Thursday, October 1, 2026
A best books of the year column seems like the thing to do when you write a literary column.
The thing is, though, I read a ton of things that I had to for school, for work, for this column, and there’s a bunch I didn’t get to. We all have some books we want to read, but for some reason we just don’t.
We don’t have time, we’re too stressed, we don’t want to engage in that topic/idea, or we just need to read fluff right now. I love a good fluffy mystery or a snarky thriller.
To be honest, I engage in tsundoku — a Japanese term used to describe a person who owns a lot of unread literature. I love having shelves full of books I could read, when I want to, how I want to.
It’s comforting, especially when I know I can never read all the books I want to. There are also reading time calculators out there, did you know that? I like this one a lot: https://howlongtoread.com/.
I also like to track my reading, and if I can encourage you to try a site besides GoodReads (owned by Amazon), I like to use https://thestorygraph.com/.
I am not going to give you a “best of list” this year. Lit Hub does that for us every year at https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2024-list/. It collates all the books on the best lists for the year, so helpful. What I am going to give you is a list of books that I read about and wanted to read enough that I actually bought them, but they are still looking pretty on my shelves. I really will read them, just as soon as I finish "The Secret of the Lady’s Maid by Darcie Wilde. " And my hot chocolate.
What I should have read for the year:
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whithead,
"James" by Percival Everett
"Cold Crematorium" by József Debreczeni; translated by Paul Olchváry
"The Book of Love" by Kelly Link
"Creation Lake" by Rachel Kushner
"The Serviceberry" by Robin Kimmerer
"You Are Not Too Late" by Nikki McClure,
"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan.
"Orbital" by Samantha Harvey
"All the Colors of the Dark" by Chris Whitaker
Pacific Northwest authors I plan to read this upcoming year:
Karl Marantes, Claire Dederer, Ned Hayes, Christian Carvajal, Stephanie Coontz, Tobais Wolfe, Willy Vlautin, Lucia Perillo, Alec Clayton and Jessie Kwak. Plus many more.
Looking forward to sharing with you more local books, authors and cool literary events in the coming year. I’m taking next week off, so I’ll be back on Jan. 6. Happy reading everyone!
Amy Lewis focuses her column on the literary world of Thurston County, spotlighting writers, small presses, book artists, poets, and storytellers of all types. Contact her – amy@thejoltnews.com – if you have a literary event, book, or reading.
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GinnyAnn
I'm an avid reader despite not having a lot of time to read. I appreciate your list of books that you want to read but haven't yet. I have read James (no way to italicize or underline the title here), and encourage you to read that one at least. It may be fiction on top of fiction, but it was fascinating. I'll keep your list so I can refer to it when I'm wondering what I should read next.
Tuesday, December 24, 2024 Report this
AugieH
So, how presumptuous is it to claim certain books are the best of 2024 if you haven't read them and regardless of what Lit Hub says? I've read hundreds and hundreds of books in my life and might recommend some to others but would never espouse any one of them as being one of the "best of the year" as the standard of measurement is too subjective.
Friday, December 27, 2024 Report this
DianaM
I am confused. The title of your article is the Best Books of 2024 but you did not mention the best books you read. You only mention the books you have not read yet. Well, I have those books on my to read list too. I am really disappointed. I read over 75 books this year and my favorite was Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. It may not be literature but it was just fun.
Saturday, December 28, 2024 Report this