“Tell me what you read and I tell you who you are.” 2024 has just come to an end and everyone has spent time showing off their reviews of the year. So it is time to add something to that list: the years’ book review or the reading list. 

This year I read 49 books – finishing the last one on December 30th 2024. Unfortunately, again I didn’t make it to a book a week, but I get closer (my reading list 2023 had 48 books, the list of 2022 45). Once you keep a list you can have a lot of fun with the data on it. Let’s check my list, maybe you can tell who I am. 

It is mostly about how you structure it. Let’s start with the genres: My reading list of 2024 contains 31 books that can be considered fantasy (although, in cases like Dracula and Frankenstein, opinions might differ). The rest is a mixture of classics (like Animal Farm, The Wizard of Oz or Virginia Woolf), real-life stories and general fiction. The fantasy can be divided nearly half-half into high and low fantasy. I also had a graphic novel on the list (The Complete Maus), the rest didn’t contain pictures (although, Das Uhrwerk der Unsterblichen contained some artwork). 

Another way to group the reading list is by authors. The fantasy wins in this way also. I read eight books by Terry Pratchett (as mentioned in my previous article, I try to read the books in order). The next writer on my list is Elena Ferrante. The third place has to be shared by C. K. McDonnell (who is also a huge fan of Terry Pratchett) and Anette Marie, both had three books on the list I read. There are also some anthologies on the list – so the books have a bunch of different authors. 

What surprised me were the languages. Normally, this is more or less evenly split between English and German. In 2024 I got a lot of books from the library – in Germany those books are mostly German. So I only read three English books last year. But I also got 25 books from the library – if you calculate with 10 Euros per books, I saved 250 Euro (if you calculate with 15 Euro I saved 375 – a library card is definitely worth it with my reading habits). 

One of the nice side effects of the reading list is that you can see how your interests developed over the year. 2024 started for me with a lot of high-fantasy books and the whole series from Elena Ferrante (My Brilliant Friend and the following books, the idea from the book club). Over the summer I was reading classics (like Brave New World or Nineteen Eighty-Four). Starting from autumn I went with a lot of low fantasy. Come winter I mixed everything together. I am curious if my reading list for 2025 will show something similar. 

After the year has passed it is nice to remember, that is what you use reviews for. I do remember where I was when I  read the book – for example I remember the hotel bed in which I suffered through Following the Equator from Mark Twain. I remember buying the ebook Dark Arts and a Daiquiri on the train from Quebec to Ottawa, after just finishing the first book of the series and running out of books in Canada. I remember that a friend convinced me to finish Horsemen by Christina Henry and that I actually enjoyed it after all. I remember being happy after I found the book Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare (another author that had a huge influence on my reading and writing). I also remember telling Diana that I have had issues with To the Lighthouse after she recommended it as a good book from Virginia Woolf. So a reading list is a nice way to remember your year, what you have been up to, whom you have been with over the year, what you experienced. Books can take you on adventures – but they are also a big part of the adventure of your life. 

what about you? 

Do you keep a reading list? What was on your list last year? Do you have a list for 2025 already? 

I just started my reading list 2025 with a classic – The Count of Monte Christo.