My Favorite Reads of 2024

Welcome to 2025, and a new year of reading. Before moving forward into a new year I like to reflect on last year’s books, looking for patterns, appreciating blessings, and choosing my ten favorite reads.

As I look back over the books I read in the last twelve months, what stands out more than anything else is that, for me, 2024 is a testament to the value of rereading. Half of the books I read last year were rereads. And among my top ten books of 2024 are several books I initially didn’t connect with when I first read them years ago, but which I now love. The rest of the top ten is filled with a mixture of old favorites and new favorites.

First, the old favorites that continue to claim a spot in the library of my heart include Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Aubrey/Maturin series. These books are old friends, and I never tire of reading them.

New favorites include books on spirituality: The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brien and Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr; a book on mindfulness: Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn; and the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.

But as I mentioned earlier, I reread three books last year as part of Benjamin McEvoy’s Hardcover Literature Book Club that I was previously lukewarm toward, but which now I love: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Why do I appreciate them so much more now than when I first read them? To begin with, I am a different person today than I was then. Next, I was already somewhat familiar with their stories, so I could concentrate more on the writing than on the plot. Third, I took my time and gave the books more of a chance to work on me. And finally, Benjamin McEvoy’s lectures for each book helped open up them up in new ways. It is such a blessing to be able to see the beauty of a finely written book that I had previously overlooked. Rereading is a sheer joy, and I encourage all readers to make it a regular practice.

And so, here are my favorite reads of 2024, counting down to my favorite read of the year:

1. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
2. Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr
3. Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
5. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, with a special nod to The Last Battle
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
7. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
8. The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brien
9. The Aubrey-Maturin Series by Patrick O’Brian, books 16-21: The Wine-Dark Sea, The Commodore, The Yellow Admiral, The Hundred Days, Blue at the Mizzen, Twenty-One
10. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I have to mention another book that I began in 2024 and which is still having a profound effect on me, even though I have not finished it yet. It will likely take me years to read it, since I am savoring it as much as possible. And after I finish, I will likely turn back to page one and start right back into it. I am talking about The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman from Penguin Classics. I have read quite a bit of Whitman’s poetry over the course of my life, going all the way back to high school, but I have never read a book of his poems from beginning to end. I started the book in January of 2024 and am only about a quarter of the way through, but it has been a profound experience so far. Whitman’s poetry is so full of life, and each poem begs to be read aloud with the energy of the wind. As an example, here are the glorious final two stanzas from the poem I read most recently, “A Song of Joys”:

O to sail to sea in a ship!
To leave this steady unendurable land,
To leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and the houses,
To leave you O you solid motionless land, and entering a ship,
To sail and sail and sail!

O to have life henceforth a poem of new joys!
To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on!
To be a sailor of the world bound for all ports,
A ship itself, (see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air,)
A swift and swelling ship full of rich words, full of joys.

“A swift and swelling ship full of rich words, full of joys.” — a perfect description of Whitman’s poetry. As I look toward 2025, I still hope to continue savoring this collection from Penguin.

I am also looking forward to several of the books scheduled for the Hardcore Literature Book Club, especially these titles I have never read:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – I am excited to read my first novel of Magical Realism and explore this genre
• Metamorphoses by Ovid
• Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

And of course, I am super excited about the American Masterpieces Chapter-a-Day Read-Along! Today we started Roots by Alex Haley, and I am already hooked by the first sentence:

“Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of the Gambia, West Africa, a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte. Forcing forth from Binta’s strong young body, he was as black as she was, flecked and slippery with Binta’s blood, and he was bawling.”

To participate in the read-along, visit ChapteraDayReadAlong.com, where all future read-along posts will be published.

I hope you had a great year of reading in 2024 and I wish you a Happy New Reading Year, along with many blessings to you and your family!