OPINION: Erin’s 2024 book roundup

During the first full week of the new year, I want to take the time to look back at my reads from the previous year. Achieving this year’s goal of 200 books was a race to the finish line, with my completing seven books in the last seven days of 2024. Like last year, I’d like to share some of my reading stats as well as my favorite books.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I track my reading through two different apps: Goodreads and StoryGraph. While Goodreads is more of a social media for booklovers, StoryGraph is where I get all the stats and numbers for my reading. While not necessary for most readers, I love to see the graphs behind my hobby.

With a total of 200 books read this year, I read 51,966 pages and listened to 890.38 hours. Most of my books were medium paced and in the 300-499 page category. I read a majority of fiction books, with only 25 non-fiction books making the roster this year. My top two genres were the same as last year, romance and fantasy. Following that were contemporary, young adult and historical.

I read 83 print books, 48 digital books and listened to 69 audiobooks. Along with Kindle Unlimited and Libby, I started listening to Advanced Listener Copies of books through Libro.fm, which I get for free each month as a bookseller through The Latest Edition Bookstore.

My top three authors were Cassandra Clare at 15 books, Diana Gabaldon at nine books and Kristin Cashore at five books. I had hoped to read more books in Spanish this year, but only managed one. The page count for the one was definitely higher than the page count of the three I read last year though. I read the most books in January and July (26) and the least in March and September (10)

Despite my vow to be harsher with my ratings of books in 2024, I didn’t do very well. My average star rating last year out of five was 4.07. This year it’s 4.05. Technically harsher but not by much. Maybe I just read a lot of great books this year!

I gave 46 books five stars and 61 books four stars, with 34 books scattered in between. The lowest rating I gave a book was one star, which I normally save for books I DNF (do not finish). However, one of the holiday short stories I read this year took the cake of bad books for me, being my first finished one-star book.

My absolute number one book of the year was “The Phoenix Keeper” by S. A. MacLean. The main character is a socially anxious zoo keeper at a magical zoo, where she specifically takes care of magical birds. The novel follows the main character as she works to start a breeding program for the Silimalo phoenix, which is near extinction. This book made me immensely happy and immediately became my number one of the year.

Following are the rest of my five-star reads of 2024. I only had one non-fiction in the list this year, so that’s something I’ll have to focus on.

“Clockwork Princess,” “Under the Bridge,” “City of Glass,” “Lord of Shadows” and “Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy” by Cassandra Clare.

“Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries” and “Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands” by Heather Fawcett.

“Outlander” and “Drums of Autumn” by Diana Gabaldon.

“The Bridge Kingdom,” “The Traitor Queen” and “The Inadequate Heir” by Danielle L. Jensen.

“Part of Your World,” “Yours Truly” and “Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez.

“The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” by TJ Klune.

“House of Earth and Blood,” “House of Sky and Breath” and “House of Flame and Shadow” by Sarah J. Maas.

“Small Great Things” and “A Spark of Light” by Jodi Picoult.

“Divine Rivals” and “Ruthless Vows” by Rebecca Ross.

“The Bone Season” and “The Mime Order” by Samantha Shannon.

Other romance and/or fantasy: “A Court This Cruel and Lovely” by Stacia Stark, “Assistant to the Villain” by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, “Bloodguard” by Cecy Robson, “Do Your Worst” by Rosie Danan, “Eragon” by Christopher Paolini, ”Magical Meet Cute” by Jean Meltzer, “Mile High” by Liz Tomforde, “One Dark Window” by Rachel Gillig, “Royal Valentine” by Sariah Wilson, “Spells for Lost Things” by Jenna Evans Welch, “The Spanish Love Deception” by Elena Armas and “A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire” by Sarah Hawley.

Other fiction: “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, “None of This is True” by Lisa Jewell, “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline, “The Green Valley” by Mark Sullivan, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “The Women” by Kristin Hannah, “Wonder” by R. J. Palacio and “Yellowface” by R. F. Kuang.

Non-fiction: “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine” by Rashid Khalidi.