This year, 2024, has been very challenging for me–professionally and personally. Annually, I challenge myself to read a certain number of books. I don’t do much on the numbers but I’m happy if I’m able to hit my targets because it is a testament of my re-wiring to a more peaceful or quieter side of the earth, at least for me, which is reading.
I’m not sure, but I think I have shared this already in one of my posts here on the site, that I have started reading books since I knew how to. I was a kid in the no-internet-yet era so reading has been one of those hobbies I have gained affection for as a painfully shy child. As an adult, it matters to me that I read more than I scroll. Social media, as advantageous for all of us in terms of our careers, studies, and personal lives, could also have a lot of disadvantages–for most, I think, and this has been studied as well by many professionals and researchers, that we spend so much time on social media now than in other usual things we used to enjoy before.
Yet, we cannot go back to how it was before. That, we know for sure. However, I think, we should control technology and innovation leveled to us and how it can serve as well, rather than the other way around. In that sense, I infused reading on both digital and traditional. It saves me a lot of resources and space, too.
At the end of 2023, I know that the new year will be busier for me. And it was true, more than the level I expect, actually. On an average, I only target 20 books to read per year. Some years, I achieved more, but I’m happy just to hit a 100%. For me, it means that I have put an effort to reading and I have shied away from too much social media. All the more, with some exceptions (e.g., friends who will far, studies, video games, business, work etc.), I have valued physical interaction (or none at all, please, as an introvert) and my offline life which I spend with my friends, family, experiences, research, business, and of course, books.
According to my recorded stats (through an Excel file that I keep–if you know me, you’d know I like organizing things, it could be a good thing or a bad thing, up to you to choose), I have read 20 of 20 books (100% target achieved) with a total of 6,738 pages. Ten of which I read are e-books, and the other 10 are physical books.
Fable.co says that I am a “Chaos Connoisseur: Your eclectic picks scream “book hoarder convention”; still, you revel in stories that defy genres and expectations.” I had a hard time looking at what to read this year, even though I have already finalized a list to read–but I guess, it will really depend on your mood or what interests you (like films or TV series I have seen or things I have gotten curiosity about based on reviews and conversations with people).
If you are looking for books to read next year, 2025, these are some of the books I have read this year, 2024:
| Title | Author |
| 1. After I Do | Taylor Jenkins Reid |
| 2. The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| 3. The Duchess Deal | Tessa Dare |
| 4. Some People Need Killing | Patricia Evangelista |
| 5. Misery | Stephen King |
| 6. Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell |
| 7. The Idea of You | Robinne Lee |
| 8. Verity (The Collector’s Edition) | Colleen Hoover |
| 9. Surrounded by Idiots | Thomas Erikson |
| 10. Howl’s Moving Castle | Diana Wynne Jones |
| 11. Forget Me Not | Julie Soto |
| 12. The Housemaid’s Secret | Freida McFadden |
| 13. The Precipice | Noam Chomsky |
| 14. Anne of Green Gables | L.M. Montgomery |
| 15. Before the Coffee Gets Cold (#2) | Toshikazu Kawaguchi |
| 16. Never Greener | Ruth Jones |
| 17. Intimacy and Midnight All Day | Hanif Kureishi |
| 18. Sweet Bean Paste | Durain Sukegawa |
| 19. The Law of Innocence | Michael Connelly |
| 20. Infinite Lives, Infinite Deaths | Douglas Candano |
This 2025, I’m thinking to cut down targets to 12 (1 book per month). I’m thinking to immerse and absorb more from a book and give them more time in my head to process (or even share or make content about so you too can also dive deeper if it also spark your interest). We’ll see where the next year takes us. I hope it will be better for all us, more than we can imagine—if it’s not too much to wish for.
Shainne Hostalero 