My 2024 Year in Books

By Elizabeth Prata

It’s taking stock time. It’s turning over last year’s leaf into a new leaf. It’s time to make decisions. It’s New Year 2025 (almost)!

I took a look at my Goodreads list. I’m not a huge fan of Goodreads, I find the site cumbersome and hard to use. But it is useful. I didn’t record all the books I read this year (2024) on it but I did keep track in my hard copy planner. [I’m old school- a chronicler from 1968, I prefer hard copy]. So I added the books from my planner to Goodreads and it calculated my Year in Reading.

First of all, and I say this every year, I didn’t do as badly as I thought I did. I always consider myself a reading failure but that’s because I really don’t remember the books I’ve read. I read 14 books this year and that is about 10 more than I thought I did.

The book Blessings and Praise: Benedictions and Doxologies in the Bible is by HB Charles and it’s a workbook. It was part of a video study course I took from Ligonier earlier in the year. It is EXCELLENT! Highly recommended.

The other one is The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us by Carrie Gress. It’s a thoroughly researched and extremely well edited book on the origins of feminism and their threads throughout the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s to the 2000s. When I say well edited, it’s because Gress researched voluminously, but crafted such a compelling narrative that puts in exactly the right facts and leaves out anything that would bog down the reader. With a massively researched topic spanning 300 years, it’s hard to know what to put in and what to leave out, and that is what an editor does- does those decisions which makes the story readable. By the way, feminism is evil, but WAY MORE evil than I thought. Ms Gress has the story.

I picked up the Harry Potter book this past summer. I read the first two when they came out, now more than 20 years ago. This summer I thought, well, let me see if I connect with them again, or not.

I mentioned this online and holy guacamole, lots of people got hot under the collar right away, accusing me of all sorts, because Potter is occult! the witchcraft! it’s evil! Etc. I asked sincerely if HP was any different from Lord of the Rings with, you know, wizards and supernatural events and stuff, but they just kept complaining and harassing. So I ignored them and read the first two books again.

Interestingly, Samuel Sey of @slowtowrite asked the following question on Twitter/X and I enjoyed the discussion, which was pretty civil. That debate is here if you want to read it.

Samuel Sey, @SlowToWrite asked – “Are there still Christians who believe people should avoid the Harry Potter books/movies because of its depiction of witchcraft? If so, I’m truly curious: What makes the witchcraft in Harry Potter more acceptable than the witchcraft in Lord of the Rings?“

I thought Harry Potter book #1 was engaging enough because it’s well written, creative, and different. But halfway thru book #2 I lost steam and put them aside. Just like 20 years ago. As for the most shelved vs least shelved books on Goodreads as seen above, it’s no surprise to me that HP is on many millions of shelves but Heaven and Hell is only on 6, lol.

My books for 2024 are as follows

Confession- I have not read Morality for Beautiful Girls yet but I plan to read it today, so technically…

My goals for reading this year 2025 are to…read. I am increasingly tired when I get home from a full day of work as a reading interventionist in an elementary school. My eyes are tired too, they get dry and then they spasm. So I just want to keep the habit going without putting too much pressure on myself. I’ve enjoyed this Christmas break, and summer break I do read a lot, but absent a break, Saturdays seem to be the only day my mind is ready for reading.

I am reading the very long William Carey biography and I’ll continue that. Maybe the book on the ascension called Taken up to Heaven by Derek Thomas. I started Unlawful Killings by Wendy Joseph, a UK judge explaining about how the British court system works and reminiscing on her memorable cases. Beyond that I’ll see what comes up.

In 2023 I read The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, the one by Michael Finkel not the other similarly named book, and These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Sarah Agnes Prine. Those two books were standout books, two of the best I’ve read in years. Absorbing and memorable. I’m still thinking of them over a year later. I hope I find a couple of books in 2025 equally as good as those.

If you are into Christian Reading Challenges, Challies always has a good one, you have to sign up for his newsletter but there is no cost involved and you can unsubscribe if you don’t like the newsletter. G3 has a reading challenge too. Reading challenges are when the organization sets a theme for the books they suggest you read, such as “Read a book over 100 years old” or “Read a book published this year”.

If you want a secular reading challenge, Barnes & Noble has one. Their themes are ones such as a selection of adventure books, meditative, dystopian. In their Empowerment suggestions, I’d avoid Rachel Hollis’s book, and in the Translated section I’d avoid Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. I’d avoid the Memoir section completely. Secular books always come with risks. (Christian books too, but less so). Alternately, you could take just their categories and vet and select your own books.

It’s good to have a goal. Apparently last December 31 at Goodreads I’d set a goal of 13 books. I met it plus one. I find that absent a set goal, I fritter the time away and before I know it, I haven’t done much of anything. Having a Bible Reading Goal is good. I decided on the John MacArthur Daily Bible for my plan and I’ve included Dustin Benge’s Hearts Aflame Puritan reading devotional podcast, with a page of Valley of Vision Puritan prayer devotionals in the afternoon. Setting any goal is good, and setting it down in writing even better. Having set goals provides structure, limits, boundaries and it feels good to meet one’s set challenges.

Happy New Year and thank you for a great year and I pray your year of 2025 is in the Lord- now much else to say because all He does is good for those who love Him and for His glory!