2024 Master Reading List
I have the most fun writing about books, especially when it means getting to make a list of the books I want to read. Once again, I’m putting together a master list of all of my to-be-read books for 2024, including several reading challenges I participate in each year. I’m starting the year having finished all of my TBRs from 2023 and am ready to jump right into this year’s bookshelf.
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that I haven’t enjoyed reading as much as I used to, and I believe it’s from forcing myself to read too many books and on subject matters that don’t appeal to me, in the name of completing a challenge. This year, I want to remember why I started reading in the first place, way back in kindergarten when I loved picking up picture books and imagining myself in the stories. I love seeing myself in the protagonist’s shoes and getting to experience a new life, even for a few short pages.
So, one of my goals for the year is to take the necessity out of reading and do it for fun again. I also want to focus on the practice of deeper reading because I have a bad habit of reading a book and the next month, not having any recollection of it, often having to consult my review to remember the details.
It’s because of these goals that I’ve decided to step back from a few of the reading challenges I’ve participated in for years, namely, the RAD list, the Reading Glasses podcast challenge, the Back to University list that I adapted from a YouTuber, as well as participating in the Audacious book club. This last one was because I was having a difficult time getting the books in time and it made the book club stressful. I’ll still read some of the books, but when they become available at my local library.
For the ninth year, I’ll be completing the Popsugar reading challenge again. It’s one of my favorites and I always find some wonderful books while filling those challenge prompts. I’ll also be working through Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge again. This is a tough one that usually tones my research skills and allows me to read books in lots of different genres and from authors who are from different places and walks of life than me. This will be the fourth year that I’m doing the #ReadYourBooks challenge and the third year for the Big Book challenge, which encourages you to read books over 500 pages in length.
Rounding out my list this year are five books by BIPOC authors, five books about disability, five books about queer folks or by LGBTQIA+ writers, and one that I’m looking forward to, reading all the books on my library wish list that had dogs on the cover, a funny thing I mused about in a post last year. I also plan to do some intense research projects this year, including one on different religions and religious texts, and some detailed medical research. So, that will take up a lot more of my reading time.
I’m excited to start reading and hope you have some exciting books on your shelf for 2024. As always, I’ll be updating this list throughout the year and linking to my reviews for each book. If you want to follow along directly, catch up with me on Storygraph and see my master lists from previous years here. Let’s get reading!
Popsugar Reading Challenge (Count: 50/50)
A book with “leap” in the title - Leap of Faith by Queen Noor
A bildungsroman - Atonement by Ian McEwan
A book about a 24-year-old - My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
A book about a writer/author - Writers & Lovers by Lily King
A book about K-pop - The Birth of Korean Cool by Euny Hong
A book about pirates - Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
A book about women’s sports and/or a woman athlete - Rise by Lindsey Vonn
A book by a blind or visually impaired author - The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Bruni
A book by a deaf or hard-of-hearing author - Deaf Utopia by Nyle DiMarco
A book by a self-published author - Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
A book from a genre you typically avoid - They Were Here Before Us by Eric LaRocca
A book from an animal’s POV - A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry
A book originally published under a pen name - Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
A book recommended by a bookseller - Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
A book recommended by a librarian - Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
A book set 24 years before you were born - Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
A book set in a travel destination on your bucket list - The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick
A book set in space - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
A book set in the future - The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
A book set in the snow - One by One by Ruth Ware
A book that came out in a year that ends in “24” - Funny Story by Emily Henry
A book that centers on video games - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
A book that features dragons - The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
A book that takes place over 24 hours - They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
A book that was published 24 years ago - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
A book that was turned into a musical - The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
A book where someone dies in the first chapter - The Stranger by Albert Camus
A book with a main character who’s 42 years old - Open House by Elizabeth Berg
A book with a neurodivergent main character - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
A book with a one-word title you had to look up in a dictionary - Apeirogon by Colum McCann
A book with a title that is a complete sentence - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
A book with an enemies-to-lovers plot - Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
A book with an unreliable narrator - None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
A book with at least three POVs - Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
A book with magical realism - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A book written by an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated person - The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
A book written during NaNoWriMo - Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
A cozy fantasy book - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
A fiction book by a trans or nonbinary author - Melissa by Alex Gino
A horror book by a BIPOC author - Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A memoir that explores queerness - How Y’all Doing? by Leslie Jordan
A nonfiction book about Indigenous people - Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer
A second-chance romance - The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch
An autobiography by a woman in rock 'n’ roll - Rememberings by Sinead O’Connor
An LGBTQ+ romance novel - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
A book in which a character sleeps for more than 24 hours - Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
A book with 24 letters in the title - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
A collection of at least 24 poems - Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
The 24th book of an author - The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
A book that starts with the letter “X” - X by Sue Grafton
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge (Count: 24/24)
A cozy fantasy book - Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
A YA book by a trans author - Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas
A middle-grade horror novel - Little Girls by Nicholas Aflleje
A history book by a BIPOC author - An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
A sci-fi novella - Finna by Nino Cipri
A middle-grade book with an LGBTQIA+ main character - In the Role of Brie Hutchens … by Nicole Melleby
An indie-published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author - Coconut by Nisha Patel
A book in translation from a country you’ve never visited - Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
A book recommended by a librarian - The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
A historical fiction book by an Indigenous author - The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
A picture book published in the last five years - Just Because by Matthew McConaughey
A genre book by a disabled author - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
A comic that has been banned - Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges
A book by an author with an upcoming event and then attend the event - Hedge by Jane Delury
A YA nonfiction book - Before They Were Artists by Elizabeth Haidle
A book based solely on the title - Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed by Meghan Daum
A book about media literacy - Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America by Barbara McQuade
A book about drag or queer artistry - Martin McLean, Middle School Queen by Alyssa Zaczek
A romance with neurodivergent characters - Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
A book about books - Books by Larry McMurtry
A book that went under the radar in 2023 - What Have We Done by Alex Finlay
A manga or manhwa - Broken Pride by Erin Hunter
A “howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery - The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
A challenge from any of the years’ challenges to repeat - The End and Other Beginnings by Veronica Roth
#ReadYourBooks Challenge (Count: 5/5)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Big Book Reading Challenge (Count: 5/5)
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
BIPOC Reads (Count: 5/5)
Covered With Night by Nicole Eustace
Daring to Drive by Manal al-Sharif
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Somewhere Inside by Laura Ling
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Books About Disability (Count: 5/5)
What is Visible by Kimberly Elkins
Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu
Air by Monica Roe
Leg by Greg Marshall
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker
LGBTQIA+ Books (Count: 5/5)
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings
The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver
One Life by Megan Rapinoe
Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride
Books with Dogs on the Cover (Count: 15/15)
Good Old Dog by Nicholas Dodman
A Dog’s Life by Ann M. Martin
How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend by Monks of New Skete
A Dog Named Boo by Lisa J. Edwards
Wallace by Jim Gorant
Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson
The Possibility Dogs by Susannah Charleson
Bad Dog (A Love Story) by Martin Kihn
The Second-Chance Dog by Jon Katz
Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
The Dog Who Came to Stay by Hal Borland
The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig
Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalvan
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Dog Years by Mark Doty
