Posts tagged with year reviews
- as a child i wasn’t allowed to watch television and had things from which to run away, so i read a lot
- in my 20s in went to grad school and had to read at least three books a week
- This was a year primarily of sci-fi, which I didn’t realize till now. I am trying to write an encyclopedic sci-fi novel, perhaps that’s why.
- I love to look back at books like this. Because I read voraciously I read these at home, in the park, on the train, on vacation, and so many other places. It’s an accidental collection of small memories
Books from 2024!
two excuses before we start:
this is all to say that
Stats
i read 158 books this year and, again, i wont apologize. this is two less books than last year, so I quess you might say i’m slowing down. i still confuse my gs and qs always tho
i also gave up on 26 books, often early, in case you confuse my obsessiveness for a sort of masochism
Favs (no order)
Paul Celan - 70 Poems
Astounding
Walter M Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
My second time reading. Dude knew that deathly serious stuff is never serious without a few little jokes; or, god no surprise this guy did a suicide
Lucy Ellman - Ducks, Newberryport
I just sank inside this book. I wish it were longer.
J. G. Ballard - High-Rise
Post-facto: i read an intro to a collection of his short stories calling ole JG a “surprisingly normal man”. Sorry, I’ve read this shit. He was not normal
Stephen King - Duma Key
Stephen King tries Murakami. And it’s in Florida!
Garielle Lutz - Complete Stories
If I ever get around to adding reviews to my site bookshelf you’d see how up and down I really am with these, but overall they’re fantastic in a ( me at least) new way
Stephen King - 11-22-63
Only king could write a book about killing lee harvey oswald that’s almost half a self-consciously nostalgic look at the 50s. Like all great king books, he stumbles headfirst into something unpleasant and profound.
Other Notable Books
Gordon Burn - Happy Like Murderers
Realistically, a fave, but i just finished it in the last few days, and its very gruesome. However I’ve already started imitating its voice.
The Animorphs series (finished it this year)
I am 30 or 40 years old and I need to make record of this.
In conclusion
Books from 2024!
Stats
i read 160 books and i will not apologize for this even if no one wants me to
Favs (in no order)
Ishmael Reed - Mumbo Jumbo
I already knew I loved it, but haven’t read it in years. Got a copy with birthday money. There’s a certain wholehearted embrace of the movie of it, but not in contrast with the historicity of it. in short: what if da vinci code was actually good
Hirohiko Araki - Jojo’s - Steel Ball Run
Hirohiko Araki understands america. The president, under the thumb of business, is searching out the corpse of Jesus. I believe that this actually occurred
Kenzaburō Ōe - A Personal Matter
My second Oe, and my first of his earlier, crasser stuff. It’s so good, like a plainer Faulkner! I’m current reading Silent Cry now, which ofc colors how i look at this one, but still: the cruelty, the hopelessness, the selfishness. Oe knows how to dig a massive hole
Alison Bechdel - Fun Home
Borrowed from a friend, read it in two days, immediately bought a copy. look, there’s a lot to say about it, but let’s be honest: proust is a major organizing force in the book. i have to love it if only for that
Helen DeWitt - The Last Samurai
Not my first DeWitt (see below), but DAMN is it a good one. i almost want to call it a full fledged defense of never being dumb, of intelligence not as some bourgeois self-inflation tactic or calvinist method to enter into the chosen, safe forever, but damn, who cares, the book’s just nice. it gets perhaps my highest compliment ever: the book feel like it simply is
Heinrich von Kleist - Michael Kohlhaas
one hundred and something years ago, some little dude took in a big breath and then, before he’d pushed it out, he’d written the funniest fucking maniacal revenge story ever. i get why kafka called him brother. getting some mad at someone over nothing you destroy your own life and the lives of those around you is simply the essence of 2024
Jack Womack - Random Acts of Senseless Violence
one of my favorite books ever. equal parts parody and tragedy. maybe i love it cause i was raised conservative. what if the fears of the suburb types were right? what if the america really was a terror? people will still have to live
Other Notable Books
Genzaburo Yoshino - How Do You Live
Read because the Ghibli movie, which is really different. The movie is a fantasy about how one lives after fascism, the book seems to be about how to live within fascism, or at least a nationalist proto-fascism. Very relevant to the present, huh :(
Helen DeWitt - The English Understand Wool
it’s my first DeWitt, and still the funniest book i’ve read in ages. i read it in one sitting at a fast-food restaurant waiting for food (this isn’t a brag, it took FOREVER), then i bought all the rest of her books
Earthsea Books
I had sampled these before without much interest (not the fantasy type). I liked them more than expected, tbh, mostly The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu, the slow ones I guess. Still not a huge fan, but I’m glad to have like… seen em.
Franz Kafka - Amerika
Every Kafka book is in and of itself notable
Haruki Murakami - The City and Its Uncertain Walls
First full-length japanese novel I’ve ever read