After not reading enough last year, I’ve set a target of 18 books to finish in 2024, and I’ve somehow managed to complete three of them in January. And along with tracking my progress on Goodreads, I’m also planning to write about them here, along with the music, TV, films and games I’ve been enjoying.
It’s mainly to aid my memory in the future, especially if I’m trying to pick out my highlights of the year for Disposable Media.
Books
I already had a large pile of books to read, but anyone buying me presents knows that there will always be an endless wishlist to choose from. And Christmas was no exception, with this being three of the many new titles I happily received.
Dopamine Nation by Dr Anna Lembke (Amazon link) is a readable collection of largely patient-based anecdotes about finding balance between modern sources of dopamine and other worthwhile pursuits. It’s a bit light on citations, and has a moral and religious undercurrent which isn’t exactly subtle, but if you want a handy prompt rather than a scientific or practical guide, it’s OK.
Command by Al Murray (Amazon link) is a little similar in that it covers 10 notable individuals from World War 2 as a way to explain how the military quickly evolved in the course of six years. If you’re familiar with Field Marshal Montgomery from a number of books dedicated to him, you’re probably not going to learn anything new. But each person does come together as part of a fairly coherent theory about how leadership and senior officers quickly transformed the armed forces, and there are a few lesser-known personalities you may not have heard much about before.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang (Amazon link) has been on my wishlist for ages, and is already a strong contender for the best book I’ll read in 2024. Short stories have always been a core part of science fiction, and these nine examples are all wonderfully written, thought provoking and re-readable examples which will make you think more about our current world as well as the future.
TV and Film
I was sad that the current second season of Reacher came to an end in a satisfactory fashion (Amazon Prime), but this month finally saw the arrival of Masters of the Air (Apple TV). The story of the 100th Bomb Group has a lot to live up to, coming from the same team behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific, but it’s off to a decent start. And in between each episode, we’ve finally got around to watching the TV version of Fargo.
Music
Two songs have been played repeatedly this month. First up is Nothing Matters by The Last Dinner Party, which has grown and grown on me over time.
The other is the cover of Jesus He Knows Me by Ghost. Originally recorded by Genesis in 1991, it gets new life by the Swedish rock band. And I’m linking to the Spotify audio, as the official video is very NSFW. It’s also led to me delving deeper into the Ghost back catalogue, as a band I’ve always been aware of but never really listened to closely. A similar thing has happened with Alter Bridge after being reminded of their song Metalingus, used as entrance music by AEW wrestler Adam Copeland.
Games:
I’m waiting for the opportunity to finally break out the awesome Stardew Valley board game I received for Christmas, but in the meantime I’ve been making the most of spending some Microsoft reward points on a PC Game Pass subscription.
I did it to have access to the disappointing new Forza Motorsport to write about it for OnlineRaceDriver.com, but the upside has been access to Football Manager 24, and finally getting to play both Chivalry 2 and Hell Let Loose. And there’s a lot to be said for both the mindless fun of medieval battles in Chivalry, and the World War 2 experience of Hell Let Loose, which lands somewhere between the arcade fun of Call of Duty, and hardcore military simulators like ARMA and Squad.
While the amount of fun and eventual success of each Hell Let Loose match depends a lot on who ends up in your squad, and as the overall commander, it does a great job of replicating the visceral nature of notable World War 2 locations, including the D Day landings at Omaha and Utah beach. It may be a videogame, but if the feelings of leaving the landing craft under machine gun fire and bombing runs is even a hundredth of what reality was like, it’s enough to inspire even more amazement and respect for anyone who was involved in the actual events.
I already have books lined up for February, and have a few films I’d like to try and watch, but I welcome any recommendations for any titles you think I’d enjoy or learn from in the comments, along with any other (spoiler free) opinions anything I’ve shared…
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