2024 in Review: Literature

Every year, I intend to join in on the year-in-review thing, and every year I forget. I just got back from a holiday, so we might as well...

what I read on my holiday
top: early 2025
bottom: end of 2024

Since 2024, I've been doing a thread of books I read. This lets me track what I'm reading, chew through the mountains of unread things in my house, and also provide Content for the Content Lords. Hilariously, I got permanently suspended late last year for joking with a friend of mine, so I haven't finished 2024's thread. It also means I can't do my end-of-year look-at-what-I-read... so let's do that here.

2024: Part One

2024: Part Two

2024: Part Three

2024 was a rocky year, for a lot of reasons. It was also a great year, for a lot of reasons (my son was born in April!). One of the impacts of this year being weird was that I didn't finish a book (Alien Stars) until April, and overall only chewed through 35 over the course of the year. By way of contrast, 2021 was 34, 2022 was 57, and 2023 was 60 books. 

I'm now actually using my Goodreads account, so I've shifted to tracking over there. I'll aim at a modest 40 books for 2025.

Rules

Only physical books count - the rare audiobook or ebook do not - and neither do graphic novels, nor any re-reads. A 'book' is defined as the thing between two covers - so an omnibus of three novels and two short stories still only counts as one book.

I also have a fun way to try to ensure I read more broadly. No more than 1-in-5 books can be a franchise tie-in novel (e.g. Warhammer 40,000 or Dragonlance). At least 1-in-5 books must be authored, co-authored or edited (for anthologies) by a woman. At least 1-in-5 books must be in translation. 

This results in a cycle of Woman-Translation-Franchise-Free Square-Free Square. Sticking to rules is boring, so it's not necessarily fixed like that, as you can see from the stacks above.

2024 Results

So how did we do in 2024?

Total: 35 books (down from 60 in 2023)

Women: 13 books - 37% (up from 28% in 2023)

In-Translation: 7 books - 20% (parity with 2023)

Tie-in: 7 books - 20% (parity with 2023)

Works in translation: 1 Akkadian; 1 Russian; 1 French; 1 Korean; 1 Icelandic; 2 Japanese.

I also finished the Gaunt's Ghosts series, more-or-less. Waiting on a paperback re-release (hopefully) of The Vincula Insurgency, and of course Interceptor City. The final couple of these feel a bit rushed and less than enthusiastic, to be honest, but Abnett's technical skills continue to improve. Plus, more women - and the + + + REDACTED DUE TO INQUISITORIAL ORDER + + + was really well executed.

Way more importantly, I've now finally actually read a translation of Gilgamesh rather than just kind of picking up bits of it via osmosis. Can't believe it took me this long, honestly. Same with War of the Worlds - incidentally, the New York Review of Books edition with the Gorey illustrations is definitely the way to go.

And, of course, I'm still working my way through CJ Cherryh's entire bibliography, having finally started in on the Alliance-Union books. While technically some of her other works (notably the Chanur series) are in that universe, I'm finally tackling the main thread. They're good, of course, but I think I prefer when she's experimenting with more alien psychologies and cultures.

Coming up next: A miniatures year-in-review post. Considering that you guys read this blog for miniature content, that might actually be more your jam.