Slowest, Pokiest: 2024 in the Rear-view Mirror

Happy 2025! A new year, a new beginning ... I wish everyone the very best for the year ahead. May all your efforts come to fruition.

But of course, you’re not here for kind wishes: you’re here for stats. And so stats I will give you.

 

Books

My final tally for 2024 was 122 books. A surprising showing, in fact. By the middle of November I was doubtful I would get past 100.

 

Of those titles, 73 were written by women or female-identified authors, 43 were written by men or male-identified authors, and 6 were co-written or written by authors whose gender was not specified.

 

My favourite books of the year were Fire Weather by John Vaillant and Gay Girl Prayers by Emily Austin, for entirely contrasting reasons. Fire Weather is an hour-by-hour analysis of 2016’s fire in Fort McMurray. If you want to understand why some people believe fossil fuels will lead to the end of the world as we know it, this is the book to read. Gay Girls Prayers, on the other hand, is a celebration of Queer life, told as an re-envisioning of Catholic prayers. It’s very, very funny and intelligent.

 

I discovered, then devoured, the novels of Sam Wiebe — hardcore West Coast detective fiction. Very, very violent. I also devoured The Lightning Circle, a YA verse novel by Vikki Van Sickle that centres girls’ friendships positively and affirmingly — not unlike her picture book Into the Goblin Market, a retelling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” that reframes sisterhood.

 

Finally, I reread Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut novels (specifically, The Calculating Stars, The Fated Sky, and The Relentless Moon, not the shorts) and am delighted that a new book in the series is scheduled to arrive later this year. Something to look forward to, along with another Richard Osman novel, a new John Scalzi, and a bushel of new poetry.

 

Music: Top 29 Plays

It’s difficult to talk about music this year. My listening has been exceptionally nostalgic, and merely thinking about some of the songs listed below makes me weepy. 

 

• Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”

• Air Supply, “Sweet Dreams”

• Taylor Swift, “Karma”

• Kate Bush, “Burning Bridge”

• Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”

• Dua Lipa, “Houdini”

• LP, “One Last Time”

• Muse, “Madness”

• Janelle Monáe, “Dance Apocalyptic”

• Tina Turner, “The Best”

• Blue Rodeo, “After the Rain”

• ABBA, “Chiquitita”

• Jim Croce, “I Got a Name”

• Dua Lipa, “Love Again”

• Gowan, “Moonlight Desires”

• Kate Bush, “Nocturn”

• The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Summer in the City”

• Rod Stewart, “Young Turks”

• Shakira, “Whenever, Wherever”

• Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

• Steppenwolf, “Magic Carpet Ride”

• Billie Eilish, “everything i wanted”

• Electric Light Orchestra featuring Olivia Newton-John, “Xanadu”

• George Michael and Aretha Franklin, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)

• Prince and the Revolution, “I Wonder U”

• The Doobie Brothers, “Long Train Runnin'”

• Lionel Richie, “Say You, Say Me”

• Luba, “Every Time I See Your Picture”

• Max Richter, “Summer 3 (2012)”

 

My library as of this morning contains 31,122 tracks. Of those, 8,848 were unplayed as of last night and 170 had been played at least 10 times.

 

I haven’t been acquiring much actually new music — although my first play of the year was Brat by Charli xcx (technically, I listened to Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not) — but have been actively backfilling some catalogues, including, of course, my ridiculous collection of holiday music.

 

A point of discussion in print culture studies has to do with extensive versus intensive reading and whether scarcity or abundance is more damaging to literary culture. A similar theme is emerging in music. When we can listen to so much music so easily, how much is music really worth to us?

 

And with that thought I look forward to another year of indulging in culture — and, fortuitously, teaching others to do so as well. Cheers!