What I Read in 2024

I’ll start of with a question: What did you read this year?

Be honest. Reading LinkedIn posts does not count. Sorry. That’s not real reading.

What books did you read in 2024? Which ones resonated with you? Which ones did you quit? How many did you put down, only to pick them up & finish later? How many could you NOT put down?

I enjoy touring my reading log at year’s end to see what & how I did.

Why I Read

For me, reading is not a race. It’s not a competition. There are those who read dozens of books in a year’s time. I’m jealous, yes. I’m a slow reader. A slogger. I can’t skim, it feels disrespectful to the author, like I’m not giving him/her my undivided attention.

Generally speaking, I think we can all say we’d like to, and we should, read more than we did. Being able to point to all the marginalia, highlights & post-it flags that we left behind is somewhat of a physical manifestation of the ground we covered.

Time is a commodity. We have a tendency of wasting it. Reading is NEVER a wasteful endeavor as far as I’m concerned.

So the assembly of my annual look back bears fruit on a couple of levels. It reminds me of the pages that I’ve traveled. The things that I’ve learned. Concepts that I’ve been presented with. Ideas that that I’ve explored, solidified or enhanced my knowledge & understanding of.

But, the look back is also one of sadness: How much time have I pissed away by NOT reading? How many 15- and 30-minutes blocks of time have I vaporized to senselessness? Time that I could have been gaining knowledge instead of burning-up brain cells? My annual review is a note to myself: There is SO MUCH TO READ – DON”T MISS IT!!

The Books I Read in 2024

According to my reading log, I made it through 14 books and have 4 in-progress in December. I read 19 in 2022 and 12 in 2023. Yes, it’s just my number of plate appearances compared to the last couple of years, and you can draw your own conclusion of whether I should be proud or embarrassed at the total.

On one hand, it’s paltry. I’m a slow reader, but the number slaps me a bit. There were some thoroughly great reads in the collection, a few of which I will definitely be re-reading in the future as their impact on me was formidable. There were a couple of tough books that made me work to get through them. And, unfortunately, there were a few books that I chose to give up on as the resonation factor just wasn’t there.

You’ll see from the list that the genres I enjoy don’t change much year-to-year:

• Faith & Catholicism
• Durability & Mental Well-Being
• Writing
• Military & American History Biographies

Here’s my roundup:

January

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

February

The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis

March

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The Writer’s Practice by John Warner (DNF)

April

May

The Way to Live by George Hackenschmidt

June

The Operator by Rob O’Neil

Brothers, Rivals, Victors by Jonathon Jordan

Self Renewal by John Gardner

July

The Organized Mind by Dan Levitin (DNF)

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

Switch by Chip & Dan Heath (DNF)

Peak Mind by Dr. Amishi Jha

August

September

October

Beyond Band of Brothers by Dick Winters & Cole Kingseed

Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

November

December

Fearless by Eric Blehm

The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield (in-progress)

Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Don Calloway (in-progress)

Brave Men by Ernie Pyle (in-progress)

Benjamin Franklin – An American Life by Walter Isaacson (in-progress)

After Actions

So how did you do? Did any of my reads catch your eye? What did you read that’s worth recommending? Leave me a comment and let me know what I should put in my 2025 queue.