I consider myself a fairly avid reader, but parenting an infant for most of 2024 resulted in me being in a constant state of tiredness. In the first part, I barely read because I simply couldn’t concentrate on books, especially in the evening when normally is my prime reading time.

After returning to South Africa in August after a few months abroad, I found myself suddenly finding renewed energy (read: our son started sleeping a bit better), and devoured Bernard Cornwell’s The Warlord Chronicles, the two Ken Follett books in the Kingsbridge series I hadn’t read yet, and the full Harry Potter series.

Of the latter, I had only read the last three books; I had bought those not too long before migrating to South Africa, and had never gotten to the first four. It’s an odd way to read it, but I also saw The Goblet of Fire as the first movie before seeing the first three.

Next to that, I read several books with my kids. All the ones I logged in 2024 are worth reading. Most of them are hilarious, some are cute, and Here We Are was just beautiful. Finally, I read a few comic books, with Asterix and Cleopatra definitely being the recommended one.

Finally, I finished the second book in Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past series. While I can appreciate the novel, I struggled through it. The writing is complex, and when reading at night, I struggled to focus. I tried to find a Dutch translation on e-book, which I’m confident would’ve helped me enjoy it more, but failed to. The final book in the series is still on my reading list, but I’ve paused it for a bit.

Here’s the full list of what I read. If you only read a few, read the ones with an asterisk. Where I could, I’ve listed the English title. The likelihood is big I actually read the book in Dutch.

• Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, by Oliver Jeffers
• Asterix and Cleopatra, by Goscinny & Uderzo*
• Requiem pour dingos, by Jean Léturgie
• Gnomes, by Rien Poortvliet*
• The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu
• The Cave, by Rob Hodgson
• The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell
• The Evening and the Morning, by Ken Follett*
• The Armor of Light, by Ken Follett
• Killing Floor, by Lee Child
• Enemy of God, by Bernard Cornwell
• Excalibur, by Bernard Cornwell
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling*
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
• Aapje in het bos, by Leen Van Durme
• Van wie zijn deze billen?, by Thorsten Saleina*
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
• Moo, Baa, La La La!, by Sandra Boynton
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling

An overview of my past Goodreads’ My Year in Books can be found here.