brook shelley

My Favorite Media of 2024

The year flew by between a few trips, lots of work changes, an a ton of cycling. Continuing my COVID-era tradition, I listened to far more podcasts than music, but I did buy a record player. I rode many a kilometer listening to Blank Check, Watts Occurring, and Rude Tales of Magic.

2024 was another big year for TV too, with Agency, the Day of the Jackal, Shōgun, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith standing-out. I’m a sucker for schlocky action, thriller, and detective shows and there was a ton this year to watch while playing Balatro. Steam tells me I played the most Against the Storm, Civ 6, and Baldur’s Gate 3, but the Elden Ring expansion sucked-up at least a few weeks on PS5.

I learned that if you mostly spend your days at home or on the bike, you’ve got a load of time to kill on media. But it wasn’t just games and podcasts—here’s my top ten list of media that came out this yearfor the big three:

Books

In no particular order, here’s the ten best books I read this year:

The first two are opposite sides of a coin, as they’re both expansions of the same novella Murakami wrote in the early 80s. The latter is a new translation of Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, my favorite Murakami novel. I think some readers mostly know Murakami’s short stories, whether through collections, or adaptations, but if you haven’t read his novels I highly recommend changing that in 2025.

  • The City and It’s Uncertain Walls
  • End of the World and the Hardboiled Wonderland

What would my reading be without genre fiction—sci-fi and mystery are my favorites.

  • 2312
  • Aurora
  • Moonbound
  • Static Ruin

And much like the Murakami novels, these literary fiction books have a lot of magical and speculative realism going on.

  • Hummingbird Salamander
  • In Ascension
  • Gnomon
  • Player Piano

Music

I own most of these on vinyl, and decided that going forward I’ll likely collect the best albums of the year.

  • Electric Bouquet by Anna McClellan

    I love her voice. She has a lot of character and emotion going on, reminiscent of the unique sound of Hop Along.

  • See You at the Maypole by Half Waif

    I’ve loved every album by Half Waif, and the latest continues the trend.

  • Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me by Porridge Radio

    Another strange and wonderful female vocalist. The jams are solid, and I’m excited to hear their work in the future.

  • Big Sigh by Marika Hackman

    A while ago I read a piece about the sexless nature of sapphic pop and indie rock, and Marika is the cure. This is sexy, and a maturation of a career of absolute banger records.

  • Cascade by Floating Points

    Dancey as fuck. I loved Floating Points collaboration with Pharaoh Sanders last year, but hadn’t listened to his electronic music until now. This feels a bit like a great throwback to the days when I DJed in the early 2000s.

  • Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker

    Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.

  • Charm by Clairo

    I’ve heard this in a bodega I go to a lot, and forgot who the artist was but immediately started dancing.

Movies

The link on the movies header goes to my Letterboxd list with my ranking of 64 movies from 2024 I watched this year, but here’s my favorites:

  • Kinds of Kindness
  • Perfect Days
  • Evil Does Not Exist
  • Queer
  • The Boy and the Heron
  • Thelma
  • Dune 2
  • Civil War
  • A Different Man
  • Rebel Ridge

That’s a real mix of slow and thoughtful films with seriously weird, bombastic joys. And if you had any kind of special relationship with your grandma, Thelma will delight you. Civil War is the movies on this list I watched the most, with Dune 2 close behind.

Next Year

I plan to do a fair amount of catching-up in 2025. I went on a Bookshop.org buying-spree throughout COVID times, and probably have 20 or more books lined-up to read, including every Le Carre novel. When I’m out on my bike, it’s really hard to beat the distance-eating power of narrative and comedy podcasts, but I’m cultivating my music listening habit again too. My tendency to listen to downtempo “sad girl music” doesn’t always lend itself to riding up mountains, but I can get back into my metal and post-rock for that extra oomph.