Avatar photo

52 books a year in 2024

This year I set myself the 52 Books a Year challenge: reading a different book every week. I actually read many more than that, but each week had an “official” book which I’ve listed below.

The books I read ranged from classic literature to contemporary romance, from children’s stories to non-fiction. I finally found a book about quantum mechanics that I could understand! J B Priestley’s Lost Empires is probably my Book of the Year, a haunting, nostalgic, moving tribute to a lost era of theatre. It has made me plan to re-read his equally amazing The Good Companions in 2025.

I chose the books in random and often serendipitous ways. Some were old favourites that I wanted to re-read. Others were recommended to me, or were books I’d always meant to read, or were ones I stumbled across in Street Libraries or book stores.

It’s hard to pick a “best” book since they’re all so different, but here are some of my award winners:

I highly recommend trying the 52 books a year reading challenge – or if that’s too much, try a book a fortnight or even a month. You can give yourself a break in busy weeks by choosing a shorter novel, such as a children’s book. The point is to enjoy yourself, and discover and re-discover wonderful reading material.

Books read in 2024

  1. Then She Fled Me by Sara Seale
  2. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
  3. SPQR by Mary Beard
  4. The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon, 1909-1990s by Jay Dixon
  5. Mike & Psmith by PG Wodehouse
  6. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
  7. The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks
  8. A Visit to Highbury by Joan Austen-Leigh
  9. De Rerum Natura by Lucretius
  10. Ward to Andrew by Constance M. Evans
  11. Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James
  12. The Career of Katherine Bush by Elinor Glyn
  13. Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
  14. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
  15. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
  16. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
  17. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  18. Lost Empires by J B Priestley
  19. Life Skills by Katie Fforde
  20. Love on a Branch Line by John Hadfield
  21. Star over Bethlehem by Agatha Christie
  22. Stuck Up & Stupid by Kate Rice and Angourie Rice
  23. The Clocks by Agatha Christie
  24. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
  25. The Black Opal by Victoria Holt
  26. Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson
  27. The Jeeves Omnibus Volume 1 by PG Wodehouse
  28. Ladybird book of Quantum Mechanics by Jim Al-Khalili
  29. The Chewing Gum Rescue and Other Stories by Margaret Mahy
  30. Rivals by Jilly Cooper
  31. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
  32. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
  33. Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh
  34. Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux
  35. Fairy Tales by Alison Uttley
  36. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  37. Rumpole à la Carte by John Mortimer
  38. Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness by Mark Aldridge
  39. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
  40. The Mystery That Never Was by Enid Blyton
  41. Victorian Ghost Stories by Sheridan Le Fanu and other authors
  42. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
  43. The Green Man by Kingsley Amis
  44. Carbonel: The King of the Cats by Barbara Sleigh
  45. Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer
  46. The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures by Sarah Clegg
  47. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith
  48. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
  49. Tied up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh
  50. An English Murder by Cyril Hare
  51. Janice Gentle Gets Sexy by Mavis Cheek
  52. The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.