I fell far short of my reading goal in 2024. I blame Jon Fosse, the 2023 Norwegian Nobel prizewinner. (It’s better my other options: blaming myself or my 103 year old mother.)
My standing goal, which I’ve had and achieved several years in a row, is to read 50 books through in the year. Last year I only managed 33. There were two reading droughts in 2024, one in the spring and the other in the autumn, and those 33 books I did read, I took a very long time over.
Too Long, Didn’t Read?
To jump straight to my list of all the books, click here.
Reading slow and slower
In some cases (as with the poetry) that was deliberate. When reading a book of poetry, I slow my reading speed and I re-read much more often, not because I’m distracted and lose my place, but because I want to open myself up to the poems as much as I can. But it does mean a slim volume of poetry can take me as much time to read as a much thicker novel.
But the other reason for reading slowly is a throwback to my Black Dog days. When I was at my lowest, I couldn’t read fiction or poetry because I kept forgetting where I was, who was who, and why I was supposed to be concerned for them. This 50 book resolution was originally my way to get myself back into a reading state of mind. But sometimes it slips. Usually that’s because something is troubling me and absorbing my attention. Last year there were rather too many things that did that.
Some were good, as when I dedicated time to putting together and self-publishing my magazine For Your Consideration. Others took time and emotional strain, as living with my mother in February while her house was being repaired. And then there were the times when I was ill. When I lost my voice. The Covid-adjacent flu I struggled with in September.
Jon Fosse’s fault
So, to be fair, it wasn’t all Jon Fosse’s fault. But one of the things that threw me off was trying to read him. I have read one or more books by most of the recent Nobel Literary laureates in last few years, and I thought I could give Jon Fosse a go. Not in his original Norwegian – the dialect he writes in is beyond me – but I thought, why not read him in Swedish translation?
It started well enough. I read the three short novels that make up his Trilogy: Sömnlös, Olavs dröm and Kvällning. (Those are the Swedish titles. In English they are Wakefulness, Olav’s Dreams and Weariness.) Then I tried to read Prosa 1 which collects several of his earlier, shorter writing. In particular the novella Och sen kan hunden kommer (And then the dog can come). Apparently this won him an award. It may be fantastic in Norwegian, but my Swedish isn’t up to reading Ragnar Strömberg’s translation. I found the story dull, repetitive and deadly boring. Such a disappointment. I’d quite enjoyed Trilogin and that lulled me into a belief that I could read Fosse. I really can’t. I gave up about a third of the way through.
After that Prose 1 sat on my bedside table for the rest of the year, a mute reminder of my failure. I kept it there because I thought I might read more as a night cap. To help me get off to sleep. But I didn’t pick it up again till just now. (And had to wipe the dust off.)
My autumn lapse
Unfortunately, the next two books I tried to read after Fosse were equally difficult, each in their own way, and I gave up on both. (One was a book of essays, the other was poetry – I’m not going to tell you the authors.) After that I stopped reading – at least I stopped reading literature – for a block of time.
That reading lapse probably wouldn’t have mattered. I might have made up lost ground, if it wasn’t for falling ill in September and October. I was sick; I got a bit better and we went on holiday; I fell sick again when we returned. Then, as I recovered, I dropped into my annual November low. I pulled out of it, but again my reading suffered.
Best reads of the year
And here we are – my annual reading round-up. What did I actually read that I enjoyed most? The seven books of poetry I bought at the start of the year. See my post How can you read poetry. The six crime/detective stories that carried me, repeatedly, over the threshold and back into reading. Especially perhaps CJ Sanson’s Dissolution.
Elliot Page’s memoir/biography Pageboy (clever title), the story of how he struggled to assert his male identity against the current in the world of acting. Though I found the ‘Hollywood’ sections least interesting. Coming out as first Lesbian then Trans in Nova Scotia were the most interesting parts, I think because the author puts more effort into them. (Reading it, those lines from The Who’s song kept going through my head: I’m a boy, I’m a boy but my Ma won’t admit it.)
In February I enjoyed re-reading Stella Gibbon’s Cold Comfort Farm (rescued from the wreck of my mother’s library). And in December I re-read Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites and laughed again.
But my top book of the year has to be my only writing craft read in 2024: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. A brilliant exposition of the craft of writing by reference to the short stories of four 19th century Russian novelists. That will be a re-read this coming year, I think, as I work through some of Saunders’ exercises.
My future plans? Well, I’m aiming for 50 titles read by the end of 2025. Check back in about a year and see how that worked out!

All the books I read in 2024
As usual, titles connect to the book’s page on GoodReads where it exists. Author links go in the first instance to the author’s (and translator’s) professional website in English, in the second instance to their Wikipedia entry. In the third instance to anywhere remotely relevant I’m able to point you!
- The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
- The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves
- Bourneville by Jonathan Coe
- The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
- The Wren, The Wren by Ann Enright
- A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux (trans Tanya Leslie – who doesn’t appear to have an Internet presence)
- The Dog of Memory by Helen Farrish (poetry)
- Sömnlös, Olavs dröm, Kvällning (Trilogin) by Jon Fosse (trans Urban Andersson) — Jon Fosse on the Nobel Organisation’s website.
- The Fates by Rosie Garland
- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
- Pestön by Marie Hermansson
- Ensamstående äldre herre by Nils Hövenmark (Swedish language Wikipedia entry)
- Alternative Values by Frieda Hughes (poetry and art)
- From Our Own Fire by William Letford (poetry)
- The Wrong Person to Ask by Marjorie Lotfi (poetry)
- Patterflash by Adam Lowe (poetry)
- Pageboy by Elliot Page
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- Changeling by Clare Pollard (poetry)
- Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
- The Beat Goes On & The Complaints by Ian Rankin
- From Pain to Freedom by Martin Richards (private publication)
- Dissolution by C J Sanson
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
- Calypso by David Sedaris
- Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (trans Elisabeth Jaquette)
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- Will you Walk a Little Faster by Penelope Shuttle (poetry)
- Mellow Cello by Gill Tennant
- Granta/81: The Best of Young British Novleists 2003 (ed. Ian Jack)