2024 in Books

New Year's Eve Eve and I have accepted that I will not be finishing any more books in the next twenty-five hours. It is what it is, so here we go with the statistics.

2024 Reading Stats

• Books read: 81, of which 4 were a reread
• By gender: 36 (44%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
• By race: 36 (44%) by people of color
• By language: 11 (14%) in Japanese, 11 (14%) in translation
• New books: 21 (26%) published in 2024
• New-to-me authors: 18

...versus 2024 Resolutions

• Read 125 books ==> Fail
• Read 25 physical books owned since 2022 or earlier ==> 14. Not bad!
• Read 35 books by authors of color ==> Success!
• Read 10 books in translation ==> Success!
• Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese ==> Fail. But not all the books I read in Japanese were manga.
• Read all the comics bought before 2024, both physical and digital ==> Fail, but a worthy goal.

General Comments

This year was eaten by being on final book deadline, twice. I was working a day job and a side hustle as well as working on the book, so I essentially had three jobs, and I basically did almost nothing outside those jobs in May, June, July, and November. The result was that this was the fewest books I've read since 2014, the year of my qualifying exams. Good news: the book is finished! I will have copy edits and page proofs next year before actual publication in the fall, but nothing like what I had to do this year. I'm looking forward to refilling the creative well with more books, and TV, and games. And also to reading sources for my next book.

Best of 2024

• John Wyndham, Trouble with Lichen
• Jared Pechaček, The West Passage
• Sarah Rees Brennan, Long Live Evil
• Jeff VanderMeer, Absolution
• Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup
• Nghi Vo, The City in Glass
• Ikeda Riyoko, The Rose of Versailles
• Hagio Moto, Poe no ichizoku (1970s series)

2025 Reading Resolutions

1. Read 125 books
2. Read 25 physical books owned since 2023 or earlier
3. Read 35 books by authors of color
4. Read 10 books in translation
5. Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese
6. Read all the comics bought before 2024, both physical and digital