2024 Recap — Books

Here are the books I read in 2024. I finished 26 in total. This year, I started reading every morning before work—one of the very few things I’m proud of in 2024.

Book Stats

15 out of 26 were non-finctions and 11 were fictions. Exactly half (13 out of 26) were science-related.

To make it fun, I visualized some stats from this year’s reading:

My Favorites

Among the 26 books, Naming Nature, On the Move, Under A White Sky, and 희랍어 시간 were my favorites.

• Naming Nature: Offers great insights into how limited our perception and understanding of the world.
• On the Move: Very inspiring. How can someone live with such endless passion? It left me questioning whether I’m missing something in my own life.
• Under A White Sky: It’s almost impossible to predict the consequences of human intervention in nature. Yet, with the urgency of the climate crisis, such actions are sometimes necessary. What should we do, and how should we do it? This quote encapsulates the book’s essence:

  His preferred drug analogy for the technology is chemotherapy. No one in his right mind would undergo chemotherapy were better options available. “We live in a world,” he has said, “where deliberately dimming the fucking sun might be less risky than not doing it.”

• 희랍어 시간: What an honor to read a Nobel Prize-winning work in my native language.

Book List

Title	Author	Genre	Format	Language
사라진 것들 (The Disappeared)	앤드루 포터 (Andrew J. Porter)	Short Stories, Fiction	Paper book	Korean
The Moral Animal	Robert Wright	Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, Evolution	Audiobook	English
차나 한 잔	김승옥 (Kim Seungok)	Short Stories, Fiction	Paper book	Korean
Naming Nature	Carol Kaesuk Yoon	Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Biology	E-book	English
우리가 세상을 이해하길 멈출 때 (When We Cease to Understand the World)	벵하민 라바투트 (Benjamín Labatut)	Science, Fiction, History, Short Stories	E-book	Korean
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me	Bill Hayes	Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography	Audiobook	English
The Anxious Generation	Jonathan Haidt	Nonfiction, Psychology, Sociology, Science	Audiobook	English
찌그러져도 동그라미입니다	김창완 (Kim Chang Wan)	Essays	E-book	Korean
모든 것은 그 자리에 (Everything in Its Place)	올리버 색스 (Oliver Sacks)	Nonfiction, Science, Essays, Memoir	E-book	Korean
On the Move	Oliver Sacks	Nonfiction, Science, Essays, Memoir	Paper book	English
Awe	Dacher Keltner	Nonfiction, Psychology, Science	Audiobook	English
From Bacteria to Bach and Back	Daniel C. Dennett	Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Evolution	Paper book	English
Under A White Sky	Elizabeth Kolbert	Nonfiction, Science, Environment, Nature	Paper book	English
Ethics in the Real World: 90 Essays on Things That Matter	Peter Singer	Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays	Paper book	English
아무튼, SF게임	김초엽 (Kim Cho-yeop)	Essays	Paper book	Korean
Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist	Frans de Waal	Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Psychology	Audiobook	English
What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology	Paul Nurse	Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Nature	Audiobook	English
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories	Ken Liu	Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction	Paper book	English
28	정유정 (Jeong You-Jeong)	Fiction, Thriller, Mystery	Paper book	Korean
저주토끼	정보라 (Chung Bora)	Short Stories, Horror, Fiction	Paper book	Korean
희랍어 시간	한강 (Han Kang)	Fiction	Paper book	Korean
영화 보고 오는 길에 글을 썼습니다	김중혁 (Kim Jung Hyuk)	Essays, Movie	Paper book	Korean
The Righteous Mind	Jonathan Haidt	Nonfiction, Psychology, Philosophy, Science	Audiobook	English
Why I Am Not a Buddhist	Evan Thompson	Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Science	Paper book	English
파견자들	김초엽 (Kim Cho-yeop)	Science Fiction, Fiction	Paper book	Korean
The Art Thief	Michael Finkel	Nonfiction, True Crime, Art	Audiobook	English