TheAccidental 鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

Go to previous year

2024

11,315

pages read

books read

TheAccidental Reader

Shortest Book

pages

Longest Book

pages

Average book length in 2024

275

pages

Most Shelved

6,394,792

people also shelved

The Secret Life of Clams by Anthony D. Fredericks

Least Shelved

254

people also shelved

TheAccidental 鈥檚 average rating for 2024

4.0

really liked it

4.0

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.34 average

TheAccidental 鈥檚 first review of the year

it was amazing

I am still thinking about this weeks later. And I teaching my four year old grandson the importance of taking just one more step. Maybe someday this will save him.

THEACCIDENTAL 鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

So Long, Chester Wheeler by Catherine Ryan Hyde

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

it was amazing

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

it was amazing

All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

it was amazing

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan

it was amazing

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

TheAccidental 鈥檚 last review of the year

it was amazing

This year I took a break from theme reading. Prior year I had shelved many books about Latin America or by authors hailing from the region. Throughout 2023, I went on to read many of them! Somehow I had gotten through my entire schooling experience learning little more than the names and the capitals of the countries of South America, and the fact that the Pampas is in Argentina and beef is grown there.

Now I know a lot more.

As for this year, wh This year I took a break from theme reading. Prior year I had shelved many books about Latin America or by authors hailing from the region. Throughout 2023, I went on to read many of them! Somehow I had gotten through my entire schooling experience learning little more than the names and the capitals of the countries of South America, and the fact that the Pampas is in Argentina and beef is grown there.

Now I know a lot more.

As for this year, while I did not pursue a theme, I did happen upon the GBOAT list in The Economist and I realized I needed to read some more of the Greatest Books of All Time. Simultaneously, I noticed that my 欧宝娱乐 scatter chart (Reading Stats/Publication Year) was largely devoid of dots in certain historical reaches of time. Therefore, I sorted for Era and Length of Book on the GBOAT list, and attacked a number of very short very old books. So now I have dots on my chart for Pilgrim's Progress, The Prince, Prometheus Bound and Beowolf, among others. I also finally got around to reading Animal Farm.

These are all in addition to whatever books my bookclub chose. As is probably true for many bookclubs, my club tends to center on whatever is hot lately in book review news, which means in the end most of these reads have zero enduring worth. If you are not sure about that, think about the books your bookclub read in the nineties and check how many people are still talking about those.

An exception was Demon Copperhead. Masterfully mimicing David Copperfield, this book shows us the unfortunate truth that the poverty of the Victorian era never disappeared. It just looks different now. My other MUST READ is Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics and What Remains. Thank you to my 欧宝娱乐 friend who happened to read that one and review it. I saw her notes float up through my home page and I had to read it immediately. After fitting Still Life in during the final days of the year, I have now read between 14 and 64 books for my Latin America theme.

Moreover, I have already chosen books for my 2025 theme and have read a bunch of those early! Gift of Fear is well worth your consideration and has changed how I approach life. My theme: Scammers and Sociopaths. I need to know what makes these people able to perpetrate. I might just add Still Life with Bones to my Scammers and Sociopaths shelf, because it takes one with a super twisted up mind to encourage and to engage in that kind of behavior.

But next up, a bit of a lighter venture into sociopathy---I am about to begin All That Glitters, which is about scamming in the art world. ...more

What did you read this year?