After my general statistics for 2024, here are the books and media I consumed since 2023.
Books
I didn't read as many books in 2024 as in 2023, mainly because they were longer. Any one of the Culture novels is the equivalent of 3 or 4 times The Outsiders, for example. The 30 books I started (and 26 I finished) included:
- Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc. An excellent handbook for the kakistocratic country we now live in.
- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism. I hope this does not become a handbook for the kakistocratic country we now live in. (Still reading this. It's not something one just breezes through.)
- Iain Banks, Raw Spirit, his hilarious travelogue of Scottish distilleries, plus the Culture novels Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward, Matter, Surface Detail, and The Hydrogen Sonata. I also finally read The Crow Road.
- Christopher Buehlman, The Daughters' War. Prequel to his previous novel The Black-Tongued Thief.
- Peter Carey, The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, which I first read in 2001 and wanted to read again.
- Cory Doctorow, The Lost Cause. Imagine what the world will look like when today's alt-right go to nursing homes and the yet-to-be-born generation has to take care of them.
- David Farley, Modern Software Engineering. Decent recapitulation of stuff I've known for years, but updated.
- Scott Farris, Almost President, short biographies of the men (it's from 2008) who lost presidential elections and still influenced politics for years after.
- William Gibson, The Peripheral. Quite different than the TV series, but both were great.
- Charles King, Every Valley. The history of Händel's Messiah. (Not finished yet.)
- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind. Absolutely essential reading if you want even to try understanding the horribly damaged generation born after 1995.
- John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation and Agent to the Stars. I absolutely love Scalzi's writing.
- John R. Schmidt, Authentic Chicago, a collection of historical vignettes from an authentic Chicago historian.
- Matthew Skelton, Team Topologies. A quick read that helped me understand how my new boss looks at software team management.
- Andrew Weir, The Martian. Another one that I have meant to read for a while.
Other Media
In 2024, I watched 24 films, a bit more TV than usual, two concerts, and one comedy show:
- Films I would recommend: American Sniper (2014), The Beekeeper (2024), Constantine (2005), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), Dune Part 2 (2024), Furiosa (2024), The Gentlemen (2019), The Intern (2015), The Martian (2015), The Menu (2022), Sicario (2015), Tomorrowland (2015), and the entire John Wick series (2014 to present).
- Films you can skip: The Good Shepherd (2006) and Maestro (2023).
- TV shows: The 100 (first two episodes, 2014), The Bear season 1 (2022), The Boys season 4 (2024), The Decameron (2024), Designated Survivor (2016, first two episodes), Fallout (2024), Ghosts (first season of the UK version, first two episodes of the inferior US version), House of the Dragon (both seasons, 2023-2024), Justified season 1 (2010), KAOS (2024), Killing Eve season 1 (2018), Once Upon a Time season 1 (2011), The Peripheral (2023), Rome season 1 and some of season 2 (2005), Silo season 2 (2024), Slow Horses season 4 (2024), Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 (2024), Tales from the Apocalypse (2023), Three Body (2024), and The Umbrella Academy season 4 (2024).
- I saw two live performances at Ravinia Festival: a live orchestra version of The Princess Bride (1987) and the CSO doing Holst's The Planets.
- I also saw Liz Miele when she visited Chicago, and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! in December.
A lot of good things in there, and a couple of dogs. Actually, only one dog, who very much enjoyed all the time I spent on the couch with her.