Observing Leslie

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The Best Books I Read in 2024

Leslie Farnsworth

In 2024, I finished a total of 178 books:

And as I know you didn’t click over here to read a long introduction, I’ll jump straight into the meat of the matter.

Without further ado…

The Best Books I Read in 2024

The books I loved the best of all the books I read in 2024 are the following (in order by last name):

For how I came up with my list, scroll down for my decision criteria.

Click here to see my favorite books from 2023 and, from there, track back to check out my favorites from previous years..

My Runners-Up for 2024

These books (also in order by last name) met all but one of my decision criteria:

Bolded Books in 2024

Across all the books I read, these are the books I bolded as my favorites for the year:

Just under 19 percent of the books I read, I bolded. Not bad! I did reasonably well, then, when it comes to finding books I loved.

I’ll be interested to see if that percentage improves or declines in the year to come.

My Decision Criteria

Out of all these bolded books, how do I select the ones I loved the most?

It isn’t easy.

One of the reasons I don’t post my list of the best books I read for the year until well into the year after is that I spend a lot of time reviewing the bolded subset and winnowing it down to the books that, over time and distance, really stuck with me.

I use the following decision criteria as a guide:

  • I enjoyed the writing at the line level. (This does not mean it needs to be highfalutin. Quite the contrary, in many cases. Snootiness can be a major turn-off.)

  • In reading the book, I gained new perspectives and chewed on new-to-me ideas.

  • The book generated an emotional, not just intellectual response.

  • The overall whole of the novel stuck with me over the long term.

If a book didn’t meet all four criteria, no matter how much I enjoyed it on other levels—and even if I would still call it a favorite read from the year—I couldn’t put it on my best-of-the-best list.

Which of the four criteria is the biggest stumbling block for the books I loved? The third one. I can give a book high marks in all categories and still find that, emotionally, it didn’t spark a response.

The 2025 Reading Year Has Begun

By the time this post goes live on my blog each year, I’ve already dug into my reading pile for the following year. There are so many books I cannot wait to read in 2025.

If you have any books you’re excited to read in 2025, let me know. Maybe we’ll be reading some of the same ones.

And if you’ve read any of the above novels, tell me what you thought. I love talking books. (What reader doesn’t?)