Books I Want to Read in 2024

or hoping to read. I'm a moody and distracted reader.

Every start of the year I list down all the books I want to read. The activity of listing down makes me excited for the year to come. What book will make me weep this year? What will disappoint me? Will there be another addition to my ever growing all-time favorite books list? These are the questions that play in my head while writing. It helps build up my anticipation for the upcoming reading year. Life is one long stretch so fill it up with things to look forward to.

I don’t always get to read the books I had planned to read. Last year I listed 23 books but only got to read 6 of it. This year I only listed eight. These are the immediate books that I really really want to read right away. So here they are:

1. 1984 by George Orwell- No introduction needed for this book. I always wanted to read this book but didn’t really have plans any time soon if not for Emmie’s vlog.

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - Russian lit is known for its moral and philosophical themes written in beautiful prose so what better way to start reading Russian lit than Anna Karenina. This book has been on my list for the past two years. I haven’t got to reading it because I am such a distracted reader.

3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - same reason as Anna Karenina above. Plus, I really want to read the worst best book ever written (declared by the internet).

4. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker - This is book is a retelling of The Iliad through the eyes of Briseis. Give me any retelling of The Iliad and The Odyssey any time. I will read them all!

5. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata- I wanted to explore more Japanese literature outside of Murakami and Ishiguro so when I googled “best Japanese lit” this book is always on the list. Goodreads describes this book as “a powerful tale of wasted love set amid the desolate beauty of western Japan” so of course I will read this.

6. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino - This book inspired one of my favorite books of 2023, Cloud Atlas. I also heard that this is one strange book. It’s tagged as an avant-garde novel with shifting structures. It’s hard to describe without having to read it first so I’ll just pick a copy, read it, and attempt to write a review about it here.

7. La Tercera by Gina Apostol - It’s a story about a Filipina novelist based in the US returning to her hometown after the death of her mother. She tries to uncover her mother’s past and her supposed inheritance, La Tercera, a place that may or may not exist. I already mentioned this in a previous post but I wanted to read more contemporary Filipino author and Apostol is one of the good ones. Plus, the story’s location is a town just three hours from my hometown. I almost never get to see and read the place where I grow up in literature.

8. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield - A woman returns to her wife transformed after a deep-sea voyage. Whatever happened during their trip and before they got stranded on the ocean floor, changed Leah. And Miri, her wife, realizes Leah is slipping from her grasp. On the surface this is introduced as a horror novel but it’s about falling in love, loss and grief. This has such an interesting premise, I look forward to this!

What books are you planning to read this year? Tell me about it! Or comment you favorite books and I might add it to my never-ending list of TBRs.