My 2024 Reading

Photograph taken by on Tuesday, December 31, 2024
My 2024 Reading

My 2024 Reading

This was a somewhat light year in terms of the number of books read, 44, the fewest I’ve read since 2019, but only the second lowest in terms of number of pages (17,857). But while I like to read a lot of books, it’s really more about reading widely and I think I did that this year. The hardest book to get through was Plutarch’s Lives. I found it quite interesting but it isn’t an easy read (or at least it wasn’t for me). I also read three longish books (and one short play) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov, which also deals with life in the Soviet Gulag system. I read Emily Wilson’s new translations of The Iliad (2023) and The Odyssey (2018). There were only two books this year by living authors, which were also the only two written more recently than the 1980s.

As usual, the list of books is below. As always, you can sort the table by the order read (the default), title, author, and date written by clicking on the headings.

In case you are interested, here are links to my four previous year’s reading lists:

Order   
Read   		 Title Author Date    Notes
1 Complete Works of Horace Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, December 8, 65 B.C. – November 27, 8 B.C.) Through 27 B.C. I can’t honestly say I got a lot out of most of the pieces, but there were some interesting bits. His reputation as a Latin poet is quite good but of course I’m reading translations of his works so whatever beauty his Latin has is mostly lost. Still, worth a few days of work to get through.
2 The Advancement of Learning Bacon, Francis (1st Viscount St Alban, also known as Lord Verulam, January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626) 1605 I can’t say I found Bacon’s writing to be easy to follow, but I suspect that’s at least party because I’m not all that smart. Nevertheless, hard things are worth reading, even if you probably miss much of what’s actually there.
3 Love-Girl and The Innocent Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) 1969 This play is set over the course of about one week in 1945 in one of Stalin’s prison camps. It would, I think, be difficult to stage, with trucks being loaded and unlaoded and with a foundry where prisoners are pouring moulton iron.
4 The Three Clerks Trollope, Anthony (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) 1857 I enjoyed this book. As with most Trollope stories, it’s a bit like a soap-opera at times, but well written and enjoyable, in my view. A wide variety of characters, some likeable and others not so much.
5 The Boys In The Boat Brown, Daniel James (born 1951) 2013 This non-fiction ‘novel’ is subtitled Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That pretty much sums it up. Very entertaining.
6 Droll Stories Balzac, Honoré de (May 20, 1799 – August 18, 1850) 1832, 1833, and 1837 Written in the 19th century but in a form that is intended to hark back to an earlier era in France.
7 The Winter’s Tale Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) circa 1610 This has elements of both tragedy and comedy but ultimately ends as a romance.
8 In The First Circle Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) 1958 This novel was originally published in distorted form in 1964, and restored in 1968. This is the fully restored, unabridged, 96-chapter, canonical version, translated into English by Harry T. Willetts, published in 2009
9 The Count of Monte Cristo Dumas, Alexandre (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870) 1844 This is one of those stories that everyone’s heard of but I’m not sure most people have read. It’s a bit fantastic (i.e. based on fantasy) as a story, but somewhat exciting for all of that.
10 No Exit and Three Other Plays Sartre, Jean Paul (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980) 1944 No Exit is probably the best known of Sartre’s plays, with the message of the play often being summed up as “Hell is other people.” That’s a bit of over-simplification, of course, and there are only three main characters, which isn’t really enough to cover all of mankind. All three of these are pretty flawed and while we all are, I don’t know that we can project this as a universal truth.
11 The Iliad Homer (unknown) Eighth Century B.C. This is a new translation by Emily Wilson, published in 2023. It is presented in iambic pentameter, and in the introduction she discusses—among other things—why she chose that rather than the dactylic hexameter of the original.
12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin Stowe, Harriet Beecher (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) 1852 The label ‘Uncle Tom’ is used in the USA as a strong pejorative. While it’s well understood, the title character in the story is not, as far as I can tell, an ‘Uncle Tom’ in that sense. It’s true that he is obedient to his early master. However, he is also willing to die for his disobedience to his last master in order to protect another slave. So, as usual, it’s a lot more complicated that that. A well written book and definitely worth reading.
13 Why We Get Sick Bikman, Benjamin, Ph.D. 2020 Ben Bikman is a researcher specializing in metabolic disorders, insulin resistance, and mitochondrial function. This book spells out his view that insulin resistance is resonsible for a wide variety of ailments. It was largely through his influence that I joined the low-carb trend and subsequently lost over 75 pounds.
14 Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner, William (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) 1936 I find Faulkner hard to read and hard to make sense of. His stories are illuminating and interesting for their settings and characters but he isn’t my favorite. I have a few more of his stories on my shelf but I’m not in any hurry to read them. I will eventually, most likely, but not today.
15 Plutarch’s Lives Plutarch (circa A.D. 46 – after A.D. 119) Early 2nd Century Five stories, titled The Diver, Babette’s Feast, Tempests, The Immortal Story, and The Ring.
16 The Fortune of War O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) 1979 The sixth of the Aubrey–Maturin novels and I took a break after finishing a quarter of Plutarch to read this.
17 Wessex Tales Hardy, Thomas (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928) 1888 Of the seven stories in this book I had already read the three marked with an asterisk. They are: The Three Strangers*, A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four, The Melancholy Hussar of The German Legion, The Withered Arm*, Fellow-Townsmen, Interlopers at the Knap, The Distracted Preacher*. I read this after reaching the halfway point in Plutarch.
18 Hamlet Shakespeare, William (circa 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) circa 1600 Shakespeare’s longest and possibly best known play, the story revolves around Prince Hamlet’s attempted revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother.
19 The Surgeon’s Mate O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) 1980 The seventh of the Aubrey–Maturin novels.
20 The Satires of Juvenal Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis, mid to late first century to mid second century A.D.) Early second century A.D. I found these at least moderately interesting but perhaps not as much as their reputation might suggest. Maybe it’s just me.
21 Felix Holt, The Radical Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans, November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880) 1866 This story is set in a small English town at the time of the First Reform Act of 1832. It’s not among her most loved works but I found it quite enjoyable. While I have a physical copy of this book, the pages were so yellowed it made it a bit hard to ready so I resorted to reading it in electronic form on my phone.
22 August 1914 Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) 1971 Originally published in Russian in 1971, I read the final form of the book, published ten years later in 1981. It was released in the USA in English translation in August 2014. This is the first volume in his monumental eight volume series titled The Red Wheel, “on the revolutionary cataclysm of 1917 that ushered in the Soviet regime and the events leading up to the revolution”.
23 The Ionian Mission O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) 1981 The eighth of the Aubrey–Maturin novels.
24 The Odyssey Homer (unknown) Eighth century B.C. I re-read this in a new English translation by Emily Wilson (born 1971) and published in 2018. Like her translation of The Iliad, she chose to preset it in iambic pentameter rather than the dactylic hexameter of the original.
25 Nicholas Nickleby Dickens, Charles (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) 1838 to 1839 This is a light comedy and that’s something I think Dickens is good at. It has nothing like the weight of A Tale of Two Cities, which I think is wonderful. But this story is an enjoyable escape into the 19th century.
26 The Return of the Native Hardy, Thomas (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928) 1878 I read this back in 2008 and it was the second book by Hardy that I read. My memory of it was fairly vague and I decided to give it another read, now that I’ve read so much more of his work. After finishing, I went back and read what I wrote in my journal in 2008 and basically agree with what I said then. Not a particulary happy story for many of the characters, but like real life, it wasn’t as simple as that, with some joy mixed in with the sadness. It’s a really well told story.
27a The Satyricon Petronius (circa A.D. 27 – 66) Late 1st century A.D. This is the first of the two surviving examples of Menippean satire from the classical era, which is characterized by attacking mental attitudes rather than specific individuals or entities. The Satyricon details the bizarre exploits of the narrator, Encolpius, and his (possible) slave and catamite Giton, a handsome sixteen-year-old boy.
27b The Apocolocyntosis Seneca the Younger (circa 4 B.C. – A.D. 65) Late 1st century A.D. This is the second of the two satires in a single book. The full title—The Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii—is literally translated as The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. It is a satire on the Roman emperor Claudius which follows from his death through his ascent to heaven, judgment by the gods, and eventual descent to Hades.
28 Kolyma Stories Shalamov, Varlam (June 18, 1907 – January 17, 1982) Written from 1954 to 1973, published in Russian in 1989 and in English in 2018 These are stories, some autobiographical, about life (and death) in the Soviet Gulag, written by one who was there and amazingly survived.
29 The Birth of Britain Churchill, Winston (November 30, 1874 – January, 24 1965) 1956 This is the first of four volumes in Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, covering the period from prehistoric times up through the reign of Richard III.
30 The New World Churchill, Winston (November 30, 1874 – January, 24 1965) 1956 This is the second of four volumes in Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, covering the period from the reign of Henry VII, about 1500, through through the Revolution of 1688, also known as The Glorious Revolution. This was when James II of England (who was also James VII of Scotland) was replaced on the throne by his daughter Mary II, and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange (who was also James’s nephew), in November 1688.
31 The Age of Revolution Churchill, Winston (November 30, 1874 – January, 24 1965) 1956 This is the third of four volumes in Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, covering the period from the start of the reign of William and Mary in 1688 through Waterloo, including the American and French Revolutions and the empire of Napoleon.
32 The Great Democracies Churchill, Winston (November 30, 1874 – January, 24 1965) 1956 This is the fourth and final volumes in Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, starting after the battle of Waterloo and covering the Crimean and American Civil Wars, among other things, up through just after the start of the 20th century.
33 Treason’s Harbour O’Brian, Patrick (December 12, 1914 – January 2, 2000) 1983 The ninth of the Aubrey–Maturin novels.
34 November 1916 Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) 1985 This is the second volume in his monumental eight volume series “on the revolutionary cataclysm of 1917 that ushered in the Soviet regime and the events leading up to the revolution.”
35 All’s Well That Ends Well Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) circa 1602 A somewhat dark comedy, with a somewhat worthless protagonist undeservedly loved by an honorable and exceptional young woman.
36 The Stories of Anton Tchekov Chekhov, Anton (the more common spelling of his name, January 29, 1860 – July 15, 1904) 1882 through 1900 I really enjoyed these short stories or novellas.
37 The Mahabharata Vyasa (attributed to), also known as Krishna Dvaipayana probably written starting in the third century B.C. One of the two major Smriti texts and Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered in Hinduism, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa.
38 The Conference of the Birds Attar, Farid ud-Din (probably circa 1120 – shortly before 1220) late 12th century This poem is an alegory wherein the birds represent human faults which “prevent humanity from attaining enlightenment.”
39 Democracy In America Tocqueville, Alexis de (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) 1835 and 1840 The copy I have is an abridged edition by Richard D. Heffner of the Henry Reeve translation of 1835 as revised by Francis Bowen. I think he it too biased in favor or aristocracies and he doesn’t really mention some of the safeguards in the American Constitution against overwhelming majority (or mob) rule. I think those are important and sadly rare.
40 Amphitryon and Two Other Plays Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus, circa 254 – 184 B.C.) Early Second Century B.C. Amphitryon is a play involving the title character’s jealous and confused reaction to Alcmena’s seduction by Jupiter, and ends with the birth of Hercules. The two other plays were The Pot of Gold (Aulularia in Latin) and Casina, a Latin comedy.
41 True Spirituality Schaeffer, Francis (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) 1971 A wonderful book that sumarizes Schaeffer’s (and my) view of the true, spiritual life of a Christian. I first read this book in 1980 and was greatly influences by it then and decided it was time to revisit it. Highly recommended.
42 The Merry Wives of Windsor Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) circa 1597 This farce chronicles the mischief played by two virtuous wives on the roguish Sir John Falstaff.
43 Pericles Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) circa 1608 A late romance about a young prince who (SPOILER ALERT) loses and then regains his beautiful bride and daughter.
44 Chosen Short Stories of Thomas Hardy Hardy, Thomas (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928) 1890 One problem with short stories is that collections of them generally overlap and you end up buying books for one or two stories. In this case, it was for two that I hadn’t read, The Marchiones of Stonehenge and The Melanholy Hussar of the German Legion (both written in 1890), which I enjoyed.


Note about dates: Not all dates—either publication dates or birth/death dates for authors—are known with any certainty and some of them are not much more than educated guesses. If the work or collection of works was written over a period of years, sorting by date will use the latest reasonable and relevant date.

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