The 144 Most Read Books of the 2024 Reading Challenge

Goodreads regulars will be aware that our 2024 Reading Challenge is coming to a glorious conclusion with the ringing in of the new year. This is, of course, our annual group reading exercise, in which members pledge to read a certain number of books over the course of the calendar year. Think of it as a fitness class for book nerds.
Well, the numbers are in, and they’re kind of eye-popping: More than 9 million readers signed up to read more than 356 million books in the year 2024. It’s inspirational! It’s aspirational! It’s amazing!
Perhaps you’re curious: Which books were the most popular in this year’s Reading Challenge? We were curious, too. Below are the top 12 books marked as Read by participants in this year’s challenge, sorted by genre.
Scroll around and you’ll see that several familiar names placed multiple books in the collection—some across different genres: R.F. Kuang, Alex Michaelides, Ali Hazelwood, Taylor Jenkins Reid, David Grann, Sarah J. Maas. Quite a few hugely popular recent books made the charts, too: Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Demon Copperhead and James McBride’s Kirkus Prize winner, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
There’s also a fun scattering of old genre classics, high-school English class favorites, popular memoirs, modern queer fiction classics, deeply weird true stories, and even a bit of fan fiction. Plus, of course, you’ll find the enduring delights of hockey romance.
Click on the book cover images for more information about each title, and use the Want to Read button if you’re already thinking about 2025.
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Mystery & Thriller
Fantasy
Romantasy
Science Fiction
Horror
Romance
Young Adult
Memoirs
History & Biography
General Nonfiction
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Dec 02, 2024 12:56AM
I am pleasantly surprised by Rashid Kaledi being a top read 🙏🏻
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Wow. Didn't know that Fanfiction is so popular that it can even make it on one of these lists.I am not complaining though :-)
Two surprises: 1. I'm apparently a historical fiction girlie.
2. MANACLED. Wow. The power of fanfiction- I am totally here for it. I am not at all a Dramini supporter but y'all got me wanting to see what the hype is about.
I have read 22 of these! My daughter got me back into reading before she left for college and I am loving it
Idk where I’d put butcher and blackbird but romance didn’t come to mind first 😂 I LOVE the series just threw me off being in romance lol!
Manacled 💀 idk whether to laugh or not, but I fully contributed to this being on the list. I absolutely read Manacled this year.
51 read - not sure if what that says about me… that I read a lot, or I mainly read what everyone else does?
I have read 7 total! Yellowface
The Maid
The Mystery Guest
Educated
The Housemaid
The Housemaid’s Secret
Bunny
Have Read: ~Two Fiction
~Six Historical Fiction
~Two Mystery & Thriller
~One Fantasy
~One Science Fiction
~Three Horror
~One History & Biography
Currently Reading:
~One Horror
~One General Nonfiction
I have eclectic tastes. :o)
I am surprised Quicksilver by Callie Hart isn’t up there. Can’t wait for the Netflix movie coming out
As a fanfiction writer and reader, PLEASE keep fics off goodreads! Senlinyu and other popular fic writers have faced so many challenges from their (hobby!) works being shared against their will in the mainstream medias. It’s not fair to anyone and can cause a lot of problems.Also, way to show these lists are automated (ai, probably?) since last I knew, fanfics weren’t supposed to be on GR per the tos.
I've read 34 of this list.Also, why is manacled listed? Fanfic isn't published work, so it shouldn't be on this app, right?
33 read (but not all this year), and several more on my want to read list! These lists are great for giving me reading inspiration!
I have read 30 from this list (not all this year), and there are a bunch in my TBR list. Not a fan of the fantasy and horror categories either.


































