A Year in Books: 2024

I read just 13 books this year or the equivalent of just 1 per month. Now that would normally be good going but there are two factors to consider:

I Now Have the Taste for Audiobooks

Ever since I worked at Johnson & Johnson, I have been listening to audiobooks more regularly. The commute was over an hour each way and, if I didn’t need Marcus Guentner or Megadeth blasting out of the BMW’s sound system, I opted for using my time wisely and learning on the drive. There was also a colleague there, David, who was a Drupal developer and I’d often talk books with him. He was the same, he used that commute time to learn.

Books are still important and I do still accumulate them, especially on my trips to the esoteric bookshops of Glastonbury in Somerset. But my concentration and stamina are not so good these days and I reserve traditional paper tomes for specific purposes such as technical manuals and reads that are going to help me sleep.

As for the love of audiobooks, they’re incredibly convenient. I spend a lot of time exercising and try to get an hour’s walk in once per day if I can. An audiobook is a great way to use that time effectively.

So “reading” 13 books last year wasn’t as good as I expected nor wanted. I think there are too many that I started but didn’t get into as well. I have a few that require finishing but I lost my enthusiasm or got distracted by reads that were more urgent.

In 2021 I Read a Record 22 Books

2021 was a good year for reading. I read a record 22 books that year, mostly because it was the time of COVID and lockdowns, and reading was a great way to pass the time.

You can see that it was a time of reflection from the key subjects such as personal development & growth, plus
mindfulness & spirituality, balanced by far more serious topics such as marketing & business with ventures into  neuroscience & psychology.

My learnings from 2021 included the power of daily habits, the value of continuous learning, how significant your mindset still is, and the Importance of authenticity, a gentle reminder of Dale Carnegie’s most important lesson of being sincere.

So in 2024…

Last year had some themes, chiefly personal finance & financial independence, a little about politics & society from James O’Brien and Yanis Varoufakis, some science & philosophy courtesy of Richard Feynman, alongside more self-improvement & personal growth plus a dabble into our history & culture.

If you were to sum up my learnings again, I’ve reinforced my strategies for financial independence, critical thinking &social awareness whilst having an increased appreciation of the power of the mind and reconnected with my musical history & culture.

I can’t say there was a worst book, but my absolute favourite by a country mile was John Robb’s most excellent The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth. I have Sisters of Mercy CDs in my car most of the time anyway, and my YouTube and Amazon Music playlists have loads of Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees, so this was a great trip down the rest of my memory lane. Plus I encountered a few bands I’d not really paid attention to at the time but who are now on my list to catch up on.

And if you want to see what I’ve been reading, it’s all over on my bookshelf.

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