This year was my second-best year of reading. I don’t necessarily mean that the books themselves were the best I have ever read. Rather, I tied for the most books I have ever read in a single year. Surprisingly, I finished 52 books.
Below are my recommendations, the books I found most interesting or impactful. My criteria is simple. Did it make me think, pause, or share parts of it with others? In some cases, I had to put the book down just to process what I had read.
It’s one of my favorite times of the year again – the season of the “best of…” lists! It’s also when your year in reviews come rolling in from Spotify, Audible, and fitness apps. This year, I even got one from Chick-fil-a. My wife asked if I really ate that many chicken biscuits. (Yep!)
This is also the season for reflection, and for me, that means sharing my top 10 favorite books I read this year. Most of the books weren’t released in 2024, they are just the best of what I read.
Do you like to read? I bet it’s safe to assume you do or you wouldn’t be reading a blog post about reading more books!
A question I’m frequently asked is…”Have you read any good books lately?”
One of the things I love about this time of year are all of the lists that come out…especially the lists about good books! It’s always a blessing to me when a friend, who is a great reader, let’s me know about a book they loved! Their trusted recommendation saves me time because they’ve weeded out the bad ones, and – just as importantly – the okay ones.
My hope with this list is to just give you the great ones!
At the end of every year I like to reflect upon the books I’ve read and evaluate my top reads. Part of the reason is because the books in the picture below represent a significant portion of my life this year. (The equivalent of 9 – 40 hour work weeks to be a little more precise.)
This year I read or maybe I should say “finished” 42 books. It seems I always have books laying around that I’m about 50 pages in, but didn’t finish. Most of the above books were great. The only one I’d recommend staying away from is the one in the bottom left. If you followed the advice of that book, you’d gain the world and lose your soul.
One of the bright spots of 2020 is that it gave us more free time at home. Especially during the early part of the year when there weren’t any sporting events to watch and external family activities came to a screeching halt. We picked up many new and long forgotten family activities.
I heard from many people who picked up reading again…and some who picked up baseball cards!
At the end of every year I like to pick my top reads. I’ve been keeping track of the books I’ve read for the last 20 years! Hard to believe it’s been that long! Over the years I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of books and this year’s crop was exceptionally good. There were only 5 that I wouldn’t recommend. (They are at the bottom left of the picture.) The rest you would benefit from reading, but the ones below are exceptional and are ones that I still think about to this day.
Did you grow up in a small town? The town I grew up in was so small we didn’t have a traffic light or even a blinking caution light!
When I was in college and people asked where I was from, I didn’t tell people the actual town I grew up in because no one would know where it was. Instead, I told them about the next town over which was much larger and at least regionally recognizable. Things aren’t much different now, because I still live in a small town.
At the end of each year I share my favorite books from my reading list. This is my 19th year keeping a list. My system is pretty simple…I put every book I read in a document, if it’s a good book I bold the title and if it’s exceptional I highlight the title. This year of the 43 books I read (see picture for complete list) I highlighted 12. To make it into the exceptional category the book really had to make me think. Some of the good books had great chapters, but I’m looking for books with all killer and no filler.
43 Books (Missing Treasure Island)
Below you’ll find the books that fit that description for me. With the exception of the first book they aren’t rank ordered.
Last week my wife and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary! How in the world can that be? In some ways it feels like it was yesterday that we said “I Do” and in other ways I feel the miles we have traveled together.
My wife is a Disney nut (I kind of like it too!) and she has always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. It seemed like the perfect splurge to celebrate our special milestone.
Do you enjoy your job? Do you look forward to going to it every morning? Are you a TGIF type of person or a TGIM (Thank God it’s Monday) type of person?
I meet a lot of people who endure their job rather than enjoying it. Some of these same people believe there must be a job out there that doesn’t feel like work. They’ve heard the old maxim, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never work another day in your life.”
