𧡠A thread for some random data about my reading year in 2024.
(1/9)
[#]YearlyBookWrapup
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π According to Goodreads I read 101 books in 2024. I'm not sure of the exact number. When I read a book in two languages, I only add one. I also tend to add manga/comic series in the biggest omnibus editions possible as to not clutter my account too much. But who really cares? As long as I read 52 books or more in a year, I feel like I dedicated enough time to my reading.
2023 was one of the best reading years of my life. Lots of books from then are still with me. Compared to that, 2024 feels a little less impactful. But it's an unfair comparison. If I look at 2024 on its own, I've read plenty of books that I enjoyed and/or that have changed me.
In the image you can see the amount of books per star category. I find reviews easier than stars, but generally I rate like:
5 star: love love love, significantly changed me or my world view, reread possibilities
4 star: very good, would recommend generally
3 star: fun/interesting enough, but I would only recommend it to people with a specific interest in that type of book
2 star: meh, wouldn't recommend
1 star: hate it, fuck off
0 star: I don't know how to rate this leave me alone / I don't feel like adding it to the scale
(2/9)
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π This is my first year writing a little bit about every book I read. I was convinced I'd stop a few weeks or months into the year, but I actually did it and here we are. I discussed every text on this Masto account. I only deleted one post recently, because I did a deep dive into the author and got concerned about his conduct with his readers. I didn't want to send anyone his way and accidentally cause tragedy. I contemplated adding a disclaimer, but in the end I decided to just delete the post and not have anything there at all.
I'm still not sure what I can call my little writings here. Reviews, recaps, thoughts, some rants? It comes more naturally than I'd expected and I enjoy being able to look back at what a book made me feel. I also like that I've found other interesting readers and books through this account. Love the comments and recommendations especially.
Onto another year, let's see if I keep it up. Also, sorry if my ramblings become a little more unhinged with every post. I've noticed the trend. I'm kind of done with the world and tired of trying to appear normal (whatever that means), and I don't really mind.
(3/9)
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π Regarding tracking
I track my reading through Goodreads. I've done so since 2010 and I love having all that data at my fingertips. I love reading reviews, following a feed, reading comments, seeing the covers/editions, etc.
It saddens me that GR is in Amazon's hands. I've tried alternatives, but have not found anything else that comes close for me. I've tried Storygraph but finally gave up this year. I dislike the bad recommendations, the billions of questions to fill out to feed to the recommendation algorithm, the major lack of foreign language books, the absence of social aspects, the AI implementations... I also had no luck with Bookwyrm. Other options are often apps/mobile only, but I mostly work on desktop in a browser. I also dislike the visual alternatives that are mostly about taking pictures of books, hauls, owning. I read >95% on an ereader and don't really want to focus too much on consumption. I could use LibreOffice Calc (/excel), but got really annoyed by it in years I've done so. It quickly becomes a frustrating chore.
So, I've decided to keep using GR. I use an ad blocker there. I've not uploaded any reviews in years and comments for my old reviews are turned off. My profile is also private on friends-only setting. It feels a bit hypocritical since I enjoy what others add and publish to the site so much. But I also don't want to give Amazon too much support or content. Mixed feelings.
If you track your read books, what do you use?
(4/9)
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β DNFs
I stopped reading (dnf-ed, or 'did not finish') quite some books this year. I discussed every book I finished one here, but these dumped ones remained unmentioned -until now. If you don't want to read some quite rude, salty takes, stop here!
Below I've made separate posts for the fiction and non-fiction books I've given up on with my reasons. I refuse to return to those books. You can try to convince me, but it'll be difficult!
(5/9)
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π Non-Fiction books I've given up on this year:
"Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl" by Markiyan Kamysh
I should have believed the title. The author really is depraved. I could hardly stomach all the 'look at me being a bad boy' attitude nonsense, but I hated the way he talked about women too much and eventually gave up.
"I Choose Elena" by Lucia Osborne-Crowley
I think the book is okay and I wish the author all the best. It was just too triggering for me. Almost all my life I have not been taken seriously medically. Every symptom was pushed into the 'hysterical woman with traumas' category. In this book it's discussed that the link between trauma and chronic illness isn't emphasized enough, but in my experience, it's all that is emphasized and it's too much. I think this just pushed too many buttons of my medical trauma.
"The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight" by Andrew Leland
Literally dropped it after reading the introduction because I was so annoyed about the way he spoke about the pandemic ('it's endemic now blabla') and because he sounded generally insensitive about ableist topics. I lost all will to explore the rest of the book.
"A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story" by Nathan Thrall
This book is good, but I gave up I think 1/3 through. I've been reading a lot of books about/from Palestine in the last few years. Sometimes it becomes it a bit much to bear. For a difficult subject, I want the reading experience to be as tolerable as possible. The structure of this book is kind of hard (it's not one day, it's a full life history). I don't really like it when a person is talked about, instead of a person telling their story themselves. I was postponing this constantly, until I ultimately gave up. This might be right for you in you want to read something related to Palestine, but you're more of a fiction reader (it's non-fiction but reads very much like a family drama or historical fiction).
"Exotic Vetting" by Romain Pizzi
This was too much all over the place for me. Not really coherent, more stream of consciousness with animal facts about different animals in every sentence. Could've used more editing or structure.
(6/9)
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π Fiction books I've given up on this year:
"The Country Will Bring Us No Peace" by Matthieu Simard
This is why I'm often hesitant to pick up fiction by male authors. The way the women behave and are described in here makes my skin crawl. I gave up not even a quarter through.
"The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
I really don't get the hype. It's extremely boring and not fun at all to read for an adult audience imo.
"Shelter" by Jung Yun
To me, this is torture porn, shock for shock, misery for misery. I gave up halfway, because the graphic violence and sexual assault that was described made me feel horrible, and the circumstances only become worse and worse. I read a spoiler review about what happens in the second half and was so glad I had given up.
"Self-Portrait with Nothing" by Aimee Pokwatka
This is how it reads:
Character dropped a glass. She thought about if there was another universe in which the glass had not fallen. Glasses actually have several names, from different origins, how come? I wonder, character said, if there is another me somewhere else that didn't drop glasses. Another me, who created glasses, maybe a me who loved glasses. She went to bed and dreamt of her million selves and the millions of glasses, all different. Every time a glass fell, a world of opportunities opened up. Broken glass, glass half full, glass half empty, maybe even no glass at all. Character woke up and picked up a glass, while somewhere else the glass still stood on the bedside table.
We get it! It's about multiverses and parallel timelines! 33% through I couldn't stand it anymore! Let me out of the timeline in which I'm reading this book! I don't care anymore!
"Razorblade Tears" by S.A. Cosby
The way this is filled with stereotypes, performative lectures and needless violence -I thought it was satire at first. But turns out it wasn't?! I couldn't stand the writing style either. I have no need to read about chests that were 'as tight as virgin pussy' and the likes. Sorry, I'm good.
"Hell Hound" by Ken Greenhall
A little funny at first, but then became more and more extremely strangely sexual in a horror-for-the-male-gaze kind of way. Yeah, no thanks.
"Yokohama Station SF" by Yuba Isukari
I don't really have a specific problem with this one. It sounds fascinating, I tried a few times, I just couldn't get into it.
"The Fisherman" by John Langan
I don't know either why I thought a book about some men fishing would keep my attention. It didn't.
"The Centre" by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
The best premise. The worst execution. Really, really bad. Go directly to jail, do not pass GO, do not collect.
"Counterweight" by Djuna
The background of the story is fascinating: an island group bought by a conglomerate, now ruling there instead of a government, purely for their own gains in the space industry. The story however is tragically boring and meh. Also everything is men men men men men and one women described as lusted by all. Sigh. I saw Anton Hur had translated this, and I think he took inspiration from the interesting parts of it for his own book, which was fun to see. But about halfway through I gave up.
(7/9)
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ποΈ Next year
Having strict goals with clear numbers stresses me out, so I don't want to have any specific reading goals for next year. Should I call them vague aims of no consequence?
(8/9)
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π I hope you all had a great reading year and that 2025 will be good for you too. π
If you have any reading/book wrap-ups or goals, let me know or link them to me, I'd love to take a look.
(9/9)
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@reading_recluse This is such a wonderful thread π₯Ή
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@mollymay5000 Thank you! It's always good to see you in my feed or my notification tab. πΌ
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@reading_recluse Ooh, nice to see this thread. I've been meaning to do a book wrap-up, too.
Like you, I still use GR, even though I cringe a little to say it. I feel like I need to find another option partly because I am very attached to my reading history there and am afraid that it will one day be retired.
I also DNF many books -- I prefer to spend my time with books that I can really get into.
I enjoy your review posts, so I'm looking forward to more in 2025!
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@Furthering Thank you!
I'd enjoy seeing a wrap-up from you.
And same about GR. Every few months I download my data through their export function, afraid that one day my history there (or the site itself) will be gone. I wish there was a global book database any website could use, then we'd have dozens of alternatives already.
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@reading_recluse You are more proactive than I am! I should do this. I have several years' worth of reading there, and I use it heavily as a personal resource when someone asks me if I've read a book and what I think about it.
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@reading_recluse What a great review of the year - love it!
I'm just starting to learn Dutch and already read some books: a childrens book "Pjotr" by Jan Terlouw as well as two crime novels ["Reders & Reders"] written by Terlouw and his daughter.
They were ok and I was mainly focused on understanding it - but now I'd love to get to read some really good books im Dutch, too ...
Any recommendations for Dutch books in a rather simple language? I love solarpunky stuff but read a bit of everything.
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@reading_recluse and some recommendation (english) in return:
The first two are great solarpunk fiction, the third is a mix between some sort of "Nature Notes", historical backgrounds on the enclosures and a manifesto for the #RightToRoam
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@puntarella Thanks for the recommendations! I'm not really a fan of Becky Chambers (I'm too much of a literary conflict goblin to appreciate the cozier books in life), but the other two look very interesting. π
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@puntarella Thanks!
Finding Dutch books is quite hard, no? To be honest, when I looked into climate fiction/ solarpunk stuff in Dutch, all I found was translated works from other languages into Dutch. But they could be good for reading Dutch/English side by side?
Originally in Dutch, I think youth or YA authors are quite easy to understand or to begin with. I saw that Jan Terlouw has two older books about climate and ways people could be acting better (Vloed and Oosterschelde), maybe those will interest you?
Thea Beckman and Carry Slee are classics for Dutch millennial teens, but they're all quite tragic stories. Guus Kuijer writes middle grade and YA stories that are a little more upbeat (I loved his 'madelief' books growing up). I'm not really familiar with the authors that have become more popular for the youth since I've grown up.
I really like Esther Gerritsen, her books are short, simple but also very... tragic. Jente Posthuma is quite popular now, but it's tragic too. Lize Spit is popular in Belgium, but her books are... a little sad and messed up. I'm seeing a trend here! π
If you can navigate Dutch enough, I think an interesting thing to do would be to go to an online catalogue of a Dutch or Flemish library and to browse in certain topics.
Sorry I can't be of more help, I'm not really familiar with what books would be good for anyone studying Dutch as a an additional language! But I wish you all the best in learning! And feel free to post Dutch comments anywhere on my page anytime if you'd like to practice. βΊοΈ
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@reading_recluse Dankjewel, that's already quite something to have look into.
Luckily it seems to be pretty easy to learn Dutch with (Swiss) German as a mothers tongue and enough English to "fill up the gaps" where German doesn't help π
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@puntarella Geen dank! π
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@reading_recluse This may sound a bit silly, but I always feel guilty when I don't finish a book. Now that I've seen your list of unfinished books and the reasons why you stopped, I'm wondering why I didn't stop earlier with some of "my" books:) It just keeps me from reading other interesting books.
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@RonjaBiernat Sometimes it pays off to be patient and to give a book plenty of time to grab you. But sometimes... you just know it's going to be a miss. Time on earth is too short, haha.
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