Returning for its 9th year (I like a tradition), here’s a slightly overdue post on the best books I read over the course of 2024, rooted firmly in the concept that reading is still about the best way there is of learning about place, perspective, and… well, some of the best time I spend for sheer entertainment, too.I like the idea that there’s a tiny little element of paying it forward in making some recommendations (as a writer, there’s nothing like someone saying your writing is good, and as a reader, personal recommendations come top a lot of the time), so here I am doing exactly that.

I read less than normal in 2024. There are reasons for that, and I won’t get into them here, but my annual total books consumed (tracked diliegently on Goodreads ) was 38. I usually land on just north of 50, so perhaps this list was a touch easier to get on than normal (it remains at its traditional five books, which means by clicking through the links below, you can get at 45 recommendations over those nine years). Easier or not, I really like all these books, and that’s what counts, right?

(while you’re here, check out my top books from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

This was a departure for me: I don’t typically read a vast amount of fiction, and when I do, it’s not typically whatever happens to be the most hyped series that year (not least because I don’t tend to know what’s hyped – I read more than I read about reading, if you see what I mean! This sucked me in from the very start, though. Sitting somewhere in the realm of adult Harry Potter (the characters are at a ‘college’ not a school, and its not insignficaintly sexualised), Fouth Wing is an unraveling and mysterious world where our central characters are dragon riders in training with no idea what they’re doing. It’s powerful, intoxicating and the best page turner I’ve read in a long time. By the time I got around to writing this I’d finished booked three, but the utterly enthralling opener is still ahead for me. Wonderful.

Finding Gobi by Dion Leonard

There’s a strange story behind this one. Finding Gobi was sent to me in the process of writing a (not for public consumption) biography about a high-flying Scottish businessman from a working class background, as the kind of story that is the basis for much of his success. It follows the tale of an ultra runner who falls in love with a tiny dog that pursues him for miles across the Gobi desert during an ultramarathon, goes missing, and then has to be recovered from the unlikely environment of urban China, where he’s been let loose. It’s true, somewhat miraculous, and littered with incredible adventure befitting a serious distance runner. It’s also got that quality that I feel all the best non-fiction first person narratives have: here’s something amazing I did; let me tell you about it.

Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story by James Blunt

A dangerous confession for a music writer: I actually don’t mind James Blunt at all. That’s not to say I sit at home listening to his albums, but I was sent to review one of his shows in Seoul way back in 2007, when I was first starting out with music writing, and he charmed. I’ve kind had a soft spot since. More importantly, for the purposes of a book at least, the man is absolutely hilarious. This ‘memoir’ is clever, in that it implies a high level of truth whilst simultaneously denying it enough, you’d suspect, to just about avoid being sued. In practise, that means taking a pop at all sorts of things, confessing to probably illegal acts in his army days, and some horrible tales about his life in Ibiza. It also means the book is much more memorable than some of the beige tales of musicians that have emerged in recent years. It’s well worth a read. Seriously.

Hope – How Street Dogs Taught Me The Meaning Of Life – by Niall Harbison

I used to vaguely know Niall Harbison – we worked in somewhat similar circles around the Irish music and journalism scene perhaps 15 or so years ago. I didn’t know, but this book reveals, that at the time he was falling apart. I was never sure what to make of him at the time: he seemed to be the kind of bluntly successful man who charismatically swept through people, impressing without really touching the sides of any true meaning or connection, but it was a vague impression I formed from a distance. Here, recovered from a self-confessed time of serious addiction, he writes about his new life saving hundreds of street dogs in Thailand. It’s a touching tale of recovery, and a fantastic example of a man finding his place in the world. He’s humble, dedicated and full of stories, and has massive likeability. The characterisation of dog after dog wasn’t really my thing, but the story of the man and the evolution of his life’s meaning was glorious.

Led by Donkeys – by Led By Donkeys

If you followed British politics around the time of Brexit at all, especailly online, you’ll almost certainly have come across Led by Donkeys, a kind of guerilla online campaign to point out the more ridiculous elements of the Brexit leave campaign and its contradictory messages. What you might not have realised is that the whole thing was orhcestrated by a handful of friends with a small amount of online funding. Some impact! This is in some ways more of a memento of the Donkeys experiences, but the stories of their journey from first illegal billboard posters stuck up at midnight to a significant political force are extremely memorable, not least when they comically take down Nigel Farage with billboards and megaphones during his ‘march for freedom’.