My Top Ten Book Recommendations of 2024

Wow, what a nice and diverse list. You earned yourself a subscriber!

10. Fahrenheit 451
9. Crime and Punishment
8. Gone With the Wind
7. Jurassic Park
6. Recursion (Blake Crouch)
5. South of Broad (Pat Conroy)
4. Atlas Shrugged
3. 11.22.63 (Stephen King)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
1. The Brothers Karamazov

Best book I read this year was Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer - highly recommend and an excellent example of literary smut!

I love the variety in your top 10.

11/22/63 is so freaking good

it should be recommendations for 2025 so the audience would know which books to read next year

11.22.63 is THE best book King has ever written. It has everything.

Any video has a Pat Conroy thumbnail is for me!

Fantasy lovers, I recommend He Who Fights With Monsters by Shirtaloon. I’m absolutely in love with that series.

Thanks for this great list. Glad you mentioned Gone with Wind. This ia a great novel and it often is overlooked by most Booktubers. It along with Wuthering Heights are my all time favorites.

I do need to retry Blake Crouch, I love scifi so I have a feeling I would enjoy it.

Top 5 for the year:

5. Mania by Lionel Shriver
4. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
3. Strangers by Taichi Yamada
2. Blindness by Jose Saramago
1. The Corrections by Johnathan Franzen

Ian you should do a book-wrapped of 2024! That’s fun

Have you read Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides? It’s my fave of Conroy’s books

The Master and Margarita is another incredibly relevant book for our times. It's a wild one.

I read Recursion on your recommendation and omg the way this book made me feel!! Its also in my top 10, i will be thinking about this book for so many years i already know

Crime And Punishment, no, no and no again. I must protest, although, I am in a minority. The only value of this book is the historical sketch of Russia at the time, its society, hopelessness, mindlessness and misery. No surprise the revolution succeeded in later years. For this alone I give it a rating of 2 out of 5, instead of 1. But these were contemporary times to the writer, so what he basically did was just write about the surrounding reality. Perhaps the English translation has added to the literary value of the book, I cannot comment here as I have not read it in English, but it is not outstanding writing by any means. It is good, but not outstanding. A disjointed plot, lots of repetition and inconsistencies in the development of the main character. Perhaps intentional, but I doubt it, too shallow. Moral dilemmas very flatly handled, without any depth of analysis. The whole middle of the book is a series of repetitions of the same reflections of the main character, boring. I had to force myself to continue. The supporting characters are completely unreal, people unconditionally devoted to Raskolnikov despite his constant arrogance and sense of superiority. And the ending would put to shame many contemporary writes and filmakers using the concept of 'happyend'. Completely absurd, as if the author had no idea for an ending at all. Siberia, the land that cures sick minds, and brings them closer to God. How ridiculous. Having written all that, I know that many (too many if you ask me) will disagree with all the above completely. But to all thinking the same as I do, you're not alone in disregarding the Crime and Punihment as a great piece of writing 😊.

Just discovered your channel. New subscriber here! Lovely video!

Sounds like a good booklist! I read Fahrenheit 451 in high school and really liked it. Brothers Karamazov is sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read!

I recommend a book series and it’s Jack Ryan series and that is the author Tom Clancy I wanted is mind blowing hardly recommended it.

You should read all Stephen kings Bachman books, like thinner or the long walk❤

Any suggestions for getting out of a reading slump? I have been in the worst reading slump of my life for the past 6 months. I love the choices for your top 10 of 2024 and I have read several of them. My birthday is 11\22\53. I turned 10 the day that JFK was assassinated. I have read several books on the topic and really need to read 11\22\63.

I bought Recursion as a Christmas gift for my boyfriend after seeing your wife's vlog where you give it to her to read❤

Also, Top 10 books from 2024 (that I actually read in 2024)....here ya go....and yes, I am all over the place, I am a mood reader.

10. The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
9. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop By Satoshi Yagisawa
8. Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
7. The World Record Book of Racist Stories by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
6. Morning Star by Pierce Brown (this is the 3rd book of a series, so fair warning, go read the 1st two first)
5. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (3rd book in a series that is ongoing, fair warning again)
4. A War of Chaos and Fury Part 2 by A.P Beswick (ending to an epic fantasy series that is a retelling origin story of English Folk Characters coming together in Marvel Avenger type fashion)
3. The Dog Who Followed the Moon by James Norbury
2. My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Hi Ian! Happy New Year! I was wondering, I have never read any Stephen King books,what book would you recommend for someone just beginning a Stephen King journey?🙂

My husband is not a reader but I need some ideas by Stephen King to have a buddy read with him

Ray Bradbury said that Fahrenheit 451 isn't about censorship but about the negative impact mass media is having on reading. I can see how the opinion today that it's about censorship has taken hold, especially, as you said in today's climate where books are being banned in schools. But the lit major in me thinks we should also acknowledge what the author himself said about his book. I think I remember reading that Bradbury walked out of a discussion when an audience member said that he was wrong about the meaning of the book. I don't have a problem with using it as an attack on censorship which is important but Bradbury is also right about the effects of mass media on reading. Sorry for length, it's the academic librarian coming out. As a fellow ardent reader, what do you think.

Wow, you read some Tomes last year. But i am convinced, I will pick us Atlas Shrugged this year, and add in some Dostoevsky and Pat Conroy.

Excellent choices. You have good taste - I really only watch your booktube since so many others just promote smutty, poorly written books

The Brothers k truly is the greatest of all time! This video is great

East of Eden is a must!
Les Mis changed me.
Anna Karenina was a delight to read.

You have me curious about Stephen King. I'll have to give him a try.

I recently bought Fahrenheit 451 at a half priced books store, but haven’t read it yet. New subcriber here. You are my favorite book tuber and i watch a lot! Keep it up, man!

I'd read 7 out of 10 of those, and you have fantastic taste in books. I used to think Crime and Punishment was the perfect novel, but now that I'd heard your review of The Brothers Karamazov, I need to read it in 2025. I have a feeling it's going to be my new favorite as well. If you're interested in writing fiction, I highly recommend Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. After reading that book, I became an instant fan and bought a 2-volume set of his works.

Gone with the wind is my favorite book of all time! Tender is the Flesh is my favorite from 2024. I’m reading the stand right now thanks to you, it’s my first Stephen King book!

What an amazing reading year! Between Recursion, The Count of Monte Cristo, and King this is a great list! Also... this is how i found out Gone with the Wind was written by a woman :D

LIST OF BOOKS MENTIONED
----------------------------------------------
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Recursion by Blake Crouch
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I read The Brothers Karamazov this year, and although I loved it, it didn't beat out Monte Cristo. Agree to disagree on that one.

My top ten reads for the year is hard, because I have the top ten that really made me think and went in a direction I didn't expect, then there's the list that just delighted me and fed me as a reader.
So in an attempt to mix the two, here's my list, in no particular order:
1. The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place - Julie Berry. I recommend one book a year to my non-reader husband, and this was the one I picked. It was also the first book I read for the year, and it was just fantastic.
2. The Measure - Nikki Erlick, I expected this book to go a completely different direction, and I honestly loved that it never satisfied my curiosity. A lot of people hate it, but I'm okay with that.
3. Sleeping Giants - Rene Denfeld. This was a book I picked up by browsing. I'd never heard of the book or the author, and I will be reading more by this author, because this book blew me away.
4. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett. This was a long one, but it was so gripping I hardly noticed.
5. The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson. Non fiction. True crime, but in the weirdest niche possible. I keep giving this to my friends.
6. Sacred Pathways - Gary Thomas. Christian Living. Forever changed my day-to-day devotional life.
7. Home - Marilynne Robinson. If you've never read anything by this author, you must. They are character driven books, and each one is a gem.
8. Leviathan Awakes - S. A. Corey. I just loved the characters, regardless of the story. I was invested in them, and I'll continue with this series.
9. Recursion - Blake Crouch. Not gonna lie, I was not a big fan of Dark Matter, which I read early last year. I was gripped all the way through just to be deeply disappointed by the ending (it wasn't that I didn't like it; I just wasn't convinced). I gave Recursion a shot, because I had liked most of Dark Matter, and I'm so glad I did. It was truly excellent.
10. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. This is kinda tied with The Brothers Karamazov, but I loved how uncomfortable this book made me. It took something so ugly and, without excuses or pandering, gave such a blunt and yet not erotic picture of what it is to be in Humbert's head. It was disgusting and beautiful and full of compassion.

Loving this video! I need to read Pat Conroy’s South of Broad. I have read: The Great Santini, My Losing Season and one of my favorite books ever: The Lords of Discipline! (Also read the excellent: Tell Me A Story, My life With Pat Conroy by Cassandra King Conroy.)

Pat Conroy is great

My favorite book of all time is Knockemstiif by donal roy pollock

TBK HAD to be 1rst

I remember reading "Anthem" by Ayn Rand in junior high and while I liked it, her hyper individualism philosophy that bleeds through her pages turned me off from Atlas Shrugged and completely sad for anyone that practically made her philosophy their life motto, i.e. libertarianism.

Do you read more than one book at a time?

I appreciate your content

Pat Conroy The Prince of Tides is one of the best books I have read.

I have read a lot of Stephen King and I’m reading 11/22/63 now. I’ve heard so many good things about it.

I hope you read and review The Fountainhead at some point.

New to the channel so please forgive me: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett?

Those two Dostoevsky books are high on my list too. I read The Idiot and Notes from Underground last year too. Not as good (IMO,) as the Big Two, but still worth reading.

I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged- I started it in 2024, put it down for a few months, and picked it back up in Jan this year. I know this book is very controversial, especially due to the author's stance, but I think it's important to read books like this because they are supposed to make you think and consider some of your values and viewpoints! I'm still working through this chonky book, but I've had to stop and chew on some of the ideas here and there, stew on why a certain character or statement made me feel uncomfortable, etc. I've felt a bit frustrated with the tendency of folks to judge something on face value or immediately write off and judge something because it disagrees with their viewpoint; it seems to be becoming more and more common. If we are only consuming literature and entertainment that aligns with our world view, then we will never grow or develop as human and as critical thinkers. okay- rant over lol.

I really like hearing your recommendations w you are great at what you do!!