Absolutely right there with you on Kaigen! Without the flashbacks, this would have been so much higher for me as well. I really do need to get to Nomads of the Sea still....Piranesi was a miss for me, but I totally get the love for it! I'm excited to dive into Carol Berg! Blood Song was so good! I really need to contine that series. I really need to just try Daughter of the Forest, I've been so curious about it for a long while! I loved Men at Arms as well! YoBy u definitely have me convinced on By Blood, By Salt!
That opening statement, I totally agree. A lot of years, some of my favorites of the year have come from stuff I have read, sometimes almost literally, at the end of the year
So with you on the year ending on 31 December. Always leaves me bemused seeing end of year videos in early December. I love Daughter of the Forest, so beautifully written and poignant. Sorcha was a wonderfully realised strong woman. Lord of the Flies is another book that deseves all the praise. It's so easy to dismiss the the Discworld books as just funny but there is so much more to them. Pratchett was a genius at satire. BTW love the earrings!
Oh, Daughter of the Forest! Every time I see it I am certain I will love it, and then I forget. Finally added to TBR for real. And I am honored beyond words for my book to be not only among your favorites, but so highly ranked!!!!
Oohhhkkayyyy I have Nomads of the Sea on my 2025 TBR. You and Kayla win 😅 Love the variety of books in here. Also, here for the best books of the year being released … after the end of the year 🎉
Happy New Year, Tori, and congratulations with the audio reading. It's something I'm trying to increase to make better use of time when I'm doing chores, etc. Nomads of the Sea sounds interesting. I've heard Kayla champion it before and think it's time to add it to my TBR. Piranesi sounds like a perfect read for me and Song of the Beast sounds interesting too. I read Blood Song years ago and it remains one of all-time faves. A certain book called The Blood Stones reminded me of it in several ways! Daughter of the Forest has been nestled in my bookshelves for years. I loved Wolfskin by Juliet. Lord of the Flies - that takes me back many years. Dark and gripping is a great summary. Like you, progression fantasy hasn't appealled to me but admittedly I don't know much about it, so it was interesting to hear about Iron Prince. Terry Pratchett - what an absolute master wordsmith. Love him to bits. By Blood, By Salt sounds perfect for me. I'm buying it and putting it near the top of my TBR thanks to this video. The cover sings to me too. I love that feeling of realising within a few pages of reading a new author that you're in expert hands and in for an epic experience.
Oh, Song of the Beast! I read it this year, too, and loved it. Another book by Carol Berg, Transformation, was the last book I read in December and I enjoyed it every bit as much. Now I’m very excited to finish the trilogy :) My other favorites were Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham, Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar, The Councillor by E. J. Beaton and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.
Amazing list! Adding some to my TBR 😊 My favourites of the year in no particular order were: Trials of Empire, Tainted Cup, Gideon the Ninth, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Pathogenesis: History of the World in 8 Plagues, Foul Days, Age of Empire, Ascendant, Clytemnestra
Awesome, I hope you enjoy them! Great list! I've heard so many people raving about The Tainted Cup. My husband just read Jonathan Strange and really enjoyed it once it got going.
I love Juliet Marillier’s books. My favorites are the Blackthorn and Grim books. And also the 2nd and 3rd books of the Bridei Chronicles (the first one is weirdly dry and boring compared to everything else she’s written, but I could hardly put the 2nd and 3rd books down). I’ve also been wanting to read The Sword of Kaigen, because I recently read Blood Over Bright Haven and loved it. And I have uploaded my best and worst of the year videos early so many times, but only if the rest of my December TBR consists of books I already know won’t make either list.
Juliet also said that Blackthorn and Grim was her favorite of the ones she's written, which makes me even more excited to get to it! I hope you have a wonderful time with Sword of Kaigen when you read it!
Well, good thing I didn't place any bets on your no. 1 pick, because I for sure would have put money on By Blood By Salt hahaha. Glad you had so many amazing books to gush about!! And I will for sure bump Iron Prince and Discworld back up the priority list. Happy reading for 2025 Tori 🥰
My favourite read for 2024 was Yellowface by RF Kuang. It was something completely new to me, but boy it was a good read. Regarding Terry Pratchett, I was lucky enough to meet the great man twice. I enjoyed his "adult" books except one - Unseen Academicals. It deals with football/soccer and I felt he could have touched on some real funny situation that happens in football, especially being from England
YES 🙌🏻 you help me prove the point. Tbh, I understand people who use December for rereads or take some time off. That makes sense. But December is often a great month of reads for me too.
Yes!!! My OCD self is alwats stressing when people do top 10 books of the year when theres still time left 😂😅 I had to wait to post mine until i was sure I was out of time lol
A great but little known BookTuber A Fictional Escapist put your Blood Stones as his top book of the year. Helping me find just loved it. His channel is great because he includes so many books the main channels never mention or read, but to date all his suggestions have been amazing. Many getting noticed by the bigger channels a year or so later. So glad you loved The Hobbit, it’s an often comfort re read for me, and a great audio for car trips with kids (or without kids) I love the channels that also includes the lessor known books. Nomads of the Sea added to TBR
I saw Kris' review of The Blood Stones and was completely blown away by it! I'm so thrilled that it resonated so much with him. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you enjoy Nomads of the Sea!
Great video! “the lord of the flies” is epic good, is the fly on the cover you own carrying a bores head? I haven’t read “men at arms” yet but one of my top reads of last year was “going postal” by Pratchett, so happy he earned your top spot
The books which I gave 5 stars to from this last year where: 1, Menewood by Nicola Griffith (actually 6 out of 5) 2, Blindsight by Peter Watts 3, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay 4, The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. And for a book that wasn’t quite a 5 star read but was very close is Rusalka by C.J. Cherryh. Edit: Forgot to add this to the last category, but Assassin’s Apprentice definitely goes there.
What a list!! What an awesome year of reading!! I totally understand the struggle of trying to place The Hobbit, it really embodies a very particular magic, doesn't it?? Nomads!!! Ugh, I need to get to that already!! YESSS to Piranesi. And so many amazing books to stack my TBR with! Here's to amazing reads in 2025!
Awesome list Tori! Daughter of the Forest has been on my radar so many times, and I keep forgetting about it lol. Piranesi was enjoyable for me as well. Blood Song is on my list to read someday as well.
Excellent choices! Discworld is my beloved series and I am really enjoying how popular is it gotten! Harry Potter was my Hobbit this year. I read it for the first time as an adult in my thirties. It was a strong year. So many great books! I read 40 books and that’s the most books I ever read in a year (if I don’t count comics and graphic novels).
I love that! I'm going to be reading Harry Potter for the first time this year in my thirties as well. :D I wish you an even better year in 2025 for reading than you had last year!
Awesome list! City Watch is just the best. I'm with you there on those top 10s at the start of December - I usually read straight into the last minute of the year, and then it takes me a whole while to look at all the Preciouses of the year and decide which is Most Precious 😂 Happy new year!
Great list! Some of the creators I follow who start posting their year end videos in early December run their year from December 2023 to November 2024. I guess it helps them space out their content. I love watching all the videos whether they come out in December or January. 😊
Thank you!!! XD There are definitely exceptions, like when people use December for rereads or to take a break, then it totally makes sense. But don't shortchange your December reads!
Hi Tori! Excellent list you got here. Piranesi has also made it onto my favorites of the year, and Daughter of the Forest has been on the tbr for too long. I'll definitely check out that interview with Juliet Marillier.
Thank you, Marianne! I'm glad you enjoyed Piranesi. Juliet was a delightful guest, and I'm so thankful she was gracious enough to spend some time chatting with me! It was a really fun interview.
What a great top 10! I'm still so happy you loved light bringer. I also thought Lord of the Flies was a great book. Fun fact though, and I was really suprised by this. Something very similar to that plot actually happened and I'd like to share that it turns out that the kids were really working together and Goulding is apparently known to be a misanthropic pessimist (according to biographic information). I'd put the link to "the real lord of the flies" article from the guardian here, but I think YT does not allow for links.
I'm not surprised to learn that Golding would be a pessimist. I also think that it really depends on a lot of factors, so I don't necessarily think Lord of the Flies is the inevitable destination for any situation like that. I'll check the article, thank you!
I’ve been saying the same thing for the past week. The last book I read in 2024 would have made it into my top 10, but I left it out on the grounds of recency bias. Great video!
Hi Tori, excellent list. I'm glad you started reading Discworld, there are so many amazing stories by Pratchett. I also read Piranesi this year and re-read Lord Of The Flies. My top 10 for 2024: 1. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey 2. Memory And Dream - Charles De Lint (re-read) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee 4. Dead Water - C A Fletcher 5. The Curse Of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold 6. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke 7. Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes 8. The Seasons Of Albadone - Elan Marche & Christopher Warman 9. The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter 10. The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld - Patricia A McKillip
I do the same thing where I track pages read. It's the number I care about more than actual books read. Read 22.5k pages vs 23.2k year, but 11 more books this year Average rating of 3.23 this year, 3.24 last year. Lifetime average of 3.29. Had way fewer 5's, but less 1's. Just a lot more, decent 3*s
Such an interesting list! Especially as I have only read three out of your top 10. Well, most of the other ones seem to generally be out of my reach, but you never know. As you asked for it, last year I read 134 books with 55 836 pages (a bit too much really), and my best 15 reads of those were in reading order (too hard to rank them, sorry!): Kaikessa lihassa on tahto by Jenny Kangasvuo The Spear Cuts through Water by Simon Jimenez Arrival by Ted Chiang Lahtarit by Anneli Kanto L’étranger by Albert Camus Die Enkelin by Bernhard Schlink Tiranan sydän by Pajtim Statovci De fattiga i Łódź by Steve Sem-Sandberg The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card Sydänmeri by Anni Kuu Nuppunen Röda rummet by August Strindberg Vadelmavenepakolainen by Miika Nousiainen The City & The City by China Miéville Jade City by Fonda Lee Have a great reading year Tori!
Great list! In 2024, I read and listened to several Discworld books. My favorite was Guards! Guards! followed by Small Gods, Wyrd Sisters and Mort. I can’t wait to read Men At Arms next. My favorite authors were Terry Pratchett and Guy Gavriel Kay.
Men At Arms is SO good. I loved Guards! Guards! but it was Men At Arms that blew me away and made me fall in love with the series. I hope you have a fantastic time with it.
I agree about the best of videos early December. I made my list earlier today and i'm already debating changing it... I'm really interested in Daughter of the Forest. I might try to read it this year
Yes! All hail Sir Terry. Just wait till you get to Night Watch. My top 10, in order: Set My Heart to Five, by Simon Stephenson, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle, The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand, Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinnaman, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker, Of War and Ruin by Ryan Cahill, A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor, Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson, and my book of the year: Flowers of Esthelm by pirateaba
I've heard that Night Watch is SO good, I can't wait. And YES love to see Iron Prince on that list! I'm also really excited to read All the Colors of the Dark!
Oh yeah Children of Dune was also cringe for me. I liked Dune, actually loved Dune Messiah and then stared into the wall in existential crisis and contemplating my life choices with Children of Dune. I think I finished that one on audiobook 2x speed because otherwise I would DNF it.
I read 128 books Here's my top ten Tales of the body thief by Anne rice book 4 in the vampire chronicles Clytemnestra by constanza casanti Queen of the damned by Anne rice book 3 in the vampire chronicles The maid by nita prose This could be us by Kennedy Ryan Good luck with that by kristan Higgins One summer in Savannah by terah shelton Harris Out of shape by gracie gold memoir Miss memory lane by colton Haynes memoir Her too by bonnie kistler Honorable mentions The violence by delilah s dawson Pack up the moon by kristan Higgins The mystery guest by nita prose Summer on the bluffs by sunny hostin
I don't do re-reads these days as I read more now than ever but if I did The Song Of The Beast would be on the re-read list. SPOILER: SPOILER: > > > > > > > > > > > > > How awesome was that moment when the dragon blasts him but it turns out to be a means of rapport?
So... The Hobbit should have been ranked in Zeroth place, above Men at Arms. I like Carol Berg. Her books are very good. I think she is far too unknown. And if you want to read more books by women, check out C.S. Friedman. She's great.
Haha! The Hobbit gets its own category. I've also heard of C.S. Friedman, and I want to get to some of her work. Any suggestions on a good starting place?
@@ToriTalks2 My favorite Friedman books are In Conquest Born (sci-fi) and the Coldfire trilogy (fantasy). So... a ten thousand year-long interstellar war or a place where anything above rudimentary technology doesn't work because natural "forces" react (primarily) to negative human emotions and cause things to break and/or create monsters...
I'm not going to count to 10 (base 10) for this list; we can just assume that I'll choose a base to make 10, depending on how many I end up with. Also, in alphabetical order by author, because ranking is too hard: Stone Cross (Arliss Cutter #2), Marc Cameron College Arcane (Demon Accords #8), John Conroe First Frost (Walt Longmire #20), Craig Johnson Exile's Honor, Mercedes Lackey The Wizard's Butler, Nathan Lowell The Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver #1), Bryce O'Conner Player Manager (Player Manager #1), Ted Steel Vanguard (Codename: Freedom #4), Apollos Thorne A Call to Arms (Manticore Ascendant #2), David Weber & Timothy Zahn What Price Victory (Worlds of Honor anthology series #7), David Weber, et al. The Rock Hole (Red River Mysteries #1), Reavis Z. Wortham A group award for the Penric & Desdemona novellas, by Lois McMaster Bujold, which are all very good to excellent. And a special award for the first 4 Murderbot novellas treated as a group (the first three are individually rather weak, but the first four tell a complete story that is very affecting.) Apparently 2024's answer is Base 13. 325 novels, 1 non-fiction, 17 novellas, 9 anthologies read Average rating: 3.53 And, just to get a bit of a jump on things, here are my top 10 books for 2025: 8-)
SO glad you loved Iron Prince too, it's such a good story. 325 novels is WILD. Haha I'm waiting to see people's top 10 of the year in September next year. XD
Don't feel bad for not liking dragons. I also think they are the most boring aspect in fantasy. I always say Dungeons & Dragons is best without dragons - and without dungeons.
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Absolutely right there with you on Kaigen! Without the flashbacks, this would have been so much higher for me as well. I really do need to get to Nomads of the Sea still....Piranesi was a miss for me, but I totally get the love for it! I'm excited to dive into Carol Berg! Blood Song was so good! I really need to contine that series. I really need to just try Daughter of the Forest, I've been so curious about it for a long while! I loved Men at Arms as well! YoBy u definitely have me convinced on By Blood, By Salt!
That opening statement, I totally agree. A lot of years, some of my favorites of the year have come from stuff I have read, sometimes almost literally, at the end of the year
Same!
So with you on the year ending on 31 December. Always leaves me bemused seeing end of year videos in early December.
I love Daughter of the Forest, so beautifully written and poignant. Sorcha was a wonderfully realised strong woman. Lord of the Flies is another book that deseves all the praise.
It's so easy to dismiss the the Discworld books as just funny but there is so much more to them. Pratchett was a genius at satire.
BTW love the earrings!
Oh, Daughter of the Forest! Every time I see it I am certain I will love it, and then I forget. Finally added to TBR for real. And I am honored beyond words for my book to be not only among your favorites, but so highly ranked!!!!
Yes! I hope you love it, Jayme, it's fantastic. Of course your book was up there, it's phenomenal, and I hope to get a lot more people reading it!
Great list! I'll have to check some of these out for sure.
Great list. I moved some of those up in my TBR as a result of your commentary. Thanks for sharing! Here’s to a great reading year in 2025. 🎉
Awesome, I hope you enjoy them, Palmer! I hope you have a great reading year in 2025 as well. :)
Oohhhkkayyyy I have Nomads of the Sea on my 2025 TBR. You and Kayla win 😅
Love the variety of books in here.
Also, here for the best books of the year being released … after the end of the year 🎉
Mwahahaha! My work here is done. 😂 I think you’ll LOVE Nomads, Kris. It’s excellent.
Happy New Year, Tori, and congratulations with the audio reading. It's something I'm trying to increase to make better use of time when I'm doing chores, etc.
Nomads of the Sea sounds interesting. I've heard Kayla champion it before and think it's time to add it to my TBR.
Piranesi sounds like a perfect read for me and Song of the Beast sounds interesting too.
I read Blood Song years ago and it remains one of all-time faves. A certain book called The Blood Stones reminded me of it in several ways!
Daughter of the Forest has been nestled in my bookshelves for years. I loved Wolfskin by Juliet.
Lord of the Flies - that takes me back many years. Dark and gripping is a great summary.
Like you, progression fantasy hasn't appealled to me but admittedly I don't know much about it, so it was interesting to hear about Iron Prince.
Terry Pratchett - what an absolute master wordsmith. Love him to bits.
By Blood, By Salt sounds perfect for me. I'm buying it and putting it near the top of my TBR thanks to this video. The cover sings to me too.
I love that feeling of realising within a few pages of reading a new author that you're in expert hands and in for an epic experience.
Thank you so much for watching, I hope you LOVE By Blood, By Salt! It's so good, and I'm so happy that so many people are picking it up.
Oh, Song of the Beast! I read it this year, too, and loved it. Another book by Carol Berg, Transformation, was the last book I read in December and I enjoyed it every bit as much. Now I’m very excited to finish the trilogy :)
My other favorites were Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham,
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky,
Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar,
The Councillor by E. J. Beaton and
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.
Fantastic list! I’m thrilled to see LPQ on there! 🔥🔥🔥
Amazing list! Adding some to my TBR 😊
My favourites of the year in no particular order were: Trials of Empire, Tainted Cup, Gideon the Ninth, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Pathogenesis: History of the World in 8 Plagues, Foul Days, Age of Empire, Ascendant, Clytemnestra
Awesome, I hope you enjoy them! Great list! I've heard so many people raving about The Tainted Cup. My husband just read Jonathan Strange and really enjoyed it once it got going.
I love Juliet Marillier’s books. My favorites are the Blackthorn and Grim books. And also the 2nd and 3rd books of the Bridei Chronicles (the first one is weirdly dry and boring compared to everything else she’s written, but I could hardly put the 2nd and 3rd books down).
I’ve also been wanting to read The Sword of Kaigen, because I recently read Blood Over Bright Haven and loved it.
And I have uploaded my best and worst of the year videos early so many times, but only if the rest of my December TBR consists of books I already know won’t make either list.
Juliet also said that Blackthorn and Grim was her favorite of the ones she's written, which makes me even more excited to get to it! I hope you have a wonderful time with Sword of Kaigen when you read it!
Well, good thing I didn't place any bets on your no. 1 pick, because I for sure would have put money on By Blood By Salt hahaha. Glad you had so many amazing books to gush about!! And I will for sure bump Iron Prince and Discworld back up the priority list. Happy reading for 2025 Tori 🥰
Honestly, my top three were so close! Loved them all so much. 💜 I’m glad you are planning on Iron Prince this year, I think you’ll love it. 💜💜💜
Great list! I'm so glad you're enjoying Discworld so much and look forward to seeing what you think as you read more Pratchett!
Thanks KFox! I'm excited to see more of Pratchett as well. :D I'm hoping to finish City Watch in 2025.
Iron Prince and Nomads making the list pleases me greatly
Both excellent. Iron Prince is an all time favorite
My favourite read for 2024 was Yellowface by RF Kuang. It was something completely new to me, but boy it was a good read. Regarding Terry Pratchett, I was lucky enough to meet the great man twice. I enjoyed his "adult" books except one - Unseen Academicals. It deals with football/soccer and I felt he could have touched on some real funny situation that happens in football, especially being from England
Great! Now I gotta read Terry Prachet too! Thanks a lot 😁 Awesome list!
Haha not sorry at all! XD I hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching. :)
I neeeeeed to read Discworld. Your earrings are fab!
Thank you so much! And yes you do, it’s so good. 🙌🏻
the last book I have finished of the year has been on my top list for the year in like 4 of the 5 years I have done a top 10.
You are stating facts
YES 🙌🏻 you help me prove the point. Tbh, I understand people who use December for rereads or take some time off. That makes sense. But December is often a great month of reads for me too.
Yes!!! My OCD self is alwats stressing when people do top 10 books of the year when theres still time left 😂😅
I had to wait to post mine until i was sure I was out of time lol
Fantastic list, Tori! My January TBR is weeping in a corner 😭
Mwahahaha oh sorry, I mean... sorry. XD
Thanks for watching!
A great but little known BookTuber A Fictional Escapist put your Blood Stones as his top book of the year. Helping me find just loved it.
His channel is great because he includes so many books the main channels never mention or read, but to date all his suggestions have been amazing. Many getting noticed by the bigger channels a year or so later.
So glad you loved The Hobbit, it’s an often comfort re read for me, and a great audio for car trips with kids (or without kids)
I love the channels that also includes the lessor known books. Nomads of the Sea added to TBR
I saw Kris' review of The Blood Stones and was completely blown away by it! I'm so thrilled that it resonated so much with him. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you enjoy Nomads of the Sea!
I agree....I read one of my top 3 books of the year throughout the month of December and my tied for #1 in November!
Great video! “the lord of the flies” is epic good, is the fly on the cover you own carrying a bores head? I haven’t read “men at arms” yet but one of my top reads of last year was “going postal” by Pratchett, so happy he earned your top spot
The books which I gave 5 stars to from this last year where:
1, Menewood by Nicola Griffith (actually 6 out of 5)
2, Blindsight by Peter Watts
3, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
4, The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.
And for a book that wasn’t quite a 5 star read but was very close is Rusalka by C.J. Cherryh.
Edit: Forgot to add this to the last category, but Assassin’s Apprentice definitely goes there.
Great list!!! I just added Nicola Griffith to my TBR last week.
What a list!! What an awesome year of reading!!
I totally understand the struggle of trying to place The Hobbit, it really embodies a very particular magic, doesn't it??
Nomads!!! Ugh, I need to get to that already!! YESSS to Piranesi. And so many amazing books to stack my TBR with!
Here's to amazing reads in 2025!
Definitely a particular brand of magic. I wish you many amazing reads in 2025, Zammar, thank you so much for all your support and comments!
Awesome list Tori! Daughter of the Forest has been on my radar so many times, and I keep forgetting about it lol. Piranesi was enjoyable for me as well. Blood Song is on my list to read someday as well.
It's so good! I hope you love it when you get around to reading it. :)
Great list!
Excellent choices! Discworld is my beloved series and I am really enjoying how popular is it gotten!
Harry Potter was my Hobbit this year. I read it for the first time as an adult in my thirties.
It was a strong year. So many great books! I read 40 books and that’s the most books I ever read in a year (if I don’t count comics and graphic novels).
I love that! I'm going to be reading Harry Potter for the first time this year in my thirties as well. :D I wish you an even better year in 2025 for reading than you had last year!
Awesome list! City Watch is just the best. I'm with you there on those top 10s at the start of December - I usually read straight into the last minute of the year, and then it takes me a whole while to look at all the Preciouses of the year and decide which is Most Precious 😂 Happy new year!
Thank you so much for watching, I hope you have an awesome 2025! So many preciouses in 2024. 0.0 It was a good year.
Awesome list Tori had me furiously writing down titles like always!
Yes! Here to destroy TBRs 😂
@ you do it too well 😂
@@Talking_Story Pot calling the kettle black XD
@@ToriTalks2 aww thanks
Great list! Some of the creators I follow who start posting their year end videos in early December run their year from December 2023 to November 2024. I guess it helps them space out their content. I love watching all the videos whether they come out in December or January. 😊
That makes sense, and I'm glad you've been enjoying them all, regardless of when they're posted!
i agree with you! gotta wait until the ACTUAL END OF THE YEAR lol
Thank you!!! XD There are definitely exceptions, like when people use December for rereads or to take a break, then it totally makes sense. But don't shortchange your December reads!
Hi Tori! Excellent list you got here. Piranesi has also made it onto my favorites of the year, and Daughter of the Forest has been on the tbr for too long. I'll definitely check out that interview with Juliet Marillier.
Thank you, Marianne! I'm glad you enjoyed Piranesi. Juliet was a delightful guest, and I'm so thankful she was gracious enough to spend some time chatting with me! It was a really fun interview.
Dude. Thank you for that intro statement.
I got you. 😂👍🏻
What a great top 10! I'm still so happy you loved light bringer.
I also thought Lord of the Flies was a great book. Fun fact though, and I was really suprised by this. Something very similar to that plot actually happened and I'd like to share that it turns out that the kids were really working together and Goulding is apparently known to be a misanthropic pessimist (according to biographic information). I'd put the link to "the real lord of the flies" article from the guardian here, but I think YT does not allow for links.
I'm not surprised to learn that Golding would be a pessimist. I also think that it really depends on a lot of factors, so I don't necessarily think Lord of the Flies is the inevitable destination for any situation like that. I'll check the article, thank you!
I’ve been saying the same thing for the past week. The last book I read in 2024 would have made it into my top 10, but I left it out on the grounds of recency bias. Great video!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed your last read of the year. :D
Hi Tori, excellent list. I'm glad you started reading Discworld, there are so many amazing stories by Pratchett.
I also read Piranesi this year and re-read Lord Of The Flies.
My top 10 for 2024:
1. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey
2. Memory And Dream - Charles De Lint (re-read)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. Dead Water - C A Fletcher
5. The Curse Of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
6. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
7. Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes
8. The Seasons Of Albadone - Elan Marche & Christopher Warman
9. The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter
10. The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld - Patricia A McKillip
So excited to read Chalion in 2025, and I'm thrilled that you liked Seasons of Albadone! Great list.
I do the same thing where I track pages read. It's the number I care about more than actual books read.
Read 22.5k pages vs 23.2k year, but 11 more books this year
Average rating of 3.23 this year, 3.24 last year. Lifetime average of 3.29. Had way fewer 5's, but less 1's. Just a lot more, decent 3*s
I included the pages because I had several people ask for that stat instead of the books read! I hope you have a fantastic year of reads in 2025. :D
Such an interesting list! Especially as I have only read three out of your top 10. Well, most of the other ones seem to generally be out of my reach, but you never know.
As you asked for it, last year I read 134 books with 55 836 pages (a bit too much really), and my best 15 reads of those were in reading order (too hard to rank them, sorry!):
Kaikessa lihassa on tahto by Jenny Kangasvuo
The Spear Cuts through Water by Simon Jimenez
Arrival by Ted Chiang
Lahtarit by Anneli Kanto
L’étranger by Albert Camus
Die Enkelin by Bernhard Schlink
Tiranan sydän by Pajtim Statovci
De fattiga i Łódź by Steve Sem-Sandberg
The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Sydänmeri by Anni Kuu Nuppunen
Röda rummet by August Strindberg
Vadelmavenepakolainen by Miika Nousiainen
The City & The City by China Miéville
Jade City by Fonda Lee
Have a great reading year Tori!
Great list! In 2024, I read and listened to several Discworld books. My favorite was Guards! Guards! followed by Small Gods, Wyrd Sisters and Mort. I can’t wait to read Men At Arms next.
My favorite authors were Terry Pratchett and Guy Gavriel Kay.
Men At Arms is SO good. I loved Guards! Guards! but it was Men At Arms that blew me away and made me fall in love with the series. I hope you have a fantastic time with it.
I agree about the best of videos early December. I made my list earlier today and i'm already debating changing it...
I'm really interested in Daughter of the Forest. I might try to read it this year
I think you'd really enjoy it, Kaat, especially with the dark fairytale atmosphere!
Yes! All hail Sir Terry. Just wait till you get to Night Watch. My top 10, in order: Set My Heart to Five, by Simon Stephenson, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle, The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand, Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinnaman, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker, Of War and Ruin by Ryan Cahill, A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor, Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson, and my book of the year: Flowers of Esthelm by pirateaba
I've heard that Night Watch is SO good, I can't wait. And YES love to see Iron Prince on that list! I'm also really excited to read All the Colors of the Dark!
So happy you are discovered Terry Pratchett. He was an awesome author and I love disc world
I'm happy about it too! He's amazing. Can't wait to read more this year.
@ I am new to your channel but am loving the show. Keep the vids coming
@@andrewwoodward7579 Thanks so much! Welcome :)
Happy new year!! 🥳
Happy New Year to you too!
Dang that’s two big hits for the iron prince-I think I gotta read it
I also 100% made my top 10 too early
Heck yeah! I hope you have a great time with it! I absolutely loved it and wish I could reread it right now. XD
@@ToriTalks2 it’s definitely out of my traditional wheelhouse, but something that seems can pull me in
Hi Tori, I read my first discworld book, Small Gods this past year. Daughter of the Forest sounds good.
How did you like Small Gods? I can't wait to get to that one.
@ToriTalks2 It took me a little bit to get used to Pratchett's writing, but by the end I was really enjoying it.
The Hobbit is on my tbr for this month, I’m definitely finally ticking it off my reading list in 2025! 🖤
I hope you have a wonderful time with it!
review starts at 4:24
I want to start discworld but I didn’t like Good Omens, and I’m pretty confident it wasn’t because of Gaiman 😅
I think Good Omens is different, honestly. The tone is different.
All 3 of the age of madness books are my top 3 books this year 😂
My favourite book this year: A Canticle for Liebowitz. Least favourite: Children of Dune.
A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of my all-time favorites. Phenomenal book.
Oh yeah Children of Dune was also cringe for me. I liked Dune, actually loved Dune Messiah and then stared into the wall in existential crisis and contemplating my life choices with Children of Dune. I think I finished that one on audiobook 2x speed because otherwise I would DNF it.
I read 128 books
Here's my top ten
Tales of the body thief by Anne rice book 4 in the vampire chronicles
Clytemnestra by constanza casanti
Queen of the damned by Anne rice book 3 in the vampire chronicles
The maid by nita prose
This could be us by Kennedy Ryan
Good luck with that by kristan Higgins
One summer in Savannah by terah shelton Harris
Out of shape by gracie gold memoir
Miss memory lane by colton Haynes memoir
Her too by bonnie kistler
Honorable mentions
The violence by delilah s dawson
Pack up the moon by kristan Higgins
The mystery guest by nita prose
Summer on the bluffs by sunny hostin
Lmao 🤣 I got you beat I still haven’t even recorded my video yet
😂😂😂 at least it’s AFTER 2024 😂
I don't do re-reads these days as I read more now than ever but if I did The Song Of The Beast would be on the re-read list. SPOILER:
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How awesome was that moment when the dragon blasts him but it turns out to be a means of rapport?
SO GOOD.
You said no shade and then dropped a lot of shade.
Haha it was pretty soft shade 😂
So... The Hobbit should have been ranked in Zeroth place, above Men at Arms.
I like Carol Berg. Her books are very good. I think she is far too unknown. And if you want to read more books by women, check out C.S. Friedman. She's great.
Haha! The Hobbit gets its own category. I've also heard of C.S. Friedman, and I want to get to some of her work. Any suggestions on a good starting place?
@@ToriTalks2 My favorite Friedman books are In Conquest Born (sci-fi) and the Coldfire trilogy (fantasy). So... a ten thousand year-long interstellar war or a place where anything above rudimentary technology doesn't work because natural "forces" react (primarily) to negative human emotions and cause things to break and/or create monsters...
I'm not going to count to 10 (base 10) for this list; we can just assume that I'll choose a base to make 10, depending on how many I end up with. Also, in alphabetical order by author, because ranking is too hard:
Stone Cross (Arliss Cutter #2), Marc Cameron
College Arcane (Demon Accords #8), John Conroe
First Frost (Walt Longmire #20), Craig Johnson
Exile's Honor, Mercedes Lackey
The Wizard's Butler, Nathan Lowell
The Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver #1), Bryce O'Conner
Player Manager (Player Manager #1), Ted Steel
Vanguard (Codename: Freedom #4), Apollos Thorne
A Call to Arms (Manticore Ascendant #2), David Weber & Timothy Zahn
What Price Victory (Worlds of Honor anthology series #7), David Weber, et al.
The Rock Hole (Red River Mysteries #1), Reavis Z. Wortham
A group award for the Penric & Desdemona novellas, by Lois McMaster Bujold, which are all very good to excellent.
And a special award for the first 4 Murderbot novellas treated as a group (the first three are individually rather weak, but the first four tell a complete story that is very affecting.)
Apparently 2024's answer is Base 13.
325 novels, 1 non-fiction, 17 novellas, 9 anthologies read
Average rating: 3.53
And, just to get a bit of a jump on things, here are my top 10 books for 2025:
8-)
SO glad you loved Iron Prince too, it's such a good story. 325 novels is WILD.
Haha I'm waiting to see people's top 10 of the year in September next year. XD
Don't feel bad for not liking dragons. I also think they are the most boring aspect in fantasy.
I always say Dungeons & Dragons is best without dragons - and without dungeons.