I suppose that if I am going to make a list of everyone else’s best reads of the year then it’s only reasonable that I do so myself.

I once again started the year strong but again tailed off towards the end of the year where I didn’t seem do any concentrated or sustained reading. I also, according to Goodreads experienced a significant lull in May & June. I think a combination of running and the nature of our active vacations mean I do less reading than I think I should in what might appear to be prime leisure reading time. But I definitely need to think about what happens in the autumn!

The result of this is that again I have about a dozen half-started, half-finished books littered about the house. As I result I didn’t quite hit my reading goals for the year but I did manage to read a reasonable amount.

In terms of what I read, I think I managed to read both more fiction and less pulp fiction. For a church leader I finish surprisingly few Christian books. Thinking about this I lay the blame on the amount I’m preaching (on average every week) and so what I need to read for that means I’m almost always moving on before I’ve finished the last one or simply don’t have enough time for additional non-sermon related reading. This lack of time for read for work or at least enough time to finish the books is something I’d like to change.

So much of my reading is a reflection of my leisure reading and the way I pick up whatever catches my eye. It’s the magpie approach to reading. I consider listening to an audiobook as reading but this year I listened to a fewer books than the year before and read more in the traditional manner but more on Kindle than ever before.

Goodreads offers the usual year in books stats.

The Books!

When it comes to Christian books I’m increasingly drawn to the ones that do two things: firstly warm my heart to Christ and secondly open my eyes to the ways Scripture does that. Probably my favourite book of the year was David Gibson’s The Lord of Psalm 23 which for exemplified both of those aspects. Along similar lines I also greatly appreciated Natalie Williams’ ‘Tis Mercy All, Fleming Rutledge’s Means of Grace, Zack Eswine’s The Imperfect Pastor and John Mark Comer’s Live No Lies.

Some of the best books I read this year were narrative non-fiction – cracking stories that also happen to be true. In this category David Grann’s The Wager and Sophie Elmhirst’s Maurice and Maralyn stand out and both happen to be about shipwrecks but in two very different ways!

Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A scenario brought the spotlight to an issue I consider to be somehow underappreciated and world changingly important. Everything Must Go was perhaps the book that gave me the most to think about it in understanding how our culture, secular though it is, has a deeply ingrained belief about the end of the world (here’s a good review of it by my friend Jeremy Williams). And my running book of the year was Michael Crawley’s Out of Thin Air

Everything Sad is Untrue sits somehow between fiction and memoir. It’s true but it reads like fiction in the best possible way. It was one o those books that was so good that it guaranteed I would read another or all books by its author.

Fiction proper I thoroughly enjoyed all of them but The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver stood out as funny, heartwarming & life affirming tale. You can see how she developed the voice for the brilliant Demon Copperhead.

My best overall listen was undoubtedly Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

Below is a gallery of my top reads of the year¹.

The Full Lists

Below that are the full categories (Fiction, Non-fiction) and then the same for audiobooks with favourites in bold. They are listed in reverse chronology (so most recently read at the top).

The last 5 Years Picks: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

Non-fiction

1. The Lost City of Z by David Grann
2. Seven Days That Divide the World by John C Lennox
3. The Lord of Psalm 23 by David Gibson
4. Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
5. The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine
6. Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions by Fleming Rutledge
7. Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie
8. Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dyck
9. Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst
10. ‘Tis Mercy All by Natalie Williams
11. Road Captain by Luke Rowe
12. Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes
13. English Pastoral by James Rebanks
14. Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey
15. Titian: The Last Days by Mark Hudson
16. The Illustrated Art of Manliness by Brett McKay
17. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
18. Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley
19. Live No Lies by John Mark Comer
20. The Wager by David Grann
21. Bourgeois Babes, Bossy Wives, and Bobby Haircuts by Michael Bird
22. Simply Preaching: A visual guide for preachers by Daniel Goodman
23. When the Time Was Fulfilled: Christmas Meditations by Eberhard Arnold

Fiction

1. Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies by Scott Adams
2. Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy! by Scott Adams
3. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
4. Mort by Terry Pratchett
5. Enigma by Robert Harris
6. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
7. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
8. Sparring Partners by John Grisham
9. Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson
10. South of Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver
11. Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
12. Beartooth by Callan Wink
13. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
14. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph
15. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
16. Black Tag by Simon Mayo
17. Yellowface by RF Kuang
18. The Other Wind by Ursula K LeGuin
19. Tombland by CJ Sansom
20. The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
21. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
22. The Children of Men by PD James
23. Camino Ghosts by John Grisham
24. North! Or be eaten by Andrew Peterson
25. Moscow X by David McCloskey
26. The Exchange by John Grisham

Audiobooks (non-fiction)

1. Auschwitz by Laurence Rees
2. Three Weeks, Eight Seconds: The Epic Tour de France of 1989 by Nige Tassell
3. The Race Against Time: Adventures in Late-Life Running by Richard Askwith
4. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
5. The Bad Popes by ER Chamberlain
6. Shackleton by Ranulph Fiennes
7. Becoming Johnny Vegas by Johnny Vegas
8. Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee

Audiobooks (fiction)

1. Excession by Iain M. Banks
2. How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse by Cressida Cowell
3. Dodger by Terry Pratchett
4. Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

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