What I Read in 2024 (and my 2025 reading goals!)

And suddenly, here we are again at another reading recap post! This is honestly one of my favorite posts of the year, as I love book lists, and I love sharing the books that I’ve read throughout the year. Reading is such a gift, and I have discovered in recent years that when I find other bookworms like myself, we are almost certainly kindred spirits.

Below is a review of what I read in 2024 and what I hope to read in 2025!

Overall Goal

My default overall goal in Goodreads for the last several years has been 36 books for the year. I say overall, but ideally, this goal is specifically for books I read for myself. So, while I met my goal on paper and read 73 books total last year, which includes those I pre-read for the kids, read with them, or read for our homeschool, only 26 of those were books I read just for myself. It’s actually down from the 35 I read in 2023, which is discouraging, but life does happen.

Tea and Ink Society Classics Challenge

This was the second year I did the Tea and Ink Society Classics Challenge. I started the year strong with Jane Austen in January and Babette’s Feast in February, but then found keeping up with the monthly readings more and more difficult as life got busier. Eventually, I decided to do what I had done last year and read the categories whenever I could, but I still only managed eight of them. Here is each category and what I read for each:

1. A classic you’ve read before – Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814 – I decided to give Fanny Price another try as I really did not enjoy this book the first time I read it. It was slightly better this time, but she is still far from my favorite Austen heroine.)
2. A Nordic or Scandinavian classic – Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen (aka. Karen Blixen, 1958 – I remember watching the film version of this one New Year’s Eve at the church I grew up in, and the story stuck with me. I was glad to finally read the book.)
3. A novel with a place or house name in the title – The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (1928)
4. An epistolary novel
5. An L. M. Montgomery novel or short story collection
6. A novel or short story collection from the American South
7. A utopian or dystopian novel
8. A children’s classic – I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton De Treviño (1965)
9. A pastoral novel – A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich (1928)
10. A spooky classic or short story collection – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
11. A classic recommended by a friend – The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (1950 – Recommended by Julie!)
12. A Shakespeare play – Julius Caesar (1599)

This was the only challenge I did this year, and I think it was a good choice, given how busy the year ended up being!

Favorites

And my favorite books from the year (in no particular order!):

The Brendan Voyage: Sailing to America in a Leather Boat to Prove the Legend of the Irish Sailor Saints by Tim Severin

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul by Holly Pierlot

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement by Katy Bowman

The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

2025 Challenges

Overall Goal

For this year, I’m sticking to my default overall reading goal and hoping that I actually get those 36 books in just for myself. This allows me to read one book in each of the three “Mother Culture categories” every month, which I feel should be reasonable!

Tea and Ink Society Classics Challenge

I am going to try once again to follow the monthly assignments for the Tea and Ink Society Classics Reading Challenge this year. As of this writing, I’ve actually already finished the January category, so I’m off to a good start! Here are the categories and the pre-1970 books I plan to read for each:

1. January: A classic you discover in a used bookstore – The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931)
2. February: A Russian novel or short story collection – The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Michael R. Katz (1880 – This book has come up so.many.times in the last few years from various sources, so I’m finally tackling it. At 928 pages, though, it will most likely take me the entire year to finish it.)
3. March: A classic about immigrants or pioneers – Maggie-Now by Betty Smith (1950)
4. April: A classic set on your own turf – The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (1915)
5. May: A book you were supposed to read in school – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939) or A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
6. June: Nonfiction nature writing – Wilderness Essays by John Muir (published in 1980, but as he died in 1914, I think it counts!)
7. July: A science fiction novel or short story collection – Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (1938)
8. August: A classic by an author you’ve only read once – Shirley by Charlotte Brontë (1849 – Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books but it’s the only one I’ve read by this Brontë sister)
9. September: A classic World War I or World War II novel – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1928)
10. October: A Jane Austen novel – Love and Freindship (1790 – This is the only Austen I haven’t read! I will probably re-read another one as well as I usually read at least one of hers every year.)
11. November: A poetry collection by one of the Romantic poets – maybe Walt Whitman? I haven’t decided on this one yet. I’m open to suggestions!
12. December: A Medieval or Renaissance classic – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Burton Raffel (author unknown – 1375)

Art Book Reading Challenge

I announced the Art Book Reading Challenge a few weeks ago! I wanted to keep this a little easier so I chose six categories rather than the traditional 12 for most reading challenges. Here is what I am tentatively planning to read:

1. A book about an artist from the 19th century – Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism by Anka Muhlstein (translated by Adriana Hunter)
2. A book about a landscape artist – Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West by Peter H. Hassrick or Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West by Gordon Hendricks
3. An art fiction book – My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
4. A book about an art controversy (e.g., art theft, forgery, repatriation, etc.) – The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick
5. A book about an artist from the 18th century – Miss Angel: The Art and World of Angelica Kauffman by Angelica Goodden
6. A book about an artist from or the art of your state/region/country – Herndon Davis: Painting Colorado History, 1901–1962 by Craig Leavitt or Frank Mechau: Artist of Colorado by Cile M. Bach

So there we have the challenges. Of course, there is always the eternal TBR stack, but these are a good place to start! I’ll keep plugging along in my various ways of reading and aiming for that 36-book goal.

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