Here’s what I read—with a few stand-outs bolded—and including the worst book I’ve ever read (almost) cover-to-cover, Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender?
I read very obscure Victorian novels at night--they put me to sleep but also they take me out of the present. So many of the beliefs and assumptions in the Victorian era have changed--it reminds me that changes, both good and bad, are inevitable. But they also make me think a lot about the unintended consequences of social progress.
The worst book I read was Judith Butler's book.
The best book I read was Bob Ostertag's Sex Science Self: much food for thought.
I also read Sex, Science, Self. Have you read Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography by Rebecca M. Jordon-Young & Katrina Karkazis? Bob referenced the book in his book. It's on my list.
I'm still laughing about the Judith Butler comment! I'm not sure I could get through a chapter, let alone an entire book, of Judith Butler. I recently stumbled on a take down of Butler that Martha Nussbaum wrote in 1999. After reading this, and impressed that someone foresaw the terrible impact of Bulter's views, I looked into Martha. She's still alive. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Nussbaum). On my reading list for 2025 is her book The Fragility of Goodness (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fragility_of_Goodness).
Love your list! I will try to read at least five books on it in the coming year.
Here's my list of books, ones that I read to the end in 2024 that I thought worth reading:
Good Girls by Hadley Freeman, (Hadley's personal memoire about having an eating disorder in her teens and twenties)
Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier, (Shrier's investigation into therapy, with a particular focus on California)
Time to Think by Hanna Barnes, (Barnes does a deep dive on the Tavistock Clinic in the UK and their attempts to treat gender dysphoria in the last twenty years.)
Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lind, (looks at the basis for post-modernism and its evolution in the last eighty years)
Dreamland by Sam Quinones, (deep dive investigative report on the opiate crisis in the US)
The Least of Us by Sam Quinones, (deep dive investigative report on the fentanyl and meth crisis)
Shorting the Grid by Meredith Angwin, (interesting inside look at energy pricing, the electrical grid and electricity generation)
Under the Bridge by Rebbeca Godfrey, (riveting account of the murder of Reena Virk by a group of teenagers in Victoria, British Columbia)
Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier
Feline Philosophy by John Gray, (Gray ponders how cats see the world and how we might benefit from seeing the world through the eyes of cats)
Pandora’s Gamble by Alison Young, (investigative report and history of virology research, and its risks, in the US since the 1930s)
Reading seemed to take a back seat to other hobbies last year.
But I did really enjoy "The Man who knew Infinity", about the Indian maths genius Ramanujan, and his unexpected friendship with the English mathematician G H Hardy.
I would also give a shout out to my friend Andrew Stickland's 'Mars Alone' sci-fi trilogy , especially the third book, 'War between Worlds' , which was unexpectedly moving.
A late entry was a Christmas present from my daughter of Wendy Cope's collected poems in a beautiful edition. One to savour for years to come.
And finally, a really unexpected treat was another poetry book: 'Forget-me-nots from somewhere ' by S.L. Jordan.
You may not have heard of S.L. Jordan, but you may know her as Lorelei on Twitter.
These really are beautiful poems from the heart, and feel very much in the English tradition. Highly recommended, although be warned you may need a tissue or two ..
So glad to see Swimming in Paris in bold! Great list. Suzanne Sullivan is having another book out this year, on the overdiagnosis of ADHD, anxiety and similar.
This year was about escape reading, mostly. (I, too, reread Middlemarch.) I never make lists. But since I read “Angel” by Elizabeth Taylor twice in one year, I’ll mention that. One of the most original and darkly funny novels I’ve read.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre [re-read]
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr
The Laws of Human Nature - Robert Greene
To Be Continued - James Robertson
Dominion - Tom Holland
Defenders of the West - Raymond Ibrahim
Berserker - Adrian Edmondson
A Distant Mirror - Barbara Tuchman [gave up - wasn’t for me]
Knowledge and Decisions - Thomas Sowell
Death in the City of Light - David King
Wagging the Moondoggie - David McGowan (internet pdf)
Family Unfriendly - Timothy P. Carney [gave up - loved his other one]
A Canticle for Leibowitz is the only novel to have had me in tears at the end, ever. Brilliant. I got more from The Western Canon than I got from my undergrad and postgrad put together. Defenders of the West, apart from being quite the page turner, full of pulse-racing, swashbuckling derring do, is refreshingly unapologetic history writing. How to Save the West is a unique book by a lovely man whose mind I admire greatly.
Appreciate the 2 Ursula Le Guin selections. Her feel for the lure of a utopia and the intrinsic issues that grow out of the good intentions is comforting to read.
Favorite poetry books this past year: Grand Tour by Elisa Gonzalez, Ursula Le Guin translation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, The Fourth Part of the World by David Weiss (reread). Favorite fiction: The Twenty Murders by Drew Augustine (great trans-related Scottish murder mystery), Non-fiction: Feminism for Women by Julie Bindel, The Reckoning by Kara Dansky.
My Lie: A true story of false memory, by Meredith Maran (2010). I re-read it this year; as someone who lived through the recovered-memory and “Satanic Panic” period of the 80’s, I found the parallels to the current trans surge to be really stunning.
In the recent non-fiction department, Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, Tablets Shattered by Joshua Leifer and Doppelgänger by Naomi Wolf we’re all worth a read.
Geez Eliza. Way to make a guy feel inadequate. I CAN build you that bookshelf, though. : ))
I read very obscure Victorian novels at night--they put me to sleep but also they take me out of the present. So many of the beliefs and assumptions in the Victorian era have changed--it reminds me that changes, both good and bad, are inevitable. But they also make me think a lot about the unintended consequences of social progress.
The worst book I read was Judith Butler's book.
The best book I read was Bob Ostertag's Sex Science Self: much food for thought.
I also read Sex, Science, Self. Have you read Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography by Rebecca M. Jordon-Young & Katrina Karkazis? Bob referenced the book in his book. It's on my list.
Sounds interesting!
I'm still laughing about the Judith Butler comment! I'm not sure I could get through a chapter, let alone an entire book, of Judith Butler. I recently stumbled on a take down of Butler that Martha Nussbaum wrote in 1999. After reading this, and impressed that someone foresaw the terrible impact of Bulter's views, I looked into Martha. She's still alive. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Nussbaum). On my reading list for 2025 is her book The Fragility of Goodness (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fragility_of_Goodness).
Love your list! I will try to read at least five books on it in the coming year.
Here's my list of books, ones that I read to the end in 2024 that I thought worth reading:
Good Girls by Hadley Freeman, (Hadley's personal memoire about having an eating disorder in her teens and twenties)
Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier, (Shrier's investigation into therapy, with a particular focus on California)
Time to Think by Hanna Barnes, (Barnes does a deep dive on the Tavistock Clinic in the UK and their attempts to treat gender dysphoria in the last twenty years.)
Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lind, (looks at the basis for post-modernism and its evolution in the last eighty years)
Dreamland by Sam Quinones, (deep dive investigative report on the opiate crisis in the US)
The Least of Us by Sam Quinones, (deep dive investigative report on the fentanyl and meth crisis)
Shorting the Grid by Meredith Angwin, (interesting inside look at energy pricing, the electrical grid and electricity generation)
Under the Bridge by Rebbeca Godfrey, (riveting account of the murder of Reena Virk by a group of teenagers in Victoria, British Columbia)
Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier
Feline Philosophy by John Gray, (Gray ponders how cats see the world and how we might benefit from seeing the world through the eyes of cats)
Pandora’s Gamble by Alison Young, (investigative report and history of virology research, and its risks, in the US since the 1930s)
Ooohh books! I love seeing what other people read. Here’s my list:
Best books of 2024
1. Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman
2. Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
3. The Go Between by LP Hartley
4. Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
6. Cave and the Light by Arthur Herman
7. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
8. The German Genius by Peter Watson
9. The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
10. The Symposium by Plato
Most disappointed reads of 2024:
1. Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
2. Devils by Dostoyevsky
3. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (re-read)
4. Breaking Bread With the Dead by Alan Jacobs
5. This Beauty by Nick Riggle
Worst read of 2024
The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Thanks!
Reading seemed to take a back seat to other hobbies last year.
But I did really enjoy "The Man who knew Infinity", about the Indian maths genius Ramanujan, and his unexpected friendship with the English mathematician G H Hardy.
I would also give a shout out to my friend Andrew Stickland's 'Mars Alone' sci-fi trilogy , especially the third book, 'War between Worlds' , which was unexpectedly moving.
A late entry was a Christmas present from my daughter of Wendy Cope's collected poems in a beautiful edition. One to savour for years to come.
And finally, a really unexpected treat was another poetry book: 'Forget-me-nots from somewhere ' by S.L. Jordan.
You may not have heard of S.L. Jordan, but you may know her as Lorelei on Twitter.
These really are beautiful poems from the heart, and feel very much in the English tradition. Highly recommended, although be warned you may need a tissue or two ..
So glad to see Swimming in Paris in bold! Great list. Suzanne Sullivan is having another book out this year, on the overdiagnosis of ADHD, anxiety and similar.
This year was about escape reading, mostly. (I, too, reread Middlemarch.) I never make lists. But since I read “Angel” by Elizabeth Taylor twice in one year, I’ll mention that. One of the most original and darkly funny novels I’ve read.
You're a marvel.
My brain feels tired when I think of you ..
For most people, just reading Middlemarch would be an achievement in itself, never mind 100 others!
Alienated America - Timothy P. Carney
How to Save the West - Spencer Klavan [twice]
The Forever War - John Haldeman
Mephisto - Klaus Mann
Fifth Sun - Camilla Townsend
White - Bret Easton Ellis
A Lie too Big to Fail - Lisa Pease
Migrations and Cultures - Thomas Sowell
Bad Therapy - Abigail Shrier
The Western Canon - Harold Bloom
Loves Labours Lost - William Shakespeare
The Fall of Rome - Bryan Ward Perkins
Discrimination and Disparities - Thomas Sowell
Troubled - Rob Henderson
The Vision of the Anointed - Thomas Sowell
The Last Emperor of Mexico - Edward Shawcross
Russia: Revolution and Civil War - Antony Beevor
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre [re-read]
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr
The Laws of Human Nature - Robert Greene
To Be Continued - James Robertson
Dominion - Tom Holland
Defenders of the West - Raymond Ibrahim
Berserker - Adrian Edmondson
A Distant Mirror - Barbara Tuchman [gave up - wasn’t for me]
Knowledge and Decisions - Thomas Sowell
Death in the City of Light - David King
Wagging the Moondoggie - David McGowan (internet pdf)
Family Unfriendly - Timothy P. Carney [gave up - loved his other one]
A Canticle for Leibowitz is the only novel to have had me in tears at the end, ever. Brilliant. I got more from The Western Canon than I got from my undergrad and postgrad put together. Defenders of the West, apart from being quite the page turner, full of pulse-racing, swashbuckling derring do, is refreshingly unapologetic history writing. How to Save the West is a unique book by a lovely man whose mind I admire greatly.
Appreciate the 2 Ursula Le Guin selections. Her feel for the lure of a utopia and the intrinsic issues that grow out of the good intentions is comforting to read.
Favorite poetry books this past year: Grand Tour by Elisa Gonzalez, Ursula Le Guin translation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, The Fourth Part of the World by David Weiss (reread). Favorite fiction: The Twenty Murders by Drew Augustine (great trans-related Scottish murder mystery), Non-fiction: Feminism for Women by Julie Bindel, The Reckoning by Kara Dansky.
Impressive list. My favorite book read last year was Mania by Lionel Shriver. My goal this year is to read just as much fiction as non fiction.
Oh my gosh. What a list!!! I am so impressed and inspired. 💛
My Lie: A true story of false memory, by Meredith Maran (2010). I re-read it this year; as someone who lived through the recovered-memory and “Satanic Panic” period of the 80’s, I found the parallels to the current trans surge to be really stunning.
In the recent non-fiction department, Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, Tablets Shattered by Joshua Leifer and Doppelgänger by Naomi Wolf we’re all worth a read.