GEOGRAPHY OF MY READING — 2024

Writing this reflection on my reading in 2024 was nearly as difficult as reading itself throughout the past year. That’s why you’re getting it as late as February 2025 :) In 2024, I had even more changes of location than in the years prior, more projects and commitments. All that, seasoned with (on average) larger and denser books, resulted in me reading less than ever quantitatively. 

And yet. I was urged by my loved ones (and by my inner nagger) not to let this tradition die. Despite a reduction in the volume of pages consumed, reading – and overall curiosity to all things sophisticated and unknown – remain an integral part of my personality: ever-changing yet weirdly resilient. 

The categories I ended up outlining are also much smaller than the ones you saw in my Reading Geographies of 2022 and 2023. But each book meant something to me in the year that has passed, and I sincerely hope that at least one of these will make it onto your 2025 TBR. 

Enjoy! 

FAVOURITES

This book moved me, in all possible senses of that word. I was intrigued, challenged, surprised, upset, and hopeful. I will be forever grateful to my best friend Polinka for gifting me this book on my birthday. She really raised the bar with that one, wink wink. 

“The Nerves and Their Endings” by Jessica Gaitán Johannesson felt like my anxieties translated into words and projected onto someone else’s stories. And while that might not sound like a good thing, it actually really was. I got to unpack so many things about my experiences with big and uncontrollable crises that happened to happen in my youth. Although climate collapse is the central crisis in this book, many of its ideas transcend this topic and apply to a myriad of other issues. It was quite soothing to envision a very considerate individual behind these pages, one that really tries to get to the bottom of things, to be aware of her own privileges, to empathise with others.

*I also highly recommend keeping a notepad nearby at all times while reading this book, since there are so many great references to scholarly and creative works of other fascinating people – many of them do deserve a follow-up Google search! 

THOUGHT-PROVOKING

I began 2024 with “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think” by Hans, Anna, and Ola Rosling. It did slightly tip the scales towards me looking at the world in a more positive sense (not for long though :DD). But I still think this is a worthy read, especially if you’re looking to get out of a reading slump while still wanting to get some non-fiction on your shelves. 

Same recommendation goes to “Virtual War” by Michael Ignatieff – albeit beware that despite a fairly fast pace, in terms of mood-setting this book does the opposite to the previous one. This is a report of the war in Kosovo that got me familiar with some context that slipped my attention when reading around this topic before, as well as got me thinking about some quite puzzling ethical questions. 

There is a book in this batch though, that is everything but fast-paced. And that is “Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life” by Clare Mac Cumhaill. Lord help those of you trying to read this while having anything else going on in your life. In all seriousness though, I bow to the authors of this humongous book, because the research they did is unbelievable (but rest assured, they didn’t leave out a single detail about the lives and interactions of Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, and all the people in their lives). Reading this book is worth the effort only if you are equipped with a friend reading it simultaneously, ready to discuss the contents of the book, or even just the pains of reading it.

Last but definitely not least, I finally got around to reading the works of Yevhenia Kuznetsova, a brilliant Ukrainian author. Her book “The Language-Sword. How the Soviet Empire Spoke” had a particular impact since her short and sharp chapters presented a well-researched argument of how the Soviet Union weaponised even language to its advantage, oppressing every language but russian. To my foreign friends – it would be a great pleasure for me to retell you the key facts and thoughts from this book, as there is no limit to learning about the horrors that have always emanated from moscow. 

EMOTION-EVOKING

This section consists of the limited few fiction books that were of any good in 2024. All three were a bit of a guilty pleasure for various reasons. “These Violent Delights” by Micah Nemerever was a certain…something. The plot is a bit sketchy, but that only fueled the tension. The ending (God, the ending!) was so bizarre and unexpected that I still think about it at times. And I’ve been told that good books are supposed to linger in your thoughts. 

Continuing with the theme of books that made me tense (as if I need more of that…) – one of Max Kidruk’s earlier works “Don’t look back and keep silent” was a surprisingly good thriller-mystery. Surprisingly not because Kidruk writes badly, quite the opposite, but rather because the premise of the book grounds upon a silly tale I first encountered in Wattpad ages ago, back when me and my classmates would hide in the bathroom at school to read horror stories. So I thought it would only remain that in my perception – a silly tale. Nevertheless, this book gave it an interesting spin! 

I was a bit late to the party with “One day” by David Nicholls, and I still haven’t gotten round to watching the TV series based on this book, but oh it made me sob! My best friend had the pleasure of watching me pace around the room absolutely flabbergasted by the ending plot twist. The book overall was heartbreaking in a “I got really attached to these characters” way, even though the character development was, let’s say, medium rare, not quite well done. 

DON'T READ THIS

As I mentioned at the start, this wasn’t my most fruitful year of reading. However, I did get a thing or two discovered in the process – such as that it’s not always about the volumes of facts and ideas I accumulated from books read in a year, sometimes it’s about books being a comforting (or challenging!) company in different moments of my life. That’s why for 2025 my reading goal is “Enjoy the books I read and enjoy myself reading them”. Hopefully next year’s Geography of Reading will have more books in the Favourites category! See ya’!