I started publishing my reading journal a few months ago, but I’ve been successfully keeping my own record since July 2024. To celebrate, I’ve pulled together the full list of books I read in the last 12 months, each with a 12-word review.
Key
RR means ‘re-read’
DNF means ‘did not finish’
I usually read eight or nine books per month, but there were a few exceptions. In August 2024, we were on a China tour with lots of bus time, so I read 14 books that month. In December 2024 (11 books, some very long) and January 2025 (13 books) I had a lot of free time over the summer holidays.
PSA: This is too long for email, so click through to read it online now.
July 2024: The month I start tracking
“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”
― Charles Bukowski, Post Office
The Voice In My Ear by Frances Leviston
An exquisite short story collection of ten Claires with difficult mothers. Stings.
Impossible by Stan Walker
An interesting Kiwi life. Heartfelt content with amateur execution. Editor sorely needed.
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Pretty fucked up and a bit rapey but still fun to read.
The World: A Family History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
So long that I will be reading this forever, like Infinite Jest.
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Dodgy evidence cited, mildy transphobic, but the recommendations and conclusions feel right.
Lit by Mary Karr
“This kid has a face like a caved-in squash.” - on her baby.
The Liars Club by Mary Karr
A chaotic childhood with a violent, loving family. Bleak and funny. Inspo.
Recollections of My Non-existence by Rebecca Solnit (DNF)
I found it too esoteric but maybe I am just too dumb?
Writing to Learn by William Zinsser
Book that should have been an article: the year I was born.
August 2024 : The month I am on a bus in China
“I made everyone up. None was what I saw; perhaps they responded to what I saw, but no one really was that. Each of them, Stephen, Katie, Elliot, my mother, the business people at the dinner parties, their wives, each of them was something entirely different. I made them up, gave them characters from within my own tiny view, assessed them, made them into people I knew. I simplified them. And then I reacted to what I had made up, behaved as if what I had invented was real. And of course they did the same time me. Absurd.”
― Joan Barfoot, Abra
488 Rules For Life by Kitty Flanagan
Funny and light just like she is on TV. But not memorable.
The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred Year Old Man by Jonas Jonasson
As funny as the first one how does he keep doing that?!
The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday (RR)
Re-read ahead of live performance in Sydney. Great, but a bit “bro”.
Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
Fucking intense, man. Plotless. Kept waiting for it to start properly. Didn't.
Abra by Joan Barfoot
Leaves her family behind to live in the wood in peace. Valid.
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews
Rare perspective from a very poor person who turned literary. Liked a lot.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Funny rich people do weird shit in enjoyable ways. Short and fun.
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
Novella of class, culture and crime. Witty and elegant. Lightly absurd perfection.
Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt
Anonymous workplace sexbots for bathroom fucking that are real secretaries. Amazing. Insane.
Some Trick by Helen DeWitt
I can’t remember anything about this book it can’t have been good.
James Baldwin: A Biography by David Leeming
This was genuinely insightful, but felt braggy. “I was besties with JB.”
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Excellent first half that becomes shitly infuriating. But I finished it, so.
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin
Too literary, too wanky, and too French. I liked the lesbian sex.
The Mires by Tina Makareti
The swamp is alive and there should be more books like that.
September 2024: The month we go to Japan
“I’d like to think that at as the lift swopped up the floors I sensed that something important was about to take place, that my life was about to split away from my expectation of it. But, of course, I didn’t. Who ever does? Life’s cruel like that - it gives you no clues.”
— Maggie O’Farrell, After You’d Gone
Waking Up White by Debby Irving
A well-intentioned book about white privilege that still smacks of white privilege.
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