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Favourites Of 2024

2024 was a big year. Weddings, funerals, big changes, small changes, new horizons, rest, great books, great music, etc. Every few months I look back at myself from 3 months ago and I do not recognise her.

I am delighted by how much great stuff—knowledge, media, culture, music, opinion, food, history, personality—there is to imbibe. The more I read, the more there is to read; the more I listen, the more there is to hear; the more I think, the more there is to consider and dream up. You could glut yourself on it—part of why creation is oh-so important. Good lesson for the year.

Anyway, these are the best things I read/watched/listened to/ate this year. I consumed a bunch of crap, but this is what I’d like to remember!

{A} Books

UPDATE at 2025/01/02: The Best Minds and Acid for the Children were my favourite books of 2024, but I thought I’d read them in 2023, so I didn’t include them! I’ve fixed this. My favourite books I read this year, specifically those that are liable to be reread

Still cooking on Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Ethics of Ambiguity. Suffering from too-many-books—have made a gentle list for next year. Still, I am always keen for recommendations!!

{B} Poetry

“But, I will say this, it does something, doesn’t it? Poetry. It does something to your brain. Pokes a finger in and wiggles around inside it.” (Hari Berrow)

The Poetry Foundation continues to be a source of great joy; I am very glad it exists.

{C} Written materials on the internet

Cannot stop reading the first; keep coming back to it. The third is magic. The seventh, foundational. The final one was important to changing my view on whether and in what ways it is worth working on the impacts of new-gen AI on society.

Hard to cut these down to most interesting/impactful for me. Strong runners up. Wasn’t too enamoured with anything that hit the Twitter feeds very hard, though Ruxandra’s Substack hit a very impressive and inspiring stride this year!

I also just didn’t keep track of what I was reading online until sometime between July and September. Starting to use Raindrop was a gamechanger—I keep a Public Personal Library, if you’re curious.

{D} Youtube vids

Sesame Street: Herbie Hancock Makes Sounds

DFW: On Being Entirely Yourself (from his Charlie Rose interview) (I continue to try not to be this kind of guy)

Miles Davis at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1988 with an incredible lineup, ft. Benny Rietvald on electric bass

Lindsay Ellis on Yoko and the Beatles (or, why the Beatles actually fell apart):

Fantasy High dunking on Elves for like 20 straight minutes (r) (classic):

And some series:

  • MIT 7.91J - Foundations of Computational and Systems Biology, Spring 2014 (via MIT OCW) here
  • Dana Gioia’s writing advice parts one, two, three, four, five, and six.

Did not watch much YouTube this year! Not going to consciously do anything about that next year.

{E} Albums

Albums on rotation in 2024

Honourable mention to Sabrina Carpenter, because I have loved Short ‘n’ Sweet, even in spite of Spotify forcing it down my throat.

{F} Other listens

I am not much of a podcast-listener but thought these ones rocked

{G} Recipes

Things I have cooked the most, or that have been very special, or that have just been really good:

  • Yotam Ottolenghi’s Chicken with Miso, Ginger and Lime from Simple, though online here. Great weeknight dinner, super easy in a dutch oven.
  • Nagi’s (ie. Recipe Tin Eats ie. Australia’s hero) canned tuna pasta here ; if you add olives and diced tomatoes you have a nice little puttanesca (with tuna, which may be a heresy, unsure)
  • Ottolenghi’s Sweet Summer Salad (here) is an unbridled winner, beloved by every dinner-party guest. Looks beautiful and tastes just as good. Surprisingly easy, especially if you buy pre-cooked beets!
  • Stephanie Alexander’s chicken with red-wine vinegar and tomato from The Cook’s Companion, online here.
  • Stephanie Alexander’s lemon tart from The Cook’s Companion, online here.