Happy new year, everyone. As has become an annual tradition for so many of us in the book blogging world, let’s take a look back at 2024 in reading stats! (Hopefully you’ve already spotted my favourite reads of the year.) As ever, I’ll be comparing to my previous year’s stats post – 2023 stats are here.
Number of books read
I read 189 books last year, which is nine up on 2023. Not a massive increase, and 12 fewer than 2022, but it helped that my eyes weren’t too bad throughout the year. I think my days of reading voraciously without thinking about my eyes are over, but an army of eyedrops are making things very doable.
Number of audiobooks
Somehow this continues to increase – I think probably due to Spotify offering their 15 hours of audiobooks per month, which started towards the end of 2023. I listened to 71 audiobooks (compared to 67 in 2023) – meaning I read 118 print books (compared to 113 in 2023).
Male/female writers
It wasn’t until a while after I finished my top 10 list that I realised they were all written by women. And, as ever, women dominated my reading: 118 books by women, 65 by men, and 6 by men and women together or authors whose gender I didn’t know. Having said all that, my 64% female reading is the lowest for a long time – down from 69% last year.
Fiction/non-fiction
I read 138 works of fiction and 51 works of non-fiction. It’s a slightly lower ratio of non-fiction, but it seems to usually hover around the 25% mark. After one year of anomaly in 2023, I’m back to my inadvertent trick of reading more non-fiction by men than by women (though only 26 vs 24, and one by a man and a woman).
Books in translation
Matching the total of 2023, with 10 books in translation. They were from Japanese x2, Italian x2, Spanish x2, French x2, Czech and Swedish.
Re-reads
I think this is my biggest year for re-reads ever, at 18 titles (it was 14 in 2023). That includes three books – Passing by Nella Larsen, Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts, and The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning – that I read twice in 2024.
New-to-me authors
I was pleased to see that eight of my top 10 books were by new-to-me authors, but did that represent a trend for the year? Well, 78 of the 189 books were new authors to me, making it 41% – last year it was 38%, so it’s a small increase.
Most disapppointing book
As ever, it’s the books you have the highest hopes for that end up being the most disappointing. I was sad that Mollie Panter-Downes’ At The Pines wasn’t more interesting, and was surprised by how bad I found George Orwell’s A Clergyman’s Daughter, given his usual reliability. Perhaps the most disappointing, given how long it had been on my shelf and how much I expected to love it, was the dull Spinster by Sylvia Ashton-Warner.
Most surprisingly good book
After having a range of responses to Margaret Kennedy’s novels, from DNF to liking, I was surprised by how much I loved The Oracles. And, for book club, I didn’t expect to find Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang such a fun, thought-provoking page-turner.
Short stories
It feels like a year where I read a lot of short story collections… but, looking back, it was only seven. Isn’t it funny how something can feel like a theme of the year, until you look back. Still, more than usual!
Seeing myself in books
I very seldom read to see myself reflected – much more likely to empathise with a 1930s housewife than with someone like me. But a handful of non-fiction books this year really spoke to my heart – particularly Caroline Crampton’s A Body Made of Glass about health anxiety and How To Be Multiple by Helene de Bres about the philosophy of identical twins.
Authors who died this year
Two authors I love died this year – I read a couple of Lynne Reid Banks’ books after she died, partly in tribute, but when I read Trespasses by Paul Bailey I marvelled that he was still with us – until that was sadly not the case a few months later.
Book by 2024’s Booker winner (but not that book)
After Samantha Harvey’s book appeared on A Good Read, I hastened to the audiobook and found it fascinating – but this was before she won the Booker, and it wasn’t Orbital – it was The Shapeless Unease, her non-fiction work about insomnia.
Animals in book titles
Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce, The Grasshoppers Come by David Garnett, The XYZ of Cats by Beverley Nichols – and that was it this year. What to make of the drop from 14 to 3? Probably… nothing much.
Shortest Title
A re-read of Day by Michael Cunningham, with Back by Henry Green and 2084 by John Lennox close behind.
Persephones
I always intend to read a lot of them, and I always seem to fail – just two this year, A Woman’s Place by Ruth Adam and a re-read of They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple. Well, I suppose Diary of a Provincial Lady is also a Persephone, but I didn’t read the Persephone edition.
Strange things that happened in books this year
A man meets his dead parents, a woman’s doppelganger commits murder, a woman’s doppelganger gets radicalised, two men claim to be Lord Lucan, a duchess disappears, a baron lives entirely in the trees, a couple tell devastating truths in a power cut, a woman follows her shape-shifting lover around the world through clues in periodicals, a violent dystopia takes over Britain, dead people dance on a Scottish island, people believe they are made of glass, a mirror is a portal to the past, a woman on a psychiatric ward travels to the distant future, and a girl cannot leave a Norwich theatre without dying.
Spinster was one of my most disappointing reads of the year too – even though it was short I still ended up scanning it. Still, poor reads were few and far between in 2024 thankfully!
Yes, I was skimming the second half! What a shame. Why is it a cult classic?!
Pleased as always to see what you have been reading … have purchased, not yet read two Norah Lofts novels … might I suggest when you are looking at Persephone books you consider An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941 – 43. She writes with good cheer which seems mad considering her circumstances … it affected me more than any other book I have read. It made up stand up & stomp around the room a few times …
Oh thanks, that’s one I haven’t read, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got it.
Your strange things list makes your reading seem much darker than it actually is! Love it.
Ha, true! ‘People potter about’ probably covers most of the books I read.
Re your sore eyes, I find that older books i.e. those not on acid-free paper make my eyes very sore & uncomfortable to the point where I’ve had to give my Virago collection to charity. Sob…
I’m fairly new to your blog & don’t know anything about your history of eye troubles so please forgive me if my attempt to be helpful is unnecessary:)
Oh what a shame, Helen! My issues are a strange post-covid thing, and largely seem to flare up independent of environment, but always good to have tips to try.
Such a conversational conclusion to the year in stat’s: I loved reading it. I hope 2025 is just as good, if not better, and that your eyesight difficulties ease/abate.
thank you so much!
I open your emails more often than anyone else’s I subscribe to, and look forward to every episode of “Tea and Books.” I often pause the podcast to look up books and create a list from each episode. Most of my “to-read” shelf now consists of recommendations from “Tea and Books.” How wonderful this is! I was in despair of finding new authors, and now I feel rich. You and Rachel have the sensibility I need, and I’m so grateful.
Currently, I’m reading Elizabeth Bowen’s “To the North.” According to my calculations, you’re reading about half a book a day!
Funny, I never count nonfiction as books read, even though I read lots in that direction. I also find the Male/Female, Non-Fiction/Fiction split interesting. Thank you again for throwing my reading life a life line.
That is such a lovely comment to receive, Sidonie, thank you! So glad you’re enjoying Tea or Books and I hope it’s led to many wonderful reads.
What a good post! I wouldn’t say reading 3 from Persephone is a “fail”–far from it. Those are books for a special time in our reading lives. Plus, when you read and review one you really do bring new people to the publisher. That’s super work! Thanks for the tip on Spotify–I almost forget about it. Just as it takes some people a long time to come to enjoy audio books, it is the same for me with podcasts–I like seeing so videos help.
Thank you! Yes, so pleased re Spotify – and it has practically everything, with only a small number ‘locked’ for purchase, so it’s how I tend to read new non-fiction that interests me.
Interesting stats, Simon, and good number of books read. Interesting also about the audio books – not a format I’ve ever really warmed to!
It’s definitely helped my reading total explode in recent years! I’m usually alone in the car, so that’s when I do audio.
I’m also thankful for audiobooks, which I get electronically from my library. About 44% of my books read for 2025 were audiobooks. I can only read a physical book for so many hours a day and audiobooks really contribute to my reading enjoyment.
I’m always eager to see what you’ve been reading and am a devoted fan of Tea or Books. Happy reading in 2025!
thank you, Grier! Happy new year
I’ve been reading your blog and listening to Tea or Books for about two years, but this is the first time I’ve commented! Does “dead people dance on a Scottish island” referring to Inn at the Edge of World? If so, I missed that. I just read that one and really loved it. Thanks for sharing your reading life with us. Some of the best books I read this year (Diary of a Provincial Lady and Guard Your Daughters!) came from your past recommendations.
Thanks so much for your comment, Dominika! Yes, that was the book I was thinking of – it’s a very brief scene towards the end, and maybe slightly left open to interpretation.
Oh ha! I meant I missed that you had read it this year. But I am still thinking about what that scene means. Looking forward to hearing about what books you read in the new year!
Oh I seee! Yes, it was my final book review of the year, so if you scroll back a few posts, you’ll find my thoughts! I loved it.
What a terrific roundup and good to look back at what we read about your reading this year. I pick out Ruth Adam for special mention, discovered about ten years ago and reread and recommended to everyone! A concise and so readable summary of women’s place in recent years. You’ve encouraged me to analyse my own reading in the 56 books I’ve read this year. Happy New Year to you and Rachel.
Thanks Rose! Yes, the Ruth Adam was very nearly on my best books list – simply wonderful.