It’s officially Nonfiction November #nonficnov and one of my favorite times of the year. Basically, it’s a month of planned and shared posts between bloggers around the world sharing their favorite nonfiction reads of the year. Some years are bigger than others, but I am always glad that it happens (thank you to those who organize it!) as it’s a fun way to find some new reads and hopefully a new blog or two to follow.

Most of my reading has always been mostly nonfiction, and with 29 of the 33 books I’ve read this year, 2024 is no different. So let’s dive in with this introductory week’s prompt hosted over on Based on a True Story (where you can ‘link up’ your own post if you’d like to participate): 

“Let’s start out by celebrating your year in nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorite books or topics?”

I read a lot of ‘books about books’. I’ve also read more political books than usual, but they’re all misses. I just haven’t found one that’s been worth the time. I’m not sure why that is, but maybe it’s just burnout on my part. Anyway… I didhave a few favorite reads that I want to mention, and then I’ll list the rest.

My favorite book I’ve read this year is Allen Churchill’s The Literary Decade (1971), which is about the Roaring Twenties and the literary scene. Lots of names you’ll know many stories I didn’t know and I certainly have never taken a look at them all (and their books) through a cultural history lens. Lots of names and viewpoints we know now are left out, but the writing is so well done that I went out and found a copy of Churchill’s The Improper Bohemians about Greenwich Village just to keep reading his writing. 

I also got a lot out of Adam Smyth’s The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives (2024). While not a new structure, Smyth does a great job of featuring many different folks who had a direct impact on the development of print culture. The book chapters each featuring one or two people. Sometimes they’re printers, or paper makers, or publishers, and even zine artists. It was fun.

And the winner of the pinkest cover I’ve ever bought and the book I’ve talked about most at get-togethers is This Is What It Sounds Like: A Legendary Producer Turned Neuroscientist on Finding Yourself Through Music (2022). This book by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas was amazing. It lays out all the biological reasons why music can affect our moods the way it does, and it also explains how (and when) we start to form our own individual musical tastes. Lots of fun stuff in here. Not to mention all of the playlists to help demonstrate the trends and concepts that the authors are talking about.

My fourth favorite book was all over the place for a month or two, so I won’t go on too much, but if you like books then Elisa Gabbert’s book of essays Any Person Is the Only Self is one you’ll probably like. She talks about books as well as authors she really admires and spins all this together to craft entries on art and ideas and a thinking life.

Anyway, below are the rest of the nonfiction I read this year. Please share in the comments if you’ve read something you think I would like. You can also click over and read this post if you’d like to participate in #nonficnov over the next few weeks.

• Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
• Son of Birmingham
• Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps
• The Libraries of Thought and Imagination: An Anthology of Bookshelves
• The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper
• The Art of the Literary Poster
• The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
• Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians
• In the Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
• Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice, and Observations from the Bookstore Floor
• Novelist as a Vocation
• Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning
• Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life
• Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale
• Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World’s Most Unusual Libraries
• Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer: Essays
• The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading
• How to Resist Amazon and Why: The Fight for Local Economics, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores, and a People-Powered Future!
• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: Their stories are better than the bestsellers
• Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution
• MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios
• Books Do Furnish a Painting
• Librorum Ridiculorum: A compendium of bizarre books
• Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism