Reading planning 2024
2 min readDec 27, 2023
Going through what I read in 2023, and reflecting what to read in 2024. Ratings are from Goodreads (December 2023), not my opinion of the book.
What were the best books in 2023
Fiction
- All The Broken Places, John Boyne: 4.5
- Shōgun, James Clavell: 4.4
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus: 4.31
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr: 4.26
- Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano: 4.2
- Beartown, Fredrik Backman: 4.29
Non-fiction
- This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, Nicole Perlroth: 4.34
- Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake: 4.36
Planning 2024
For 2024, I have highlighted aspects that might affect the rating/expectation of the book: the book is in a series, sci-fi/fantasy, historical fiction, or that the book is considered a classic. I’ve kept Goodreads rating and number of pages to help me prioritize. (I don't know in which order I will read these books, or if I will read them at all.)
Non-fiction
- Immune, Philipp Dettmer (341 p) ✅
- The Secret Lives of Bats, Merlin Tuttle (288 p) ✅
- The Anarchy, William Dalrymple (544 p) ✅
- Why Fish Don’t Exist, Lulu Miller (225 p)
Fiction, in Goodreads review order
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver: 4.52, 560 pages. American female author. (“Historical fiction”) ✅
- The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese: 4.50, 724 pages. Indian-American male author. (“Historical fiction”)
- Zuleikha, Guzel Yakhina: 4.40, 448 pages. Russian female author. (“Historical fiction”) ✅
- Us Against You, Fredrik Backman: 4.36, 448 pages. Swedish male author. (Book 2 in a series) ✅
- Go as a River, Shelley Read: 4.32, 320 pages. American female author. (“Historical fiction”) ✅
- Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells: 4.32, 168 pages. American female author. (Sci-fi, Book 6 in a series)
- Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese: 4.31, 560 pages. Indian-Ethopian-American male author. (“Historical fiction”) ✅
- World Without End, Ken Follett: 4.30, 1237 pages (!). British male author. (“Historical fiction”, Book 2 in a series)
- Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky: 4.30, 608 pages. American male author. (Sci-fi) ✅
- Solenoid, Mircea Cărtărescu: 4.29, 840 pages. Romanian male author.
- Cousin, Aurora Venturini: 4.16, 208 pages. Argentinan female author. 🛑
- Inside Out & Back Again, Thanhhà Lại: 4.12, 262 pages. Vietnamese-American female author. (“Historical fiction”) ✅
- Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy: 4.11, 258 pages. Australian female author. ✅
- The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates: 4.07, 416 pages. African-American male author. (“Historical fiction”)
- Bewilderment, Richard Powers: 3.93, 278 pages. American male author. ✅
- Starling House, Alix E. Harrow: 3.89, 308 pages. American female author. ✅
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi: 3.71, 213 pages. Japanese male author.
