YOUR ULTIMATE 2024 READING GUIDE REVEALED: Unlock the best of 2024! 

This is so impressive, my friend. I love this. Thanks for an amazing video!

criminally underrated booktube channel. thank you so much for the inspiration in the majority of your themed videos

My adult daughter daughter was mildly shocked and amused when I announced that my reading list of 2023 had turned out to be a collection of novels with the theme of adultery: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Madame Bovary, Effie Briest, Anna Karenina, The Scarlet Letter. I had actually purchased these books whilst at university 40 years ago where I took a degree in science, and they had remained unread on my bookshelf every since. I'm rather glad I waited all these years to read them. My twenty-one year old self would not have appreciated them nearly as much as I have. Forty years of real life has given me a completely different perspective. Thank you for your video, Tristan! I'm ready to tackle a new theme in 2024.

Your voice and way of talking calms down my anxiety😊

I'm going to read Kazuo Ishiguro, H.G Wells, E.M Forstar and some from children's classics this year. Just finished The Buried Giant, in which I travelled through Britain in the olden days.

Tristan, I just love your non-pretentious approach to reading, and that you recommend intentional reading that results in self-betterment and growth as a person. Reading openly and according to personal preference and interest, but with a sense of purpose and focus, is most excellent advice!!

The best teachers guide and inspire, you are gifted on both counts. A reflective blessing to receive your insights . More please!

This video is exactly what I didn’t know I needed. I’ve been planning on reading only gothic novels this year, but after watching this I think I’ll just devote my year to reading one gothic novel a month and read whatever else is on my list that I feel inclined to read at the time. Thank you for the inspiration!

One thing that worked for me was to read a work in each decade (I chose the last 25 decades). It's interesting to see the shift of writing tastes, ideas that are important over time, and provides a lot of options to find one that fits your mood at the time.

Tristan, you’re an absolute delight! Thank you so much for all the work you put in to these videos throughout the year and for the copious amount of behind-the-scenes effort! It’s very much appreciated! Looking forward to a literary 2024…😊

Tristan, all of your advice is just so spot-on. Reading thematically like this is a wonderful idea. Also like the combination of discipline and freedom here. Thank you!

As an avid life-long reader (I'm 67), I've found that as I read a book, in one way or another, I may come across a new title or new author that I want to pursue. I "see something shiny" and want to dart over to this new title. My life has been a series of books leading to other books, authors leading to other authors. I love your approach here, because ANY list I may make in January will likely be abandoned in February. One exception was the series of Harold Bloom's masterful books on the Western Canon, Genius, How to Read and Why, Shakespeare, The Best Poems in the English Language, Novels and Novelists, etc. I was introduced to many new authors and titles. But it was an exception, probably because his "lists" were so varied in themselves. Anyway, your videos are excellent, and I always very much enjoy finding someone who loves book and reading the way I do. Thank you for your videos, and thank you for reminding us that FLEXIBILITY is the key to any "reading list" .... God Bless.

Enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of this video, thank you for all the insightful tips!

1. Ecclesiastes, Psalms, John, W.D Gann, The Magic Word 2. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Will to Power 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Collected Essays, Plato, The Republic 4. Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty 5. Mike Hockney Leibniz: The Last Man who Knew Everything 6.Mike Hockney, The Armageddon Conspiracy, The Noosphere 7. T.S.Eliot, The Wasteland, The Hollow Men, Orwell 1984 8. Henry David Thoreau Walden 9. Arthur Schopenhauer, On Music 10. La Rouchefocould, Maxims, Gracian On Life Smashing the like button with a hardcover book from Nietzsche for your thought provoking video. The truth shall set us all free. New US subscriber

great advice - just one suggestion, if you are going to follow an author, its much easier if they are not still putting out books.

Here is my list of 24 Gothic novels to read [or re-read] in 2024: 1. Castle of Otranto 1764; 2. Mysteries of Udolpho 1794; 3. The Monk 1796; 4. The Italian 1797; 5. Frankenstein 1818; 6. The Vampyre 1819; 7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1831; 8. Tales of Mystery and Imagination 1839; 9. Varney the Vampire 1845; 10. Jayne Eyre 1847; 11. Wuthering Heights 1847; 12. Woman in White 1860; 13. Uncle Silas 1864; 14. Carmilla 1872; 15. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1886; 16. Picture of Dorian Gray 1891; 17. Dracula 1897; 18. Turn of the Screw 1898; 19. Hound of the Baskervilles 1902; 20. Phantom of the Opera 1910; 21. Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James 1931; 22. Rebecca 1938; 23. The Haunting of Hill House 1959; 24. We Have Always Lived in the Castle 1962. If this list ends up being too ambitious for one year, it will become the 2024 & 2025 plan (Stretched to two years, one book a month).

I love the way you make it so easy to love and appreciate books, no matter what your taste. I think my list for this year will be books which I read and appreciated long ago, but to which I haven't returned - I realised at one time that I hadn't read as many American authors' works as I should, so I went beyond Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and Steinbeck to Salinger, Saroyan, James Jones and Henry James (whom I'd always found heavy going). I plan to reread them all now I'm so much older, and see whether my reactions have changed. Thank so much for another lovely video.

Excellent points on keeping reading an open door and an adventure.

You are an absolute delight. I listen to your videos when I am having a stressful time at work. It resets me.

I was an avid reader through my 20s and I want to fall in love with it again. I really appreciate your suggestions in finding a theme and creating a quote book. All the best in 2024!

Thanks Tristan, excellent suggestion in this video. Very helpful!!👏🏼👏🏼🇧🇷

Excellent advice. One more tip. Of the 12 you have chosen, pick 3 that are a re-read that fit your topic. Not only will you read it from (perhaps) a different point of view. Given that you have read it before, you will definitely get a different read than your first read and you will pick up so much more the second time around. Having a topic will enhance that re-read, also given you a firm basis to compare and contrast the new reads in that topic to the ones you have read previously.

The best advice I've heard on this subject. Thank you!

Another great video! I am such a mood reader that lists don't work well for me. I also find that If I create a TBR list, I feel too much pressure to get through the list. I now have goals like - " re read 2 of my favorite books", " read 5 Victorian classics that are new to me", " read more slowly and intentionally". I also have a small extra bookcase that has three shelves. I love to stock it with books I want to get to over the next several months then when I"m ready to select my next book I head over to that bookcase and It is like going to my own personal bookstore. I really love your idea of focusing on characters. I've never thought of pursuing that. I have in previous years focused on topics, like music or culture, and matched that up with fiction that included those topics. I recently started a quote book and it is the best reading adjacent activity i've incorporated in some time ! :)

This is such a motivating video - your enthusiasm comes right through the screen. It's also exactly the help I was looking for! I've been spending more time reading every year, and this year I got so excited and ambitious that I signed up for lots of reading challenges on top of a book club. To my surprise, I had one of my least inspiring years of reading, and I'm thinking it's because I followed other people's challenges and lists instead of creating my own. Next year I want to read all of Jane Austen's full novels, which are so conveniently six in number. What would be your favorite question to ask yourself about her books?

Couldn't you make a video explaining in depth the Victorian Era: like it's morals, ideals, culture etc. I have a feeling a lot of your viewers (including me!) would greatly appreciate that. :)

Thank you Tristan for another video we are going to visit again and again. I am a mother of two tweens. I’m excited to talk to them about what you taught us here. Wish I had a teacher like you as a child.

I love the idea of basing a TBR on character and character development! As someone who nurses a long held dream of becoming a writer, this will be like having Dickens and Tolstoy as tutors. Thank you for another wonderful video, Tristan!

I did keep a QUOTE book back in the late 70s and early 80s. I began it after reading Franny and Zooey, and took a cue from them.

Wow. This was incredible. Distilled here is all the reading wisdom I've gathered over twenty years. I wish I had this in my twenties. Thank you 🙏🏾

I’ll share what I did. So, I used the option of creating a Reading Challenge on StroyGraph but instead of having specific prompts for each month, I’ve just put down the 15 or so books I’m DESPERATE to read next year. And then one whole prompt, so to speak, is dedicated to “Books I’ve Been Thinking About” where I’ve added about 75 books that crossed my mind and that I wanted to casually read this year. So that one prompt allows me the to mood read any of those books whenever I want without feeling tied down to any of them. I also made a prompt of authors of whom I have multiple books: Nietzsche, Shakespeare, and Nabakov. Here again, even as I’ve made space for the three authors, I can read only one book by any of them or all three of them, or multiple books, etc etc. I’m quite excited by this idea, which came to me completely randomly, and maybe some or even one of you might find this useful 😄

Tristan you're wonderful about talking works of fiction and non-fiction but also the playlist suggestion gives me the impression that you're also a library/librarian-minded person. It's one thing to be passionate or knowledgable about works of literature but another thing entirely to be able to mine for knowledge in the world around us and share that with others. This is why I come to your videos because you are very great at talking about this topic. Also you know how to transfer what you know and apply it to readers of other genres so you really don't leave out other perspectives I feel that viewers might have when coming to your channel. It's valuable to all in that way. I really got into reading with post-modern, experimental, contemporary sorts of novels mostly when I was a teenager with Kurt Vonnegut and Samuel Beckett (also the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata who is great but for different reasons imo) and my love of reading and studying writing has made me flee that 'niche' a lot. I'm going to try to expand my Victorian Era works in 2024. For fun I'll list the 7 works (I can't narrow it to 6) I've chosen that I'll use your 'spacing out an era of interest' method on. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickins Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Ann Brontë The Warden by Anthony Trollope (people don't recommend this book because it's about boring priests or something but that sounds fine to me lol) The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins In The Year of The Jubilee by George Gissing

I like this idea of exploring one author for a year.

Great points Tristan! Love this! ❤

Tristan, so thoughtful and helpful as usual! Thank you ❤

Very helpful! One booktuber is doing a two-year Dickens mega read along, we’re about halfway through and I was delighted to recognise some references to some of Dickens’s characters and places in recent, more « mundane » books. I used it as an opportunity since I wouldn’t have read all Dickens in such a purposeful way on my own. It takes commitment!

Great guide! I've read two Virginia Woolf books, and I really want to read everything she has written, so she is going to be my purposeful reading topic.

Excellent video. Thank you, sir. 😊

I had been reading intuitively like this but you articulated it precisely with Purposeful Reading. I usually pick a country's literature or a time in history of which I'm interested in and read a few works about it. For example Spanish literature and reading Quixote, poets from the Golden Century, authors working in the lauded generations of 1898 and 1927. Feels like you get to know and appreciate the spirit of a place and its people.

Insightful video as always, thanks Tristan!

Love this new background in your video 😊

Thank you! Great video and great advices ☺️

Great ideas, thank you! My tbr has grown so much from your book haul videos. I look forward to the next one.

Your first point is spot on. I have my serious reading study mapped out. All well and good, lots of red pens and scheduled study time. In complete contrast...one of my favorite things is allowing myself to tag as many (free) audiobooks as I want that I can pick from to suit my activity, energy level, the season, etc.

An excellent scheme for a year of reading. Thank you.

You’re amazing! Thank you for helping me see a better way to deepen my reading experience.

Thank you for your ideas. ❤ Will pick them for 2024.

Brilliant. I do some of this naturally but you lay it out so wisely. Thank you for the reminder.

Great video! I really enjoy your videos on the classics.

I will go for the favorite author. Have complete Bulgakov so I can make a lot of choices.

Such wonderful advice, as always. Pragmatic and passionate - I absolutely love this channel and thank you for all the helpful, thought provoking ideas. ❤

You literally saved me with your analysis of my college novels reading list. Thank you, love your videos

I love this Captain! I have lots of books on my 2024 list because I want more room for mood reading. I also keep a commonplace journal, which is mostly quotes I love. The idea of choosing one subject, topic, etc, to focus on throughout the year is fantastic! Im going ro see how I can implement that. Great video!!!

Wonderful video with very interesting ideas. Thank you Tristan.

Excellent advice, great ideas and examples - you have given me much to think about. Thanks Tristan

Yes, I enjoyed your video enormously as always 😊. Thank you.

I love the idea of purposefully reading 6-12 books! I'm going to do this with non-fiction books about covert abuse, which is a topic I am interested in but don't find enough time to go in to in real depth. Then the other books I read can be from my fiction list, depending on my mood. Thanks for the advice!

This is such sound, sensible advice. Thanks so much for this, Tristan. Really enjoy your videos and always find something helpful. I think I will revisit some of Hardy’s novels and poetry next year but definitely won’t “overload” myself as that doesn’t work and then I just give up.

Patty-I loved this gave me some really good ideas for next year. Iv never really was one to pile a large number of books on a list. So i will read what siuts me at the time. I do like your quote idea and the questions for each book. I have a big box that is filled with books I've read already. I'm re reading them to see if I have a different impression or see something new in the story this time around. You always give me something new to think about. Thank you, Tristan.

Thanks for an amazing video!

Thank you this was very helpful!

Motivating, insightful and helpful! Thank you for a very inspiring video once again!

Thank you, Tristan. I made my 2024 reading list by genres just to tackle my TBR stacks which will help me focus on my reading goals. Appreciate your suggestions.

I love your videos. This is such great advice.

Nice group of suggestions Tristan. I started reading in earnest a few years back (after chucking the TV) and decided to make my goal to read the classics with the intent to see why these books (and authors) are considered classics. No time frame, no order, no era to target, just totally random. I also got ideas from my librarian sister and the BBC's "Big Read" survey list. It has worked great for me and I totally agree with your tip number 1. You have to jump around some. Dickens is great but you just can't read them back to back to back. They're typically very long and have a boatload of characters to keep track of. So when I've finished a novel like that it's time for some PG Wodehouse or other fun light reading.

I'm watching your classic literature playlist and combined with this video have settled on an interesting literature form to explore in 2024 - linked short stories. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien has been a fav since university days and more recently was really impressed by the Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, these two consistently make it into my favourite top 10 books so it makes sense to explore this form of literature more. I have made a list of 10 so far prioritizing either classics or books that I already own - the result is a fantastic eclectic mix.

This video is great. I was just thinking today how to set up my reading plans for 2024, so that I am not paralyzed by choice and my various interests, but not be constricted by a rigid plan. I decided to pick 6 fiction and 6 non-fiction books that I definitely want to read. And then you recommend the same thing on the same day! Your other tips were very useful, too.

Wonderful tips! I've really been thinking about what to read next year and thinking back to my favorite reads this year. I'm hoping by finding some books with similar themes, styles, or eras might give me some more amazing reads next year. If anyone is curious, the books that stood out to me the most this year were: First Love by Ivan Turgenev, About Love by Anton Chekhov, and The Life of Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.

Tristan, I enjoy your channel so much. Thank you for your insight. Hugs from across the pond.

This was very good! I am that person who makes a TBR of 30 books per year and then my mood or interests change . I feel guilty impulse reading something that isn't on my list, so I don't read either. This is really good advice!

Fabulous, thanks so much!

Just found your videos. Love them. Thank you..

Great ideas - thank you for this. I'm an older student pursuing a Masters. Most of my reading is assigned (and I love it) but I find myself way too connected to my phone in my downtime. I'm going to use your suggestions to inspire my leisure reading for next year. Fewer books than you've indicated, but less random and less likely to be abandoned because it will be purposeful and hopefully fun!

That's exactly how i do my reading list and selections. My Kindle is basically my list and I never select my next novel until I'm very close to finishing the current one. I find I'm more enthusiastic to read a particular book if I select it late. As you point out, it's important for a book to suit your current mood.

I had been building a fairly prosaic "ought" list for next year, but your approach brings much more fun to the planning without sacrificing growth and purpose. Thanks for sharing! I need to remember to share these tips with my students. 13:19

I really love this idea. I want to start keeping a reading journal this year, but most of the videos explaining how to plan for them seem to suggest that you just make a long list in January, and try to read as much as possible during the year, without any theme. To have six or twelve on a theme planned out, with 'breathing space' around those seems to be much more likely to work.

VERY helpful video, Tristan, thank you! While I have two graduate degrees, I am embarrassed to say that I am sorely lacking in having read the Classics. I am in the process of rectifying that, and have just filled a substantial part of a three shelf barrister bookcase with solid literature to keep me occupied for the next couple of years, not to mention whatever else I purchase along the way. I'm easing into it with some Dickens, and The Great Gatsby. I plan to have one 'Big Read' and 2 or 3 small-to-medium reads going at any one time. I figure that ought to keep things fresh and allow for wide latitude in choices. In addition to Classic novels, I also have short stories, Early American writings, and John Muir's works. And let's not forget plenty of poetry! Your channel has really inspired me to get my brain back in gear, Tristan, thank you! Cheers! -Greg

Brilliant video with excellent insight and reading advice. Now I need to select an author or subject I love. Dickens could be a choice or the Brontes’, maybe Shakespeare’s Comedies…

A whole bunch of suggestions ..at the beginning of a new year to put one on the right track .. of reading.. you could have named a couple of books one ought to read .. outstanding ones.. maybe in one"s lifetime.. Thanks .. .. very much appreciated.. for the tips

I have been avoiding "Lolita" by Nabakov mainly for it's reputation then I thought that others love James Joyce but I hate him with a passion. Well, on Tuesday I day down and started reading "Lolita" and finished it today. As for subject matter......revolting however, the writing is to be admired. I am still wondering why would a man write such a book if he does not profess to like girls between nine and fourteen ? I know, crime writers need not be murderers etc, but would I want to read Sade ? No. Here goes: what do you think of the book ? Do you think it deserves to be called a modern classic ? Well, will start my tbr list tomorrow 😊

I love your content.

Amazing video 💜 Can you please list all the books about the French Revolution? I am very interested in this topic and some details were not visible on the covers (also you showed only 5 of them). Thank you 😊

Thanks! I found this very helpful. I am trying to get back into reading and have decided on reading classics. I plan on taking on Orlando and Notes from the Underground first. What types of questions would you recommend I keep in mind while reading these? Thanks so much for any input!

A reading list? I dont even know what is the next book I read untill I pull it from a library shelf :)

Love how I discover this AFTER I made my bucket reading list. xD

Dystopian Novel : The End Of Silence by George Ernest

My personal book club has War and Peace Jan-April, and May A handful of Dust, Waugh.

I went through a period of time where I followed Dickens and couldn’t put down his books. Loved Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickelby, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, Edwin Drood. Any other recommendations for a fan of Charles Dickens?

I was actually looking for some sort of focus for my reading. I love Victorian novels but read far too few of them. Toying with the idea of reading 6 and then maybe 6 from the Bloomsbury group later in the year...

"For the majority of the time you're going to read for entertainment". I am? 🤔 Huh. Maybe that's where I've been going wrong. 🤓 Actually that's what I have been doing recently to get back into the practice of reading. Once I'm in my zone I can read most anything. But I'm out of the habit of picking up books at all. I can watch BookTube videos all day, but actually read or watch a great film for more than half an hour? My mind rebels. It's mush these day. I'm too easily distracted. 😜 Anywho, this was great advice. Will be giving it some thought!

Stupid me now has a TBR for 2024 of over 63 books. I am so annoyed trying to read at least 5 books per month because most are brick-sized and that causes rushing through to get to the next book. Awful plan. Tristan, thAnk you. I shall put the TBR choice of books in a haphazard way in a shelf and choose as I feel not as I intended. Kind regards.

I have the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, the Fadiman and Major Lifetime Reading plan, Time Magazine's 100 Greatest English Novels, and the 1001 Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die. I read more than most and would read more if my life wasn't a complete living Hell for the last decade.

❤

The best way to create a reading list, is to decide which piles of books, are most likely to kill me, if they fell on me or I tripped over them.

Have you read Frank Herbert's Dune?

Hi, Tristan! What day and time does your Patreon book club meet? I live in the States and am trying to determine if I can make the meeting times. Thanks! (Posted this comment on your preview of 2024 reads but wasn't sure if you'd see it since that video was posted months ago.)

Someone summary this video into a few points please

Thank you for your ideas. ❤ Will pick them for 2024.