short. In my notes app, I keep track of the books I read with only a “dash.” At various points throughout the year, I check-in and count to see how many I’ve read and how close I am to 52. It’s only when I compile them into a blog post that I number them. This year, I really thought I had made it. When I counted how many I read not too long ago, I was convinced I reached my goal of 52 with the last book, Warbreaker. But long books within the notes app often take two lines and I must have accidentally counted one book as two.  

This past year marked a decline in the number of architecture-related books I read when compared to previous years. This is due to it being the end of my master’s thesis. The first half was focused on research and reading, and the second half I had to actually focus on producing the work. Although I still found time to read, I looked outside the realm of architecture. I needed a break and turned to fiction for a change of pace. Like always, my reading list consists of an assortment of fiction and nonfiction, with a particular emphasis on fantasy series that spans multiple novels.

Sometimes I read within categories. All it takes is one book to spark an interest, and I will explore related ones. For example, I read Into Thin Air, a nonfiction account by John Krakauer about the 1996 Everest disaster in which seven climbers lost their lives. This book got me researching other mountaineering and survival story novels. My next read was No Way Down, a novel about the 2008 ascent of K2 which led to the death of eleven climbers. That in turn led me to the Donner Party Saga, a wild story about mid-1800 pioneers migrating west who became stranded (after a series of poor decisions) in the Sierra Nevada and resorted to cannibalism.

I took a brief respite from survival stories with book two of the Empyrean series and then followed this with Endurance, a riveting account of Shackleton’s incredible survival story. This is by far the most incredible survival account I’ve ever read and it should be read by everybody. This led to me the story of the Whaleship Essex, the inspiration for Moby Dick, which I started after and slowly worked through it for over a month or so, but sadly never finished it. I was slightly more than halfway through when I started my six-week post-graduation travels. During my trip, I hardly read and I did not have the appetite for Moby Dick. A book left un-read.

These are the books I read this year:

1. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom
2. Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
3. While Time Remains: A North Korean Defectors Search for Freedom in America
4. The Personal Librarian
5. The Guncle
6. Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health
7. The Island of Missing Trees
8. A Gentleman in Moscow
9. Better Living Through Birding
10. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating Like Your Life Depends on It
11. Fourthwing (Empyrean book 1)
12. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
13. No Way Down: Life and Death on K2
14. The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride
15. Iron Flame (Empyrean book 2)
16. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
17. Four Walls and a Roof
18. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex 
19. Unsouled (Cradle book 1)
20. Soulsmith (Cradle book 2)
21. Black flame (Cradle book 3)
22. Skysworn (Cradle book 4)
23. Ghostwater (Cradle book 5)
24. Underlord (Cradle book 6)
25. Uncrowned (Cradle book 7)
26. Winter steel (Cradle book 8)
27. Bloodline (Cradle book 9)
28. Reaper (Cradle book 10)
29. Dreadgod (Cradle book 11)
30. Waybound (Cradle book 12)
31. A Little Hatred  (Age of Madness Book 1)
32. Gator Country: Deception, Danger and Allegations in the Everglades
33. Magician: Apprentice (Rift War Saga book 1)
34. Brave New World
35. The Trouble With Peace Part I (Age of Madness Book 2)
36. Magician: Master (Rift War Saga book 2)
37. Three Cups of Deceit 
38. The Trouble With Crowds (Age of Madness Book 3)
39. Silverthorn (Rift War Saga book 3)
40. A Darkness at Sethanon (Rift War Saga book 4)
41. Red Rising (Red Rising book 1)
42. Golden Son (Red Rising book 2)
43. The Lincoln Highway
44. Morning Star (Red Rising book 3)
45. Iron Gold (Red Rising book 4)
46. Dark Age (Red Rising book 5)
47. Light Bringer (Red Rising book 6)
48. The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr.
49. The Will of the Many
50. Warbreaker

My favorite book

My favorite book this year was A Gentleman of Moscow. I read it before the TV series came out and didn’t even know that it was going to be released as one. It was a such a surprisingly good read. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the novel, it’s set during a historic period of Russia when they were transitioning from the Russian Empire into a socialist state, but I also absolutely fell in love with the main character. I don’t remember how I heard of it because nobody I know had read it, but I didn’t expect to enjoy the book as much as I did, nor did I anticipate liking the protagonist as much as I did.

A new year

Now it’s a new year and I will attempt to read 52 more. I’m starting it with The Fortress of Solittude, a semi-autobiographical novel about two friends, one black, one white, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s and 80s. As I’m currently working in Brooklyn (a blog post yet to come), I thought that it’s only fitting to read a book about the area I’m constantly walking through.

My 2023 Reads blog post

My 2022 Reads blog post

My 2021 Reads blog post