I usually write these recap posts in January, or maybe February if things are hectic. I can’t really explain why I’m writing this ten months late. There’s no excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024’s goal was the same as 2023\u201350 books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back, the overall quality from 2024 is pretty high. There’s nothing from this batch that I feel was a waste of time, and, there are quite a few gems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Elena Conis<\/a> The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration<\/a> by\u00a0<\/a>Isabel Wilkerson<\/a> Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH<\/a> by Robert C. O’Brien<\/a> I Who Have Never Known Men<\/a> by Jacqueline Harpman<\/a> The Simple Path to Wealth<\/a> by JL Collins<\/a> The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life<\/a> by Kyle Beachy<\/a> They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us<\/a> by Hanif Abdurraqib<\/a> Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole<\/a> by Susan Cain<\/a> The Order of Time<\/a> by Carlo Rovelli<\/a> Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/a> by Angela Duckworth<\/a> Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection<\/a> by Charles Duhigg<\/a> Articulating Design Decisions<\/a> by Tom Greever<\/a> I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend<\/a> by Martin Short<\/a> The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America<\/a> by Andr\u00e9s Res\u00e9ndez<\/a> Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice<\/a> by Dan Mall<\/a> Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art<\/a> by James Nestor<\/a> On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything<\/a> by Nate Silver<\/a> Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI <\/a>by Yuval Noah Harari<\/a> Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words<\/a> by Steve Jobs<\/a> As 2025 is getting pretty close to ending, I’m way behind schedule. 50 isn’t happening this year<\/em>. I’ll be lucky to get to 30.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So late, it’s not even funny I usually write these recap posts in January, or maybe February if things are hectic. I can’t really explain why I’m writing this ten months late. There’s no excuse. 2024’s goal was the same as 2023\u201350 books. Two years in a row, the goal has been met. Looking back, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[43,44],"class_list":["post-7601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal","tag-books","tag-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/reading-challenge-2024.jpg?fit=1600%2C1182&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7604,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601\/revisions\/7604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I don’t remember how I stumbled on this book, but it’s amazing. The cover alone, a model drinking a soda and holding a hamburger, in a cloud of DDT, is worth 10,000 words. This book has it all: history, science, corporate greed, short memories, and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read Isabel Wilkerson’s amazing book ‘Caste’ in 2023 so when this popped up, I was confident in my choice. This book, like ‘Caste’, won all the awards, and for damn good reason. It’s a history book, but unlike some dry histories, this weaves the story through the lives of real peeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw the movie ‘The Secret of NIMH’<\/a> as a kid and loved it. I didn’t understand the movie\u2013I was too young. It also deviates pretty wildly from the book. The book is more sci-fi than fantasy. It was written in 1971, and its really ahead of it’s time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love a good dystopian concept. This one hits all the best notes: darkness, survival, mystery, and a tiny spec of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe you’ve heard of the FIRE movement? Financial Independence Retire Early. This is the guide. It’s way more than that, and its simplicity and clarity are why everyone and their mother is recommending this book. I wish so much that I’d read this in college. I could have avoided so many mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disclaimer: Kyle sent me a copy of his book. This is not why I’m adding it to the best books section. It’s so rare for someone to capture the essence of culture. This book does that for the subculture of skateboarding, which I hold very close. Beyond rolling around on four wheels, ‘The Most Fun Thing’ touches on relationships, loss, again, popular culture, and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you love hip-hop, punk, post-punk, or basketball, you will immediately feel like you are in a conversation with a friend\u2013the one who knows the backstory of every song and who can read between the lines of every story. Hanif’s range is phenomenal. I didn’t want this book to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI\u2019m glad I read these
(in the order I read them)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
I loved ‘Quiet’<\/a> and this one is good too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love science books. Science + Time, yes please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book is quite famous for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m a visual communicator by nature. I can use all the help I can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve been working in design for a long time, and we can all learn a few things about how we communicate with the non-design folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is more than a comedy memoir. It’s very personal, honest, and yes it’s also funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book tells the complicated, horrible story of native enslavement in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disclaimer: I know Dan personally. This book maps out a design system practice that is actionable and realistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breathing is something we all take for granted. I learned a lot from this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m stealing this quote… A guide to our dystopian future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you heard about AI? I hear that it’s the future. Maybe we should understand it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had to read one more to get to 50, and this short, sweet, surprisingly personal book was a nice finish to my year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n