As 2024 comes to a close I find myself looking over my reading journals. I keep two lists for the year, one is a simple list of chapter books that I have read with one or more of my children or that my husband read with them and the other is a list of books that I read during the year. There is a lot of cross over between the two lists because I include chapter books that I read aloud to my children on my list as well. When I update my lists at the end of the year, certain books stand out and I find myself thinking that I will always remember this as the year that we read this series or reread that favorite. Where we read each of the books also weaves its way into my memory. I often remember the places we have lived and visited not only by what we did there, but what we read there. In a way, the books become time capsules that accumulate layers of place and time as we read and reread them. These are some of the bookish memories that I will treasure from 2024.
This is the year that we read the last two books of the Harry Potter series with our boys. I read Half-Blood Prince and my husband read the Deathly Hallows. We had alternated reading the titles in the series so we could both be actively involved.
In 2024, I read Peter Pan to my daughter for the first time. We started reading the book in Lyon, France and finished the book in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the aspects of reading aloud that I love is that it can be done anywhere. We can read aloud on a plane, in a hotel room, if we are changing cities every couple days, or staying in one place for months.
I am sure we will remember 2024 as the year of Wingfeather. We started with On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness this summer in Memphis and I ordered the whole series because they loved it so much. The series moved with us back to Colorado and we finished the last two books in the series in Maine. We also watched Seasons 1 and 2 of the show over the course of the year.
Another series that we read for the first time in 2024 was Jonathan Rogers’ Wilderking series. We read Bark of the Bog Owl in anticipation of the book release party and I wrote about that here:
We went to the Feechie fen...
Last week we went to the Book Launch Party for Jonathan Rogers’ Wilderking Series. In preparation for the trip, we listened to the audiobook and we finished listening while driving the 3 1/2 hours to Nashville. We all really loved the book; my daughter especially loved anytime Dobro Turtlebane laughed or cried, she would giggle so hard and long that her…
We finished The Secret of the Swamp King audio book this week and it was just as delightful as the first book. I have no doubt that we will listen to The Way of the Wilderking early in 2025. I read the vast majority of our family books aloud, but the Wilderking books are an exception. There is no way that I could reproduce the bark of the bog owl or Feechie shouting nearly as well as the author. As we listened to the book the other day, my daughter asked if we could go back to the author’s house. She was pretty sure that Jonathan Rogers lived at North Wind Manor and she wanted to visit him again because she had so much fun.
This was the year that my husband introduced our boys to P. G. Wodehouse. They have had a wonderful time reading Love Among the Chickens, selections from Meet Mr. Mulliner, and more. One of my boys was so taken with the stories that he requested including one of the poems into his recitation book. I obliged and added the poem Good Gnu into his binder.
While the men in the family learned life lessons with Wodehouse, I took a trip down memory lane with my daughter. We read a number of American Girl books this year including the complete, original Felicity series and the first two Kirsten books. We also enjoyed Dodie Smith’s 101 Dalmatians for the first time.
In Maine, we read Treasure Island all together with N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations. We also reread The Vanderbeeker’s of 141st Street by Karina Van Glaser. This was a special reread as the first time we read it was five years ago in Maine during our first locums stay. My twins remembered a surprising amount considering that they were 6 the last time we read it. It brought back so many memories and was just as good this time around.
When I take a look at my reading journal, I can clearly say that this was the year of mysteries. I read more mystery novels and short stories this year than the rest of my life combined. This was largely due to reading along with the Close Reads monthly mystery series and the Dorothy Sayers class over at The Habit.
In 2024, I also read a number of books that I added onto my Forty Formative Books list and I have every intention of reading them all over again in 2025. That list includes Pride and Prejudice, Watership Down, and Kristin Lavransdatter. I could happily reread these books every year.
I also had several standout first reads this year. Rumor Godden’s A Fugue in Time, The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Viper’s Tangle by Francois Mauriac, and Creativity by John Cleese were all notable books of the year.
As I close the reading journals for the year, I am already looking forward to all of the books that 2025 has in store for me and my family. Some of them are already lined up, but I will keep space open for unexpected rabbit trails and deep dives. With book podcasts, reading groups, my ongoing Mallory deep dive, and my Forty Formative book list, I know that I will never want for reading options.
How about you? What books spoke to you this year? Did you read any books with family or friends? What are you looking forward to reading in 2025?
I love taking a look at our best reading experiences too! We also read the Wilderking trilogy this year, and my 7-year-old boy thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
So many good books on your list! I miss all the read-alouds we did as a family. Now that our kids are older, we don’t have the set times for those and they’ve fallen by the wayside. Thankfully they all like to read, though!
This was a heavy mystery year for me, too. I’ve reread most of the Lord Peter mysteries, and I’ve got one more book in the Cadfael mystery series—I was able to read two of them on our vacation this past week! I think those were my favorites this year.