Time for my annual round-up of what I read and watched in 2024.
I … did not do well on most of the reading and watching challenges I set for myself for 2024. Even though so many of them overlapped (the Graphic Novel Challenge and Non-Fiction Challenge and TBR Challenge all fed into my Goodreads (Read 120 books) Challenge, for examples). I managed to complete the two “big” reading challenges (120 books, 366 short stories), but didn’t come close on the subsidiary challenges. Nor did I come close on my “watching” challenges, as we’ll see below. I did do well on my “see live theater” challenge, as discussed in yesterday’s post.
BOOKS
I did manage to read 120 books in 2024: 13 hardcovers, 49 softcover/paperbacks, 35 e-books, and 23 audiobooks.
Monthly distribution: 10 in January; 9 in February; 8 in March; 15 in April; 9 in May; 9 in June; 14 in July; 8 in August; 7 in September; 11 in October; 5 in November; and 15 in December.
I read work from approximately 110 different creators (authors and anthology editors mostly, but also adding in graphic novels artists, colorists, and letterers).
Genre Breakdown:
· Adventure: 4
· Biography: 1
· Children’s Books: 3
· Crime: 2
· Pop culture analysis: 4
· Fantasy: 23
· Historical fiction: 3
· History: 2
· Horror: 22
· Memoirs: 13
· Mimetic/current day fiction: 3
· Mixed genre short story collections: 2
· Mystery: 2
· Playscripts: 3
· Romance: 7
· Science Fiction: 13
· Spy fiction: 1
· Superhero: 9
· Thriller: 1
These were my own rough classifications, and in hindsight I’m not sure why I broke crime fiction, mysteries, spy fiction, and thrillers into separate categories. I was surprised to realize I read a lot more horror than I thought, and fewer memoirs than I thought. And also, for the first year in a while, not a single poetry collection. I am not a big poetry reader, but I usually like to at least try to read a collection or two during National Poetry Month.
STORIES
I did manage to read 366 short stories in 2024 (since 2024 was a leap year), by 200 different authors.
The monthly breakdown: 26 in January; 19 in February; 34 in March; 42 in April; 37 in May; 21 in June; 23 in July; 24 in August; 44 in September; 31 in October; 22 in November, and 43 in December.
46 of those stories were in anthologies (there were quite a few anthologies that I only read a story or two in, though); 7 were on Author Patreons or websites; 6 were in printed chapbooks; 124 were in single-author collections; 175 were in magazines (pretty much all in e-book form); 4 were additional material at the back of a novel; 1 was on a publisher’s website; and 2 were stand-alone e-books.
Genre breakdown:
· Comedy: 1
· Crime: 22
· Fantasy: 109
· Horror: 118
· Mimetic/modern-day: 11
· Mystery: 1
· Pulp adventure: 4
· Romance: 6
· Science Fiction: 92
· Spy fiction: 1
· Thriller: 1
Again, I’m surprised that I read a bit more horror than I thought I did. And I’m still not sure why I separated crime, mystery, and thriller into distinct subcategories. With the magazines in particular, I tended to stick to familiar ground: Lightspeed, Nightmare, Clarkesworld, The Dark, and towards the end of the year Beneath Ceaseless Skies a bit more regularly. Towards the end of the year I also realized that I have a lot of anthologies that have been on my shelves a long time and that I will probably never get around to reading in their entirety, so I started just reading a story or two in random anthologies before putting them in the “bring to the used bookstore or donate” boxes.
MOVIES
I didn’t even come close on my “watch 52 movies” challenge. But I did make it to 24, so kind of half-way there.
I had challenged myself to watch more of the several hundred DVDs I own (split between movies and television series). 17 of the 24 movies watched were on DVD. 6 were on streaming services, and 1 was in a ballroom at the Pulpfest convention.
Genre breakdown:
· Action: 1
· Biography: 1
· Documentary: 1
· Horror: 2
· Kaiju: 8 (all the Showa Era “Gamera” movies)
· Musical: 1
· Mystery: 1
· Noir: 2
· Romance: 1
· Science Fiction: 1
· Super-Heroes: 3
· Thriller: 1
These 24 movies were the work of 19 different directors.
TELEVISION
I did a little better on my “watch 366 episodes of television” challenge. I managed 232 distinct episodes across 21 series on 8 different streaming services (plus 4 episodes of Doctor Who watched in full at the Pandorica Restaurant in Beacon NY, which you really should visit if you’re a Doctor Who fan and you’re in the NY/NJ/CT/PA area).
Genre breakdown:
· Comedy: 3 series
· Fantasy: 5 series
· Romance: 1 series
· Science Fiction: 5 series
· Spy: 1 series
· Super-Heroes: 3 series
· Talk Show: 1 series
· Variety/Comedy Specials: 2
Summary of Challenges:
“To Be Read” Challenge: 7 of 15 read.
366 Short Stories Challenge: 366 of 366 read.
Goodreads Challenge: 120 of 120 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: 17 of 52 read.
Non-Fiction Challenge: 22 of 12 read.
Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: YTD: 2 read/watched.
Movie Challenge: 24 of 52 watched.
TV Shows Challenge: 232 of 366 watched.