Vivek Kaul: The best books I read in 2024

First, I am bored of reading the kind of crime fiction that I have loved to read over the last decade and a half. The trouble is I am unable to let go and move on. The search for a book within the genre that might still surprise me continues.

Second, the law of diminishing marginal utility has set in. The kind of non-fiction centred around economics, finance and psychology that I have been reading over the years has become repetitive. The newer books don’t say enough newer things that I don’t know about. Again, I need to move on from such books and read more broadly.

Third, my addiction to my smartphone has increased. So, I spend my fair share of attention and concentration on watching more and more reels and shorts than reading books. And I don’t know what to do about it.

Fourth, due to the above three reasons and more, I am starting and leaving more books without completing them. So, the impact of the sunk-cost fallacy on my reading has decreased, which means that I don’t end up wasting time in trying to complete books that I don’t like, but I do end up wasting time [and money] in my search for something newer in genres I have probably ended up exhausting.

Fifth, and this might sound funny and weird, I now enjoy buying books more than reading them. The satisfaction I get in searching for and then buying a book that looks interesting is more than I get from reading it.

Like a few weeks ago, I ended up at the Book Mongers, a second-hand bookshop, on a rather cold day in London. I was thrilled to find and buy two books there, Carl Neville’s Resolution Way and Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast for Champions, books with a very interesting premise. I am yet to start reading them. Sometimes, it’s the guilt of not having read all the books that I have bought and not read that makes it difficult for me to focus on the one in front of me. Talk about problems of plenty.

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for one issue of the newsletter. So, here are the books that I enjoyed reading this year. They are in no particular order, and all the books mentioned here weren’t necessarily published during the year.

Further, if you are the kind who reads books for self-help, knowledge, facts, ten steps to understand something, etc., and not just for the sheer enjoyment of reading them, you can stop reading right now than read the whole thing and curse me for wasting your time.

1) Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin: Regular readers of this newsletter would know that Rankin is my favourite writer. I have really devoured the books written by him, in particular the ones featuring the now-retired police detective John Rebus. This is the 25th book in the series, possibly the last one and probably the best book I read this year. For the less discerning reader, the book is a police procedural with a murder being investigated. But at its heart, it’s a love letter to the beautiful city of Edinburg and a comment on its changing social, political and economic scenario.

What I really enjoyed about this book—and much to my surprise given that I am what you would call a quintessential cynic like most old-school hacks are—is the slightly more optimistic tone of this book, for the lack of a better word, than the last two books in the series.

2) The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe: Part cosy crime with a locked-room plot at the heart of it and part comment on the state of modern-day Great Britain—this genre-defying book is hilarious. I just loved reading it. The icing on the cake was I got to see the author speak as well at an event in London. My aim for 2025 is to read everything else that Coe has written.

3) The Slough House series (also known as the Slow Horses series) by Mick Herron: I read the first three books in the series in 2023, I completed the remaining five early this year. At a very simplistic level this is spy fiction. On a deeper level, the books are essentially one long rant which Herron indulges in while treating us to some exquisite writing along the way.

Herron has often been compared to the master spy fiction writer John le Carré. But there is a difference here: le Carré was a spy who turned into a writer. Herron is just a writer. And he is writing about something he really doesn’t know as well as le Carré did. And writing about things one doesn’t know about and be successful at it, is the real mark of a great writer. (And as always, the books are better than their OTT adaptations.)

4) Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway: The most famous character that John le Carré created in his spy fiction was the British spy George Smiley. Karla’s Choice is a book featuring Smiley and his Russian counterpart Karla, set sometime in the 1960s. It has been written by Nick Harkaway, who also happens to be le Carré’s son.

Usually, when other writers write books featuring characters created by now-dead writers, it is essentially a money-making enterprise that the dead writer’s family is indulging in. But Harkaway does an excellent job of writing about the Cold War, the 1960s, and the characters his father created. As he said at a book event I attended, there is possibly one more book in the series and he has already started working on it. And that’s good news for Smiley fans.

5) Shattered—A Memoir by Hanif Kureishi: In late 2022, while in Rome with his girlfriend, Isabella D'amico, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. After he regained consciousness, he discovered he was unable to walk. Completely dependent on others, he required continuous care in a hospital. As he changed hospitals and doctors and then came back to London, he wrote the small essays that became this book. This is a wonderful study of grief, shock and what it takes to bounce back even a little, and that is what a writer does if not just write. It is the second-best book I have read this year.

6) We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: A daughter-in-law and a father-in-law go around the world solving murders. Osman is the king of the genre they call cosy crime. And this book once again shows why. It’s by far the most fun book I read this year. The dialogue is witty. The characters are human. And even what seem like random plot deviations fall in place towards the end. Also, there is some suspense, the resolution of which a regular crime fiction reader like me could see from a mile away, but then, as they say, when you don’t know where you are going, the journey is the reward.

7) Knife—Meditations After An Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie: As far as genres go, this book is similar to that of Kureishi’s, where the writer Rushdie is writing to make sense of something unexpected that has happened to him. In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times. The book is about him trying to process what happened. Again, it’s a wonderful read though some deft editing could have ensured fewer chapters, and that would have made the book even more readable.

8) Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth: I love rants, especially those written by dead white men. This book is a long rant, and possibly the best rant I have read in many years. I won’t tell you more than that other than the fact that after Joseph Heller’s Something Happened, this is by far the best rant that I have ever read. Again, those who read books for knowledge, etc., should stay away.

9) Film Freak by Christopher Fowler: Fowler is emerging to be my second favourite writer after Rankin. This is a memoir set in London while Fowler worked on the fringes of what used to be the British film industry. As far as memoirs go this one is hilarious. Fowler wrote two other memoirs, Paperboy and Word Monkey, which I love even more than Film Freak.

10) The Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler: This is a series of twenty books featuring Inspectors Arthur Bryant and Peter May, starting from around the period of the Second World War and lasting up to the 21st century. More than being mystery books, these are Fowler’s love letters to the city of London. To be honest, I read two books in this series this year. The first one, Full Dark House, and the last one, London Bridge is Falling Down. They are fantastic. In 2025, I can hopefully complete the series.

11) Bird in a Cage by Frédéric Dard: I came to know of this book when Sriram Raghavan decided to adapt it into a film called Merry Christmas. This is a terrific plot book with a twist in the end that you can’t see coming. This was one of the few books that I read on Kindle this year, given that Raghavan apparently bought out all the physical copies of the book after he decided to adapt it. I haven’t seen the movie, but I am sure the book is better.

12) In the Blink of An Eye by Jo Callaghan: As I said earlier in this piece, my search for crime fiction books that stretch the envelope continues. This book has a human detective and a digital detective powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and how they go about solving a crime. A very interesting read that shows us the benefits and perils of AI.

13) Heartburn by Nora Ephron: Ephron was a very successful film scriptwriter. She wrote the script for When Harry Met Sally, among several other hit films. Heartburn was the only novel she ever wrote. It is very autobiographical and deals with her marriage to and divorce from Carl Bernstein, her second husband. Bernstein was one of the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal. This, for the lack of a better word, is a delicious little book. I actually devoured it. Insecure husbands are advised to skip it.

14) Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner: This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s the story of a freelance spy, who is working to disrupt a farming cooperative in France and how that leads to her personal clashing with her professional. If you are looking for something thoughtful to read towards the end of the year, this might be a good bet.

15) The Corporation in the 21st Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business is Wrong by John Kay: I have always loved reading the books that Kay has written. And this one is no different. The title tells us what the book is all about. It’s not an easy read. And there is a part two on the way.

16) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark: It’s 1930s Edinburgh, and six ten-year-old girls—Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, Monica, and Eunice—find themselves under the tutelage of Miss Jean Brodie, a teacher who proudly proclaims herself to be "in [her] prime". At its core, the novel explores how Miss Brodie, a charismatic and unconventional teacher, strives to shape her students into a handpicked group that embodies her personal ideals. Seeing herself as a mentor in her "prime", she aspires to transform the girls into exceptional individuals until one of these students betrays her and puts an end to her teaching career, and she never comes to know which one. 

Although the plot may not sound dramatic enough, the book's beauty lies in its writing, particularly the way the narrative moves both forward and backwards. It is probably the third-best book I read this year.

17) Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future by Raghuram G. Rajan and Rohit Lamba: Several such books on how to get the economic future of India going in the right direction, have been written over the years. This one is slightly different given that it goes beyond the usual solutions that are offered. And unlike many other such books that are extremely soporific this is very engagingly written.

18) The Waiting by Michael Connelly: Need I say more other than the fact that Connelly remains the king of the police procedural? No one writes it like he does. Go read this.

There are several books I’m currently reading that would have undoubtedly made this list if I had finished them. Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, a very funny book about a breakup. David Spiegelhalter’s The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck. And Dominic Nolan’s White City.

So, that’s it for this year, I guess. Here’s to more reading in 2025.