As 2023 draws to a close, many people will be taking a moment to hit the pause button and set new goals. As book lovers, this makes us wonder – which books are on your TBR list for 2024?
We’d love to know which titles from the Booker Library (the 600+ works that have been longlisted or shortlisted for our prizes over the years) that you plan to read in the coming 12 months. Maybe it’s the perfect time to pick up a classic that has passed you by, or perhaps you’d like to get to know the work of a newly Booker-nominated author. Maybe you plan to pick up a work of translated fiction, or perhaps there’s a novel from a particular genre you’d like to explore.
Please tell us which books from the Booker Library you’d like to add to your 2024 TBR pile – with a sentence or two explaining why. We’ll feature the best recommendations within an article on the Booker Prizes website in January.
I hope to go back to the early 1980's, I think, and Midnight's Children. It passed me by at the time but my tastes have changed and I'm ready for more magical realism
I've just started "Shuggy Bain" winner of 2020 Booker Prize.. There are so many others on my TBR list but strangely enough, nothing from this year jumps out at me. Perhaps all the
preceding hype has dampened my ardour! Will re-think again in 2024.
I´ve read Time shelter, The seven moons, Small things like these, The maid and a few others. Now I´m about to read Girl, woman other. The house of doors is on my TBR list.
I’m currently reading The Bee Sting, but I plan to read all the Booker winners I haven’t read - that’s 20 of them including Ghost Road, The Gathering, The Finkler Question and The Sea
I have read, The Remains of the Day, The Sense of and Ending and White Tiger among others. I would like to read the Conservationist and the Good Terrorist because i believe the writers who got the booker prize in the earlier stages of the prize made a greater penetration in my mind and also these two writers Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing also won the Nobel prize for literature so curious to know what made them click in both prizes.
I’m planning to continue reading anything by Elif Shafak- The Island of missing trees was magical & wonderful & has lead me to many more unforgettable places & people with her.
Cormac McCarthy doesn't show up in a search of that 600-book shortlist list (only Tom McCarthy does?). My plan is to read McCarthy and Martin Amis as tribute (Yellow Dog and Time's Arrow are on the list). As well, read Study for Obedience and Prophet Song.
I downloaded Prophet Song and was eager to listen to the audio book, but I quit after about 30 minutes, quite disappointed. I'm surprised the book won the Booker. The protagonists are so ignorant and naive, it's utterly implausible. A fascist government is established in Ireland and people react with incredulity? Well, this is where huge parts of Europe are heading, and large parts of the world. But maybe I'll give the book another try in 2024. I guess there must be something to it ;)
Booker titles feature strongly in my book group's selections every year. For 2024 reading we've chosen three books from the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist: If I Survive You, This Other Eden, and Western Lane; and the 2023 International Prize winner, Time Shelter. From previous years we're going to read Shuggie Bain (2020 winner), Flights (2018 International Prize winner), and The Memory Police (2020 International Prize finalist). So seven out of 12 titles are from Booker lists, and we're even thinking about automatically including the short list titles for annual consideration.
We like Booker titles because of their consistently high quality, the ideas they contain that almost always lead to lively discussions, and the wide diversity of authors and content. 2024 will be full of Booker reads and I can't wait!
I would like to read Adhaf Soueif's The Map of Love. Egypt of 1900 is a time and place I would like to know more about. I also love a story-within-a-story plot. A modern woman seeking details about her grandparent's lives in an exotic setting sounds ideal.
I'm planning to focus on African authors next year AND I'm going to try (yet again) to limit myself to books I already own, so my Booker-winning choices are The Famished Road by Ben Okri and The Promise by Damon Galgut.
The Bee Sting because I enjoyed Paul Murray’s previous two books, and Prophet Song because it beat The Bee Sting to this year’s Booker Prize, so should be good.
The world is currently reeling under the burden of wars of various sorts. According to me, what one requires the most during such times is a sense of empathy and cultivation of resilience as opposed to escaping from this reality. I find that there are three books that quite accurately relate to such chaotic times, and give a realistic portrayal of the potential dystopia and are therefore on my TBR. The books are:
1. Prophet Song
2. The Memory Police (Shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker)
As I gain the open mindedness of my 69 years I plan to read as many books as I possibly can by authors who have experience of being uprooted, exiled, & despite all, have a strong inner life... I just finished reading A German Woman in Berlin by an anonymous woman who lived through 1945 & the commuting of the Russian army.
Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, shortlisted for 2022's Booker Prize is a little gem (less than 120 pages) that I will now read every year at this time. It is full of hope but with a growing, nagging fear as you follow a good, good man in the days before Christmas in his home, at work and in his community in 80's Ireland. The dialogue is gentle and beautiful and the ending allows you to be hopeful despite your fears for the consequences of his actions for this decent man.
There are so many titles from the Booker Library I would like to get to but I think my priorities for 2024 will be Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan and The Promise by Damon Galgut. I own physical copies of both books so it would be great to get them read. I really enjoyed Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and would be interested to read her earlier work. I've heard great things about The Promise, I would love to join those who count it among their favourite reads.
One thing in general that I observed about most of the recent booker prize winners ( without any disrespect to their creative productions) in the last 10 to 15 years or so is the dilution of passionate intensity that was on display with the likes of Victorian Novelists or even some of the 20 th century writers. The dialogue has dried up, the story line drifts into nothingness and the theme seems to be incoherent. Is it the hallmark of post modernism that these novels are trying to distill or is it a reflection of the decadent times in which artistic landscape is getting barren? Or perhaps the reflection of my own limitations in understanding narratives that tend to view things from an unfamiliar perspective? What do you think?
I'll be enjoying the hot Sydney summer with Patrick White - time to read his classics again, especially The Vivisector, and The Eye of the Storm. And as the weather turns I'll be rereading everything and anything by Hilary Mantel, another novelist hero of mine. Also looking forward to rereading Olga Tokarczuk, Ali Smith, Keri Hulme, Muriel Spark and Andrew Miller - and the latest by Paul Lynch and Christos Tsiolkas. And it's time for me to finally read Elizabeth Taylor...A very full year awaits!
I am reading every Booker Prize winner .. next on my list are The Sea the Sea. and Holiday. I have just read the synopsis and they both look like fun reads (and quick wins off the list!) .. I am reading no 30 of 59 currently so quite an eclectic choices remaining!
The seven moons of Mali, The Promise, Trust, The inheritance of loss, the sellout, The sea, The vegetarian, Horse Walks into a Bar, The finkler question, True History Of Kelly gang, The white Tiger, The Line Of Beauty
Prophet Song sounds intriguing and now that it’s won the Booker must definitely be worth a read. I finally got round to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida last month. Found it hard going and got a bit lost at times but once I’d finally got the hang of it I understood what a brilliant book it was. I knew nothing about Sri Lanka, except for hearing of all the awful troubles there on the news so it was good to get a bit more of an understanding from that point of view.
I also read A Shining and The Other Name, Septology I - II by Jon Fosse and am looking forward to Septology III - VII and Is Mother Dead? By Vigdis Hjorth because I loved A House in Norway. My son and grandchildren live in Norway so I like to read Norwegian authors.
From the Booker lists I intend to read The sea, the sea (Iris Murdoch), as it is highly regarded, and I've only read one other of her works thus far (and only sort of liked, I admit)... Great Granny Webster (Caroline Blackwood), which has been on my radar for a while, but which I've failed to find a copy of so far... and Do not say we have nothing (Madeleine Thien) as it has such a great title! Many many other books on my 2024 list, but these are three Booker additions I'd like to try!
I would recommend "Same as Ever" by Morgan Housel. This book is full of wit. Housel cleverly chooses perfect, unforgettable stories to convey the satisfaction and lessons of various desires.
I'm currently reading NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory. Im finding it funny, engaging and informative. Just finished Percival Everett, The Trees - laught out loud hilarious, sickening and engaging in equal measure. I'll read more of him.
There are 4 Booker listees in the first 13 of my TBR shelf.
1) Ali Smith, Autumn. I tried How To Be Both but didn't get very far. Developed a taste for Brexit stories via Jonathan Coe, so am looking forward to another. Also, just about everyone tells me how great it is and I must run with the crowd.
2) Shehan Karanatilaka, Seven Moons. Yes you're right, I bought the whole shortlist last year and am only now getting to some. I like to sprinkle a few gay themed stories through the TBR's too.
3) Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake. Several recommends from officionados of Atwood and I broke my duck with Alias Grace last year.
4) Madeliene Thien, Do not say we have nothing. I'm a sucker for a complex, multi-generational family /world history story.
I am curious about Palestinian novelist's Adania Shibli's Minor Detail, given the controversy over a canceled celebration for her work in Germany. It was longlisted for the International Booker in 2021. It feels like a timely read. Borders currently fascinate me, which is why I also intend to read Olga Tokarczuk's Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead. I also want to read John Banville's 1989 The Book of Evidence, because his interest in language, makes for a very rich text, unlike the spare style favored by many other contemporary novelists.
I'll start with Javier Cercas, but will read "The Impostor" in Spanish. I see that "El ruido de las cosas al caer" is also on the list., but since I've already read it, the second book of the year will be "La forma de las ruinas."
I’m currently reading The Prophet Song and in my TBR are: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Pearl, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Milkman.
Well, the entire long list will be my TBR as soon as it is announced. While awaiting that, I’ll read Tinkers and also Enon, both of which I purchased as soon as I finished This Other Eden.
I come to the Booker lists to find books that I may not have seen, books that bring a new perspective, make me think and wonder. I loved Time Shelter and Birnam Wood. I stopped and re-experienced moments in Trust. For 2024, the first one will be Pearl by Hughes, because I studied the poem know that art has great power.
The Garden of Evening Mists: I read an excerpt, the writing is absolutely exquisite and so atmospheric I want to steep in it. The Remains of the Day: to give myself another chance to enjoy Kazuo Ishiguro, I didn't like Never Let Me Go, too much dystopia, I'm hoping I can relate to this valet's life and musings. The Little Stranger: you introduced me to it last week, I read an excerpt, I didn't want it to end, I am so intrigued.
Since 2018 i read the full longlist. But i give myself all year. I try to get to longer books first and on audio. I’m reading This Other Eden now and I have five others to read before the 2024 longlist is released. 🙂
I have read 10 with the exception of Prophet Song, The Bee Sting and All the Little Bird-Hearts. I plan to finish these 3 in January. Then the wait starts for the Int'l Booker!
My upcoming choice for the bookclub I’m in is Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End. More and more, I’m becoming a big fan of contemporary Irish writers.
Having read A Brief History of Seven Killings a few years ago (sometimes struggling & sometimes excitedly zooming through it) - or rather two thirds of it, I’m looking forward to completing the marathon in 2024!
I hope to go back to the early 1980's, I think, and Midnight's Children. It passed me by at the time but my tastes have changed and I'm ready for more magical realism
I've just started "Shuggy Bain" winner of 2020 Booker Prize.. There are so many others on my TBR list but strangely enough, nothing from this year jumps out at me. Perhaps all the
preceding hype has dampened my ardour! Will re-think again in 2024.
I have read The Bee Sting. North Woods and Birnham Wood are on my TBR list.
House of Doors. The author's language is always wonderful and he writes about important subjects. I've read everything by him.
I´ve read Time shelter, The seven moons, Small things like these, The maid and a few others. Now I´m about to read Girl, woman other. The house of doors is on my TBR list.
I’m currently reading The Bee Sting, but I plan to read all the Booker winners I haven’t read - that’s 20 of them including Ghost Road, The Gathering, The Finkler Question and The Sea
I have read, The Remains of the Day, The Sense of and Ending and White Tiger among others. I would like to read the Conservationist and the Good Terrorist because i believe the writers who got the booker prize in the earlier stages of the prize made a greater penetration in my mind and also these two writers Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing also won the Nobel prize for literature so curious to know what made them click in both prizes.
I’m planning to continue reading anything by Elif Shafak- The Island of missing trees was magical & wonderful & has lead me to many more unforgettable places & people with her.
I plan to have another go with A Brief History Of Seven Killings. I gave up after about fifty pages because I struggled with the Jamaican patois.
Cormac McCarthy doesn't show up in a search of that 600-book shortlist list (only Tom McCarthy does?). My plan is to read McCarthy and Martin Amis as tribute (Yellow Dog and Time's Arrow are on the list). As well, read Study for Obedience and Prophet Song.
I downloaded Prophet Song and was eager to listen to the audio book, but I quit after about 30 minutes, quite disappointed. I'm surprised the book won the Booker. The protagonists are so ignorant and naive, it's utterly implausible. A fascist government is established in Ireland and people react with incredulity? Well, this is where huge parts of Europe are heading, and large parts of the world. But maybe I'll give the book another try in 2024. I guess there must be something to it ;)
The House of Doors is on my list to read. I've read Prophet Song, The Bee Sting, and This Other Eden.
Booker titles feature strongly in my book group's selections every year. For 2024 reading we've chosen three books from the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist: If I Survive You, This Other Eden, and Western Lane; and the 2023 International Prize winner, Time Shelter. From previous years we're going to read Shuggie Bain (2020 winner), Flights (2018 International Prize winner), and The Memory Police (2020 International Prize finalist). So seven out of 12 titles are from Booker lists, and we're even thinking about automatically including the short list titles for annual consideration.
We like Booker titles because of their consistently high quality, the ideas they contain that almost always lead to lively discussions, and the wide diversity of authors and content. 2024 will be full of Booker reads and I can't wait!
I would like to read Adhaf Soueif's The Map of Love. Egypt of 1900 is a time and place I would like to know more about. I also love a story-within-a-story plot. A modern woman seeking details about her grandparent's lives in an exotic setting sounds ideal.
I'm planning to focus on African authors next year AND I'm going to try (yet again) to limit myself to books I already own, so my Booker-winning choices are The Famished Road by Ben Okri and The Promise by Damon Galgut.
The Bee Sting because I enjoyed Paul Murray’s previous two books, and Prophet Song because it beat The Bee Sting to this year’s Booker Prize, so should be good.
The Bee sting is on my list for 2024 .
The Promise , is one I highly recommend .
The world is currently reeling under the burden of wars of various sorts. According to me, what one requires the most during such times is a sense of empathy and cultivation of resilience as opposed to escaping from this reality. I find that there are three books that quite accurately relate to such chaotic times, and give a realistic portrayal of the potential dystopia and are therefore on my TBR. The books are:
1. Prophet Song
2. The Memory Police (Shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker)
3. The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida.
I look forward to reading This Other Eden, Prophet Song, and The Bee Sting
The Bee Sting and North Woods, as soon as Santa delivers them...
I have read If I Survive You. Prophet Song and The Bee Sting are on my To Read list.
Just started Lost Children Archive - been on my list for a while
As I gain the open mindedness of my 69 years I plan to read as many books as I possibly can by authors who have experience of being uprooted, exiled, & despite all, have a strong inner life... I just finished reading A German Woman in Berlin by an anonymous woman who lived through 1945 & the commuting of the Russian army.
Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, shortlisted for 2022's Booker Prize is a little gem (less than 120 pages) that I will now read every year at this time. It is full of hope but with a growing, nagging fear as you follow a good, good man in the days before Christmas in his home, at work and in his community in 80's Ireland. The dialogue is gentle and beautiful and the ending allows you to be hopeful despite your fears for the consequences of his actions for this decent man.
There are so many titles from the Booker Library I would like to get to but I think my priorities for 2024 will be Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan and The Promise by Damon Galgut. I own physical copies of both books so it would be great to get them read. I really enjoyed Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and would be interested to read her earlier work. I've heard great things about The Promise, I would love to join those who count it among their favourite reads.
One thing in general that I observed about most of the recent booker prize winners ( without any disrespect to their creative productions) in the last 10 to 15 years or so is the dilution of passionate intensity that was on display with the likes of Victorian Novelists or even some of the 20 th century writers. The dialogue has dried up, the story line drifts into nothingness and the theme seems to be incoherent. Is it the hallmark of post modernism that these novels are trying to distill or is it a reflection of the decadent times in which artistic landscape is getting barren? Or perhaps the reflection of my own limitations in understanding narratives that tend to view things from an unfamiliar perspective? What do you think?
I'll be enjoying the hot Sydney summer with Patrick White - time to read his classics again, especially The Vivisector, and The Eye of the Storm. And as the weather turns I'll be rereading everything and anything by Hilary Mantel, another novelist hero of mine. Also looking forward to rereading Olga Tokarczuk, Ali Smith, Keri Hulme, Muriel Spark and Andrew Miller - and the latest by Paul Lynch and Christos Tsiolkas. And it's time for me to finally read Elizabeth Taylor...A very full year awaits!
I am reading every Booker Prize winner .. next on my list are The Sea the Sea. and Holiday. I have just read the synopsis and they both look like fun reads (and quick wins off the list!) .. I am reading no 30 of 59 currently so quite an eclectic choices remaining!
Just got The House of Doors from my library in Nova Scotia.
The seven moons of Mali, The Promise, Trust, The inheritance of loss, the sellout, The sea, The vegetarian, Horse Walks into a Bar, The finkler question, True History Of Kelly gang, The white Tiger, The Line Of Beauty
Prophet Song sounds intriguing and now that it’s won the Booker must definitely be worth a read. I finally got round to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida last month. Found it hard going and got a bit lost at times but once I’d finally got the hang of it I understood what a brilliant book it was. I knew nothing about Sri Lanka, except for hearing of all the awful troubles there on the news so it was good to get a bit more of an understanding from that point of view.
I also read A Shining and The Other Name, Septology I - II by Jon Fosse and am looking forward to Septology III - VII and Is Mother Dead? By Vigdis Hjorth because I loved A House in Norway. My son and grandchildren live in Norway so I like to read Norwegian authors.
Currently reading ‘The Bee Sting’ and loving it. Will check our ‘Prophet Song’ as well as ‘Disgrace’, ‘Amsterdam’ and ‘The Sea, the Sea’.
Prophet Song was brilliant. It’s compelling and compassionate and frighteningly plausible, and beautifully written and deeply insightful.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Trust, and NightCrawling!
From the Booker lists I intend to read The sea, the sea (Iris Murdoch), as it is highly regarded, and I've only read one other of her works thus far (and only sort of liked, I admit)... Great Granny Webster (Caroline Blackwood), which has been on my radar for a while, but which I've failed to find a copy of so far... and Do not say we have nothing (Madeleine Thien) as it has such a great title! Many many other books on my 2024 list, but these are three Booker additions I'd like to try!
I would recommend "Same as Ever" by Morgan Housel. This book is full of wit. Housel cleverly chooses perfect, unforgettable stories to convey the satisfaction and lessons of various desires.
I'm currently reading NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory. Im finding it funny, engaging and informative. Just finished Percival Everett, The Trees - laught out loud hilarious, sickening and engaging in equal measure. I'll read more of him.
There are 4 Booker listees in the first 13 of my TBR shelf.
1) Ali Smith, Autumn. I tried How To Be Both but didn't get very far. Developed a taste for Brexit stories via Jonathan Coe, so am looking forward to another. Also, just about everyone tells me how great it is and I must run with the crowd.
2) Shehan Karanatilaka, Seven Moons. Yes you're right, I bought the whole shortlist last year and am only now getting to some. I like to sprinkle a few gay themed stories through the TBR's too.
3) Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake. Several recommends from officionados of Atwood and I broke my duck with Alias Grace last year.
4) Madeliene Thien, Do not say we have nothing. I'm a sucker for a complex, multi-generational family /world history story.
Giving This Other Eden to my daughter for Christmas
I am curious about Palestinian novelist's Adania Shibli's Minor Detail, given the controversy over a canceled celebration for her work in Germany. It was longlisted for the International Booker in 2021. It feels like a timely read. Borders currently fascinate me, which is why I also intend to read Olga Tokarczuk's Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead. I also want to read John Banville's 1989 The Book of Evidence, because his interest in language, makes for a very rich text, unlike the spare style favored by many other contemporary novelists.
I'll start with Javier Cercas, but will read "The Impostor" in Spanish. I see that "El ruido de las cosas al caer" is also on the list., but since I've already read it, the second book of the year will be "La forma de las ruinas."
I just finished reading Time Shelter.. it was great!
I’m currently reading The Prophet Song and in my TBR are: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Pearl, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Milkman.
Well, the entire long list will be my TBR as soon as it is announced. While awaiting that, I’ll read Tinkers and also Enon, both of which I purchased as soon as I finished This Other Eden.
THE BEE STING, BIRNHAM WOOD, TIME SHELTER, (THESE ARE ONES I READ) TO BE READ IF I SURVIVE YOU
(THIS YEAR)
I come to the Booker lists to find books that I may not have seen, books that bring a new perspective, make me think and wonder. I loved Time Shelter and Birnam Wood. I stopped and re-experienced moments in Trust. For 2024, the first one will be Pearl by Hughes, because I studied the poem know that art has great power.
The Garden of Evening Mists: I read an excerpt, the writing is absolutely exquisite and so atmospheric I want to steep in it. The Remains of the Day: to give myself another chance to enjoy Kazuo Ishiguro, I didn't like Never Let Me Go, too much dystopia, I'm hoping I can relate to this valet's life and musings. The Little Stranger: you introduced me to it last week, I read an excerpt, I didn't want it to end, I am so intrigued.
Since 2018 i read the full longlist. But i give myself all year. I try to get to longer books first and on audio. I’m reading This Other Eden now and I have five others to read before the 2024 longlist is released. 🙂
I have read 10 with the exception of Prophet Song, The Bee Sting and All the Little Bird-Hearts. I plan to finish these 3 in January. Then the wait starts for the Int'l Booker!
I have Flights on my massive TBR pile. I aim to do a few rereads in 2024 and to that end my Booker reread is going to be Possession.
Will read The Bee Sting alongside The Prophet.
My upcoming choice for the bookclub I’m in is Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End. More and more, I’m becoming a big fan of contemporary Irish writers.
Having read A Brief History of Seven Killings a few years ago (sometimes struggling & sometimes excitedly zooming through it) - or rather two thirds of it, I’m looking forward to completing the marathon in 2024!