Blogocentric Formulations

2024 Reading List

It's the end of 2024, which means it's time to review all the reading and listening I've done over the past calendar year. Here's how this past year broke down in terms of titles and numbers:


= favorite
= also really enjoyed


Books (click to expand full list) ▼

FICTION
         The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins by The McElroys & Carey Pietsch
          Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne
         Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
         The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz
         Best House on the Block by T.R. Ragan
         Calamity's Edge by Pacey Holden
         A Clean Kill by Stephen Konkoly
         Countdown by James Patterson & Brendan DuBois
         Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
         The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
         Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs
         Falling Down by Chuck Hogan & Guillermo del Toro
         Family Reservations by Liza Palmer
         A Fatal Affair by A.R. Torre
         Fatal Intrusion by Jeffrey Deaver & Isabella Maldonado
         A Friend in the Dark by Samantha M. Bailey
         Friends with Secrets by Christine Gunderson
         Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson
          Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
         Honor of Cyborgs by Scott Moon
         Hurt for Me by Heather Levy
         In A Dark Mirror by Kat Davis
         Interview with the Devil by Michael Habron
         Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
          The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
          The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
          Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz
         The Mark of the Artist by Gina Engman
         Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
         Natural Selection by Elin Hilderbrand
         Night Owl by Andrew Mayne
         Pike Island by Tony Wirt
         Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston
         Shadow Watch by Brandon Ellis & Max Wolfe
         Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz
         So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
         Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
         Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

NONFICTION
         Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
         Faith: A Journey For All by Jimmy Carter
         Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson
          Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis
         How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart
         The Joy of Discipleship by Pope Francis
         Lore & Legends: A Visual Celebration of the Fifth Edition of the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game by Michael Witwer, et al
          Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
         The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
         Seeing Others: How Recognition Works - And How It Can Heal A Divided World by Michele Lamont
         Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell by Tim Miller
          The World of Critical Role by Liz Marsham

OTHER
         The Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2014) by Wizards of the Coast
          The Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2024) by Wizards of the Coast
          The Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (2024) by Wizards of the Coast

This year, I continued my scaled-down goal of "only" planning to read 50 books and, honestly, I really enjoyed the freedom; maybe even more than last year. Having the eight years of reading 100+ books was a really tough challenge that I enjoyed trying to meet, but it often had me focusing on quantity rather than quality. With the scaled-down goal, it's really allowed me to read whatever I want, without having to worry about falling off my pace. I have the time and space to read more comics and read longer and more complex books without feeling like I'm getting behind if I don't crank out two books a week. I'm almost certainly going to continue with the same reading goal again for 2025.

Podcasts (click to expand full list) ▼

         Dead Pilots Society - 15 episodes
         Deadline Strike Talk - 3 episodes
          Economics of Everyday Things - 45 episodes
          Explain It To Me f.k.a. The Weeds - 24 episodes
         The Ezra Klein Show - 78 episodes
         Freakonomics - 40 episodes
         The Gray Area - 19 episodes
          How Did This Get Made? - 13 episodes
         How I Built This - 5 episodes
         Imaginary Worlds - 28 episodes
         Matter of Opinion - 57 episodes
         Offline with Jon Favreau - 57 episodes
         Pod Save America - 161 episodes
         Pod Save the World - 54 episodes
          Politix f.k.a. Positively Dreadful - 54 episodes
         The Q&A - 5 episodes
         The Rewatchables - 29 episodes
         Scriptnotes - 24 episodes
         Slate Political Gabfest - 62 episodes
          Slow Burn - 7 episodes
         TED Radio Hour - 20 episodes
         Untitled Female Driven Podcast - 5 episodes
         What A Day - 274 episodes
         The Wilderness - 9 episodes
         Write On - 7 episodes
         Writer's Panel - 3 episodes
         Ye Gods - 2 episodes

I listened to more podcasts this year than the previous few years, but I attribute a lot of that to the fact that it was an election year, and I listen to a lot of news and political podcasts. I think I finally hit my limit though, because after the election I'm kind of sick of all of them. I still plan on listening to several of them next year because I like to keep up to date on what's happening, but I didn't pick very many of them as my top podcasts of the year as a result. I found myself appreciating the podcasts about little-known issues ("The Economics of Everyday Things" and new entry "Explain It To Me") and movie-watching/commentary podcasts. Part of me feels like this next year might see a change in some of the stuff I listen to regularly, which I like to mix up every couple of years.

Comics (click to expand full list) ▼

         Aliens vs. Avengers - 1 issue
         Annihilation 2099 - 5 issues
         Avengers - 3 issues
         Black Widow & Hawkeye - 1 issue
          Blood Hunt - 25 issues
         Captain America - 3 issues
         Captain Marvel - 1 issue
         Chasm - 1 issue
         Daredevil - 6 issues
         Dazzler - 1 issue
         Deadpool - 5 issues
         Deathlok - 1 issue
         Doctor Strange - 1 issue
         Fantastic Four - 3 issues
         Get Fury - 3 issues
         Ghost Rider - 2 issues
         Giant-Sized Marvels - 2 issues
          Hellverine - 4 issues
         Hulk - 5 issues
         Iron Fist - 1 issue
         Iron Man - 1 issue
         Jackpot & Black Cat - 1 issue
         Kid Venom - 2 issues
         Marvel 85th Anniversary Special - 1 issue
         Marvel Zombies - 1 issue
         Midnight Sons - 1 issue
         Moon Knight - 6 issues
         Ms. Marvel - 1 issue
         Namor - 2 issues
         Nyx - 2 issues
         Phoenix - 2 issues
         Predator vs. Black Panther - 1 issue
          Scarlet Witch - 3 issues
          Secret Wars - 3 issues
         She-Hulk - 1 issue
          Silver Surfer - 1 issue
         Spider-Boy - 4 issues
          Spider-Gwen - 4 issues
         Spider-Man - 31 issues
         Spider Society - 1 issue
         Spider-Woman - 2 issues
         Spirits of Vengeance - 1 issue
         Star Wars - 16 issues
          Thanos - 1 issue
         Thor - 3 issues
         Ultimates - 12 issues
         Ultraman x Avengers - 1 issue
         Venom - 9 issues
          Venom War - 13 issues
         Werewolf by Night - 1 issue
         What If...? - 3 issues
         Wolverine - 10 issues
         WWII Deadpool & Wolverine - 1 issue
         X-Factor - 2 issues
          X-Force - 2 issues
          X-Men - 18 issues

This is where my reading really took off this year, in large part because Marvel started sending me monthly galley boxes of all their comics to be published the following month. I'm a couple months behind at the moment, but it's a really cool way to see what the company is working on, and to keep apprised of what's going on in the comics world. While Marvel has struggled a bit lately (for years, its main efforts were to basically capitalize on the films), they're starting to really push into new areas with "event" series like Bloodhunt and Venom War which, while not always successful, are the things I think it needs to do to eventually discover those comic runs which will become iconic in a few years.

Scripts (click to expand full list) ▼

PRODUCED
         ALIEN by Walter Hill and David Giler
         DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy
         FANTASTIC FOUR by Eric Pearson

UNPRODUCED
         CODEPENDENT (Pilot) by Mark Gross
         COMMON ENEMY (Pilot) by Jordan Roter
         FAKING A MURDER (Pilot) by Michael Jonathan Smith
         GAMBIT (Pilot) by Tony Cohen
         HONEY DO LIST (Pilot) by Julie Bean & Brian Donovan
         I HATE MYSELF (Pilot) by Damir & Dario Konjicija
         THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS & CLARK (Pilot) by Michael Lisbe & Nate Reger
         LOCALIZED (Pilot) by Alex Burnett & Brendan McCarthy
         MASSHOLES (Pilot) by Bill Callahan
         MR. MACHO (Pilot) by Al Madrigal
         PRINCIPLE (Pilot) by Open Mike Eagle
         YOU'RE ONLY YOUNG TWICE (Pilot) by Tommy Johnagin

I only read fifteen scripts this year, a little less than last year. Like 2023, I still haven't quite gotten my mojo back when it comes to screenwriting, so it makes sense that I haven't been reading a lot of screenplays lately. And also like 2024, I'd like to change that in 2025, but I'm also hesitant to be too prescriptive about what I'm trying to read. If scripts pop up that I want to read, I'll read them.

TOTALS: 55 books, 1100 podcasts, 240 comics, 15 scripts

According to Goodreads, my book reading resulted in the following stats:

         Total Pages Read: 17,971 (+1,143 change from 2023)
         Average Pages Per Book: 326 (-10 change from 2023)
         Shortest Book: 30 (-48 change from 2023)
         Longest Book: 845 (-307 change from 2023)


That's it for my 2024 reading... time to see what 2025 has in store!