If You Only Read A Few Books In 2024, Read These

One of my favorite quotes — enough that I have it inscribed on the wall across the back of my bookstore — comes from the novelist Walter Mosley. “I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world,” he said. “I’m saying it helps.”

2024 promises us nothing but the same craziness as last year and every year before it. Maybe even new and worse ones. Almost half the world is going to vote for new leaders this year. Who will they choose? Conflicts simmer, which ones will explode? The only certainty about this upcoming year is uncertainty. Good things will happen. Bad things will happen. Things will happen.

What are you going to do about it? Will you be ready? Can you handle it?

Books are an investment in yourself — investments that come in many forms: novels, nonfiction, how-to, poetry, classics, biographies. They are a way to learn about what’s happened in the past. They’re a way for you to learn about people and human nature. They help you think more clearly, be kinder, see the bigger picture, and improve at the things that matter to you. Books are a tradition that stretches back thousands of years and stretches forward to today, where people are still publishing distillations of countless hours of hard thinking on hard topics. Why wouldn’t you avail yourself of this wisdom?