If you read more than two books last year, you rank in the top half of US adults. According to a new Economist and YouGov poll exploring Americans’ reading habits, some 46 percent of US adults didn’t even read a single book.
Me? I finished 105 books.
That’s neither a flex nor boast. Some people read more, others less.
Everyone should read books they find appealing. As long as people read they engage their minds and gain opportunities to expand knowledge, improve themselves, better understand the world around them and even enjoy transportive experiences. But reading just five books shouldn’t place you among the top 33 percent of readers in one of the world’s supposedly most advanced countries.
Should you start a book and later find you don’t like it, drop it. Move on to one you like. There’s no need to suffer through a work you thought you would enjoy but don’t.
Even though I read more than 100 titles last year, I didn’t enjoy them all and abandoned many. The freedom to cut and run helped lead to my reading more books than I have in the past, so I definitely encourage the practice.
If you’re looking for a few recommendations to boost your reading this year, here are 10 I enjoyed in 2023:
- Judas Goat, by Gabrielle Bates
- Old School, by Tobias Wolf
- This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
- The Church of Baseball, by Ron Shelton
- Walking With Sam, by Andrew McCarthy
- Splitting An Order, by Ted Kooser
- An Ordinary Life, by B.H. Fairchild
- Unshuttered: Poems, by Patricia Smith
- The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey
- Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
The list includes fiction, non-fiction, essays and poetry titles. There’s a little something in there for everybody. Here’s hoping one of these recommendations helps get your 2024 reading off to a robust beginning.
Erik Eckel 
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