January-Februrary 2025 Consumption Diary

MUSIC - JAN

READING

18 books so far this year. On pace for 108 (yeah, but, holiday reading... but also, no poetry collections yet...)

The Islanders by Christopher Priest (novel, physical book, UK, 2011) 

Classic Priest tropes (twins, theatre, unreliable narrator) in his fantasy world that feel like Earth if only Europeans existed (so, kinda ick). More interesting conceptually than in execution.

The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong (novel, physical book, Aus, 2016) 

Imagine Mark Waugh bloodied & stuffed in a car boot, reflecting on life. Loved all the backyard cricket stuff, brotherly tensions & dependency, the rise through to state cricket legend... The crime framing and twists felt less vital.

Funny Story by Emily Henry (novel, audiobook, US, 2024) 

As if reader notes from Henry's last book (Happy Place) said, "We want the exact same setup, but give him tattoos and spend longer on the sex scenes"... Elevated by the GOAT narrator (Goatarrator?) Julia Whelan.

Doxology by Nell Zink (novel, physical book, audiobook, US, 2019) 

Picked up on the promise of the elusive GOOD rock'n'roll novel. Starts by diagnosing a character with high-functioning Williams syndrome, which is unknown to all characters, and we keep this level of remove from most characters throughout. Oh well.

Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret (novel, audiobook, US, 1970)

Simultaneously an artifact of its era, a blueprint for others to follow (even picked up some resonances in Doxology, which I read concurrently) and an engaging yarn. Now to see what my 12y.o. daughter thinks 🤔

The Survivors by Steve Braunias (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2024) 

The alleged final book in a true crime trilogy. Much like Palmerston North pathologist Cynric Temple-Camp's trilogy-capping The Final Diagnosis, which I read last month, there's great moments, but it lacks the cohesion of earlier books.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (novel, Ireland, 2013) 

Had a couple solo South Island car trips tin Jan to churn through the audiobooks. Listening to this in transit felt apt, and the slow accumulation of detail, meaning and connection paid off...

Orbital by Samantha Harvey (novel, UK, 2024) 

...unlike this one, which felt like an extended creative writing exercise. No liftoff, no new layers exposed, dead on arrival.

Foraging New Zealand by Peter Langlands (non-fiction, physical book, NZ, 2024) 

The author's Instagram is full of quirky finds & unique dishes, but this is more of a straightlaced field guide. Kinda wished the book had more personality, & maybe a few place-based 2 page spreads (foraging at the beach, etc)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) 

Game of Thrones meets Harry Potter "romantasy" that was apparently big on BookTok (shrug) & people took the day off work to read the 3rd book when it came out last month. The engine runs but no need to ride again.

Magic Pill by Johann Hari (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2024) 

Hari both sides the Ozempic debate, with a heavy dose of Supersize Me-style autoethnography.

When it All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2019) 

I was once on a panel with Hawkins & Lloyd Jones (who demonstrated zero curiosity in commercial fiction/romance). Turns out, Hawkins is just as interested in the economics of farming as affairs of the heart. Time for Take 2.

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials book 1) by Philip Pullman (novel, audiobook, UK, 1995)

Thought I should check out what all the fuss is (was) about. Twas good. Not sure my kids are fantasy kids, so may not every go any further in this series.

The Colour of Magic (Discworld Book 1) by Terry Pratchett (novel, audiobook, UK, 1983)

Thought I should check out what all the fuss is (was) about. Twas okay. I'm not a fantasy guy (nor a this whole scene/character is a set up for a joke guy), so may not go any further with TP, though Pratchett heads may twist my arm.

Twist by Colum McCann (novel, physical book, Ireland, 2025) 

Reviewed this one for The Listener...

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (novel, physical book, Tanzania/UK, 2025)

...and this one.

Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell by Corbin Reiff (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2020)

Reiff didn't get access to interview anyone in Cornell's inner circle, so relied on previously published interviews and articles. That distance is felt throughout, as is the fact there can't be any new revelations.

Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins (novel, audiobook, US, 2003)

Hadn't read Robbins (RIP) before. Still not sure how representative this one was. Sooo many references to scrotums.

MOVIES & TV

Rogue Heroes (of the SAS) - Seasons 1 & 2

The Jackal - Season 1

Black Doves - Season 1

Ludwig - Season 1

The Kins of Tupelo - Season 1

Win or Lose - eps 1-4 (me and my son are really enjoying this)

The Lost Children

Night Bitch

Speed*

Mrs Doubtfire* (umm...)

MUSIC - FEB

2024 This Fluid Thrill Awards: Best Reading

I read 20 books that were released in 2024, but that's burying the lede. I actually read 100 books this calendar year, published between 1837 (The Pickwick Papers) and 2024.

One hundred. 

This is the first time in tracking my reading here (see previous awards: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017... 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, & 2010) that I've cracked three figures. 

The previous high was 90 in 2021.

I had five reading targets for the year, all of which I met, but there was no target for gross number of books.

How'd I do it? When you look at what format I consumed these books, the answer might seem to be through my ears...

But I actually listened to more audiobooks (85) in 2021. This is the first time in over a decade I've read as many physical books. Issues with my eyes (and attention span) aren't as bad as they were. Yay!

I've also been more ruthless with audiobooks, abandoning some early (these don't count towards the total and I won't drag anyone here) and moving onto books I'm more likely to devour.

Speak of which...

Best Reading of 2024

Outline by Rachel Cusk (2014)

If there's a theme for this year's top ten, it's clusters. This year I read five books by Cusk, and the Outline trilogy was an absolute highlight. The first book in the trilogy gets top billing here thanks to the thrill of seeing the magician pull the trick for the first time (autofiction with the merest silhouette of the author-narrator). Rather than diminishing marginal returns in the next two books, the power of Fay's self-abnegation only builds.

For more, check out my March/April consumption diary.

She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (2021)

Here's what I said about it in February:

Holy Moses this was great. This seems weird to say, and only just occurred to me several weeks after reading it, but it's like a grown-up Fight Club. The disaffection. The bifurcation. The sardonic wit. But without the empty nihilism and cheap shocks.

Looking back, this might've been the book that got me back into the physical form. So much good Aotearoa NZ stuff still isn't making it to audiobook.

Wellness by Nathan Hill (2023)

Here's what I said about it in July:

Wonderful. Part of me feels I shouldn't have loved it so much as it's lineage back through Jonathan Franzen is pretty clear (even without Oprah's seal of approval for Wellness), but it deals with things I'm interested in (and made me interested in things I wasn't previously) and feels big without being overblown or tryhard. Need to go back and read The Nix now.

Cluster #2: fat Nathan Hill books. While The Nix got more buzz upon its release, and I liked it when I read it later in the year, I still rate Wellness higher.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (2023)

Here's what I said about it in April:

I'm a sucker for stories that immerse me in a world I was sort of interested in already but not obsessively so, like Saturday Night Live (which Sittenfeld repatches as The Night Owls in her novel). Pair this with a not-too-typical, not-too-out-there love story and you've got a winner.

The good test of a book like this, which is trying to have its genre cake and eat it too, is whether you can remember much of the plot or characters at the end of the year. This one absolutely passes this test. Memorable and smart. *Chefs kiss*

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

Maybe this is recency bias, but Akbar claims the title of best book actually published-and-read in 2024 (just pipping James by Percival Everett, Good Material by Dolly Alderton, and Intermezzo by Sally Rooney).

Here's what I said about it in my December consumption diary:

This could be the start of a bad joke: Acclaimed poet writes a literary novel about death, religion, sexuality, loss, nationhood and lies... Except it fucking rules.

The narrative hinges on a pretty incredible (as in: hard to believe, though not hard to predict) twist, and yet somehow it doesn't scuttle the whole enterprise.

The most fun you can have while being miserable. Highly recommended.

Right Story, Wrong Story by Tyson Yunkaporta (2023)

First non-fiction on this list. First Australian. First first nations. Second book by Yunkaporta to make one of my year-end lists.

Here's what I said about it in February:

A worthy successor to Sand Talk, but I'm worried I might come across as one of the wrong kind of fans of Yunkaporta's books (who Yunkaporta addresses in this latest book).

Subsequently, I took part in an cross-discipline, online competition-cum-capacity-building-thingamee about indigenous perspectives on energy and climate change. Yunkaporta was one of the guest speakers and he was the same caustic, insightful, unserious-and-dead-serious-simultaneously self as presented in his (audio)books.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (2011)

Here's what I said about it in May:

Another book I was on the fence about reading (having already committed many hours to listening to the very good, but very Irish Franzen-y The Bee Sting already this year).

Another book I ended up really enjoying. I think I preferred this to The Bee Sting because it's a bit less Franzen-y and because I myself have been grappling with a plot point not dissimilar to (not a spoiler, guys) Skippy dying!!!

Another fat book cluster. Unlike with Nathan Hill, I preferred Murray's earlier book to his newer one. It felt wilder. Less Seriously Funny Family Saga and more Stranger Things without the STRANGE THINGS (though there's plenty of lower case strangeness). 

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (2023)

Here's what I said about it in May:

Yeah! This was excellent. Funny, dark-at-times, possibly even profound. And it has dogs in it!

I really liked that the protagonist/narrator was late 40s (I think) but language and ideas still seemed to be alive to them. It felt true(ish) to my inner dialogue as a early 40s person. 

Totally unrelated negative-impulse: I don't want to Google how old Elizabeth Bennett's parents are in Pride and Prejudice...

Nothing further to add, your honour. The Defence rests. 

Companion Piece by Ali Smith (2022)

Here's what I said about it in October:

The great Ali Smith keeps on being great in uncomfortable ways.

It's incredible how much now-ness Smith gets into her books. You can pretty much lock in a slot in next year's list for Glif (and maybe it's companion piece, Glyph, if it comes out and I read it before the end of the year)... though I find the sight of the word 'Glif' very triggering as someone who often gets called Cliff in email, and occasionally Graig.

Poūkahangahatus by Tayi Tibble (2018)

I didn't write about thing about this in my December consumption diary because I hadn't actually read it before I left for Christmas up North, but I had it in my backpack and needed to read it to complete my goal of reading at least 10 single-poet collections this year. 

It's crazy it took me six years to get to this collection. Crazy.

It's incredibly polished for a first collection published so young... annnnnnd this is where I stop myself from saying other condescending-sounding drivel.

This is the collection that convinced me that I need to read AT LEAST another ten poetry collections next year (with Tibble's sophomore effort top of the list).

Graphs and shit

A little more on how my 100 books breaks down... (sorry for the pixelation, for some reason posting graphs directly isn't working today).

Works in translation: 7

Works by non-white authors: 27

This gender split was interesting. Last year it was 35 female to 23 male authors, but going back to preceding years, 2024 looks pretty typical. Maybe it's because of the non-fiction I read? I read 19 non-fiction books by dudes and only 3 by females in 2024... Whereas with novels it was 34 females to 28 males.

Reading targets for 2025

• Read 100 books (why not?)
• Read at least 10 single-author poetry collections
• Read at least 20 physical books
• Read at least 10 non-fiction books by female authors
• Non-white + translated > 40

Okay, buckle in.

December 2024 consumption diary

MUSIC

SCHEDULING NOTE

I've got my best books and music lists in draft and will post my annual awards here before the end of the year if I find time.

BOOKS

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2023)

This novel starts in a kind of ecstatic, fabular mode that another novel might use as a couple-page prelude before slowing down and becoming a "proper novel", but Praiseworthy is what it is from page one to page 736 (or hour 36 and minute 50). To which I say, bravo. Love the chutzpah. I'm no expert in the narrative modes of the Waanyi people, but this storytelling feels both ancient and infected by our doomscrolling, caricatured present. 

(Is it always thrilling? No. Neither is Gulliver's Travels. Satire sags when pursued at length. Both are still classics).

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (novel, audiobook, US, 2024)

This could be the start of a bad joke: Acclaimed poet writes a literary novel about death, religion, sexuality, loss, nationhood and lies... Except it fucking rules.

The narrative hinges on a pretty incredible (as in: hard to believe, though not hard to predict) twist, and yet somehow it doesn't scuttle the whole enterprise.

The most fun you can have while being miserable. Highly recommended.

Return to Harikoa Bay by Owen Marshall (short stories, physical book, NZ, 2022)

Sleepwalking in Antarctica by Owen Marshall (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2010)

Return to Harikoa Bay was Marshall's first story collection in over a decade. It sat on my bedside table for two years before I finished it. And it was a sloooooooooog.

I bloody love Marshall's stories. 13 years ago I dedicated a whole month on this blog - back when I posted often and at length (pre-kids!!) - to Owen Marshall to celebrate the release of Living as a Moon (his previous collection)... 

So I bought Harikoa Bay as soon as it came out, but it suffers from what put me off the two Best Of collections of Marshall's work: too much of the same kind of story. I almost wrote: too much of a good thing, but after a while, the goodness was no longer apparent. Too many stories start with big-ass pronouncements and end with neat topic sentences. 

And there are a lot of stories. Like 33. No collection (even a best of, probably) should have that many stories. 

There's a bit more variety in the final third, but by that point, the die was cast.

I went and read Marshall's poetry collection afterwards out of curiosity. I'd describe most as moment poems, a single experience (in some cases: image) covered in less than a page. Mostly crisp, astute, but rarely surprising.

But the endings were better than the later stories...

Like in 'Tuoro', a poem about a visit to the Italian cemetery of the same name, which ends:

And we sit here, at the end of a corridor

Of time, and drink dark espresso in the sun.

The 'corridor of time' is a bit much, but saved (slightly) by the enjambment. I wonder if I cut the last sentence or two off every story in Harikoa Bay, and then took the best fifteen, maybe it would have hit different?

Anyway, it took be so long to read Harikoa Bay that Marshall's come out with another collection, the imaginatively titled: New Stories. 

Check back here in two to thirteen years for my thoughts.

The Final Diagnosis by Cynric Temple-Camp (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2024)

Advertised as the third and final book in Temple-Camp's series of true tales from a provincial pathologist. You'll have to read to find out why there'll be no more...

The greatest trilogy set in Palmerston North since... ever.

Good Material by Dolly Alderton (novel, audiobook, UK, 2024)

I read this at the same time as I watched Baby Reindeer. Both stories feature flailing stand-up comics with disastrous Edinburgh fringe experiences. While Baby Reindeer goes dark, Good Material trims a course close to the Romance Novel coastline, without needing THAT kind of happy ending. But what if I wanted that kind of happy ending in my sappy dotage?

The Wager by David Grann (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023)

If someone asks what Creative Non-fiction is, I'll point them to this book, somewhat ungenerously. Maybe I like my history bone dry and my love stories soft and gooey?

On Bullshit by Harry G Frankfurt (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2005) - Was this meta, or just shit?

Stray Thoughts & Nose Bleeds by Duncan Sarkies (short stories, physical book, NZ, 1999) - Came out the same year as Scarfies... not a bad quinella. The title makes it sound like a collection of newspaper columns, but it's a depraved inversion of the Joe Bennett afterworld.

The Deleted World by Tomas Transtromer (poetry, physical book, Sweden, 2006)

Dedications by JC Sturm (poetry, physical book, NZ, 1996)

Poūkangahatus by Tayi Tibble (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2018)

How to watch basketball like a genius by Nick Greene (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2021)

Different Dude: are you ready for a better life? By Rod Benson (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023)

I actually listened to these two books mid-year, when Spotify started offering audiobooks and, by virtue of my listening to a lot of basketball podcasts on Spotify, these two books were high on my recommendation list.

FILM & TV

Day of the Jackal (2024 TV series)

Baby Reindeer - Season 1

That's Not Entirely Accurate (Pretty Good, Secret Base)

The History of Slipping on Banana Peels (Pretty Good, Secret Base)

Interstellar*

Consumption Diary: November 2024

MUSIC

BOOKS

Pet by Catherine Chidgey (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2023) - Eighties nostalgia + creepy teacher + dead mother = a winning combo.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme (novel, audiobook, NZ, 1984) - Audiobook made it both easier (faster) and harder (more superficial) to get into this classic. Ruby Solly's narration was great.

The Yield by Tara June Winch (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2019) - Really great. At certain points it felt like it was becoming a large social novel (think Jonathan Franzen without the forced jokes), only to move on to other modes, other things.

A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Ilan Pappe (non-fiction, audiobook, Israel, 2024) - Don't worry, this Israeli historian really doesn't like Settler Colonial Israel either (but it fairly clear headed and concise about it all).

The Lazy Boys by Carl Shuker (novel, physical book, NZ, 2006) - Thought I should finally read this book about a particular kind of student experience at Otago University in the 1990s, which is and isn't that different to today. Unpleasant to sit with Richey for so long (which is the point). Weird to know exactly which flats and dairies are being mentioned. 

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase (novel, audiobook, Botswana, 2024) - Took forever to get to the crime fiction plot that was prominent on the cover blurb, which unfortunately made all the world-building feel like throat-clearing.

Aisle Nine by Ian X Cho (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2024) - YA set in the US after portals to a nightmare world start to open up. A bit paint by numbers.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (novel, audiobook, Ireland, 2024) - Hard not to read Rooney's latest in light of her previous work. This is and feels longer, but not necessarily bigger. It's less thrilling (feels like the author has more sympathy for her characters, which means there's less cravenness), more measured... kinda like a game of chess. 

Ghost Bus by Anna Kirtlan (short stories, audiobook, NZ, 2020) - Far be it from me to critique an author-with-a-day-job's creative work on the basis of their day job, but you know how sometimes fiction feels false, like it was written by a journalist or a comms professional...? Like, how sometimes the title is enough for you to know exactly what you'll get? Stories aren't peanut butter - at least, I'd prefer them not to be shelf stable commodities.

Plus I read / assessed an MA in Creative Writing thesis, which I won't include in my reading stats for the year.

Statistical interlude

With one month to go (86 books & counting), here's how I'm tracking against the semi-random reading targets I set for 2024:

• At least ten single-author poetry collections: 7/10... Should be easy enough to slip 3 more into December's reading IF I remember
• At least one book from every continent: 6/6 (achieved by July)
• At least four books in translation: 6/4
• At least four books by Australians: 6/4 
• At least five different genres of novel: ∞/5  (this was a stupidly vague target)

FILM & TV

Slow Horses Seasons 3 & 4

Rebel Ridge

Killers of the Flower Moon

Woman of the Hour

Consumption Diary: Sept-Oct 2024

MUSIC - SEPTEMBER

PARA-LITERARY INTERLUDE

I came 2nd in the Sargeson Prize with my story 'Robinson in the Roof Space', which was subsequently published at Newsroom. I wrote the first half of this story in my first month of the Burns Fellowship in 2017, alongside two other stories, when I was loosening up for the novel that would eventually become Nailing Down the Saint. I wrote the second half of the story in my last week at the Michael King Writers Centre in Devonport in June this year (alongside one other story). There's clearly something about the figure of Robinson that appeals to me when on a writing residency...

In terms of the composition of the story itself, it follows George Saunders' approach of building a story sentence by sentence, and though I hadn't read A Swim in a Pond in the Rain when I wrote the first part. It does have a Saunderian vibe, though. And adding each new sentence so that it was adding to the story, making it better, like a bricklayer building a wall, made it pretty easy to pick up and finish seven years later.

In other publication (non)news, the agent I pitched both the novel and short story collection I worked on while in Devonport didn't want anything to do with short stories and was lukewarm on the novel sample. It helped clarify how I was feeling about the novel manuscript: it still wasn't wholly what it wanted/needed to be. So another draft is on the cards, when I can manufacture the time/headspace/roofspace. 

A university press also passed on the story collection, citing the horrors of the marketplace. Oh well.

So for now this turtle has pulled his head right back into his shell. It's nice to have some things in the chamber when I feel like pitching again or the Universe comes knocking.

READING

The Nix by Nathan Hill (novel, audiobook, US, 2016) - I read Hill's sophomore novel, Wellness, earlier this year and reading his debut cemented a few things for me. Wellness wasn't flawless, but it's felt more unified than The Nix, and will definitely be in my end of year top 10. When you add Hill's two novels to the two Paul Murray doorstoppers (Skippy Dies and The Bee Sting), and possibly also Gabrielle Zevin's novel (see below), I think these are the sorts of books my novel manuscript is wanting to become. Bigger. Polyphonic but in a more sedate way. Timelessly topical. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (novel, audiobook, US, 2022) - I liked but did not love this one. But having read Sam Brooks' ludicrous review for The Spinoff, suddenly I'd die for this novel. The references thing in particular - I thought this was well-handled. Just to pick the first from Brooks' list, Metal Gear Solid isn't a throwaway line, but a long passage about stealth games, the game's designer/publisher deciding to rebrand the series to appeal to an American audience - all of which was germane to the characters' own decisions about their games AND hit that nostalgia dopamine release for the days of the original PlayStation.

Companion Piece by Ali Smith (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022) - The great Ali Smith keeps on being great in uncomfortable ways.

Say's Who? A kinder, funner usage guide for everyone who cares about words by Anne Curzan (non-fiction, audiobook, 2024) - Cliff Notes version: languages evolve, go for it.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2023) - The adjective Woody, in this case, refers to something intimate and yet bone-cold. 

Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023)

You Don't Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin (non-fiction, audiobook, Australia, 2024)

BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2024) - I left this particular BBQ early.

The Mires by Tina Makereti (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2024) - So great to have NZ books available as audiobooks, even if they aren't all to my tastes (see above).

Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm by DeMar DeRozan with Dave Zarum (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2024) - So great to have DeMar DeRozan on the Sacramento Kings.

Chosen by Geoff Cochrane (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2020)

Conventional Weapons by Tracey Slaughter (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2019)

MOVIES & TV

Severance, Season 1

Slow Horses, Season 1 & 2

Ted Lasso, Season 3

Presumed Innocent, Season 1

Starting 5, Season 1

Reform, Parts 1-3

Mr McMahon

Anyone But You

Late Night with the Devil

Knock at the Cabin

Inside Out 2

Holiday on the Buses

MUSIC - OCTOBER

Consumption Diary: August 2024

MUSIC

BOOKS

I re-read Living in the Maniototo a few more times (and dipped back into Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy and Parade) in August as I prepared my talk for the symposium on Reading Janet Frame (for) Today on the 30th. It was a great event!

I also read:

The Material World by Ed Conway (non-fiction, audiobook, 2023, UK) - this really did make me look at the (material) world differently. I highly recommend it.

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (non-fiction, audiobook, 2024, US) - this was basically a recapitulation of Haidt's previous work on anti-fragility, repackaged as an anti-phone treatise. He admits as much toward the end of the book.

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova (novel, audiobook, 2022, Canada) - okay.

Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (novel, audiobook, 2024, Colombia, translated) - I can see why GGM wasn't keen on this being published, but also why his literary executors thought better of his wishes and pubbed it anyway.

James by Percival Everett (novel, audiobook, 2024, US) - I retelling of Huck Finn from Jim's perspective. In the spirit of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, Everett employs alternative history (Jim and the other slaves are highly educated and eloquent, but speak in their dumbed-down patois to white people for a range of reasons) in such a way that you realise the "history" was also partly fiction. Unfortunately, the book is limited by the picaresque nature of the original narrative so that, like any remake, it never quite becomes its own thing, and like any road-trip (or river-trip) novel, it never quite feels complete, but merely finished.

Chosen by Geoff Cochrane (poetry, physical book, 2020, NZ) - this came out as I was preparing to move islands and I didn't get around to reading it before Geoff died, or his posthumous best of came out. Now that I've read this last collection, it's time to delve into the best of (I suspect it will suffer the same problem that Owen Marshall's 2x best of story collections have, in that the quirky, interstitial pieces might not carry the individual heft to make it into a best of, but leaving them all out means the sum of the parts is less than the whole impression of breadth and deliberate unevenness -- or maybe willingness to subvert reader expectations is a kinder way to put it -- in any one collection)… We shall see!!!

Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin (fiction, audiobook, 2018, US) - I quite liked Season 2 of House of the Dragon, but became increasingly intrigued by what book readers were saying about how much action was left to come in the show's final two seasons, so I became a book reader myself and... this was not my cup of tea. I read the first two novels in A Song of Fire and Ice and quite liked them, but feel no compunction to read the rest. But Fire and Blood is not a novel, but a collection of fictional histories Martin knocked out for certain anthologies. The sections that inform House of the Dragon are the most engaging, but they are still pretty tedious. I guess I'm no Westeros completist.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (novel, audiobook, 2004, US) - Several times I felt like I'd read this book before, but I can't find any hard evidence. This speaks badly for Hiaasen and/or me. 

FILM & TV

The Olympics (how good were they?)

Colin from Accounts - Season 2

Taskmaster NZ Season 5

Anyone But You

The Sixth Sense

Masterminds

Hate to Love: Nickelback

Remembering Gene Wilder

The Last of the Mohicans

How to Rob a Bank

Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

Consumption Diary May (incl. 2/3 of a mini-residency)

MUSIC

She's a long one this month...

PRODUCTIVITY INTERLUDE

On May 20th I flew up to Auckland (eventually my bag made it too) and took up temporary residence at the Michael King Writers Centre in Devonport.

I leave on 10 June.

When I arrived I had a 33,573 word "first draft" of a novel that I worked on in 2022. I shelved it because:

    a) I was writing it about events in 2022 such as the anti-mandate protest at Parliament and wrote ahead of those events knowing I'd need to come back to it "later", once the present of the novel that was the future at time of writing became the past for the reader.

    b) I got COVID for the first time right at the end of the first draft and:

        i) being sick meant there was a natural break between 1st draft and my next concerted efforts with the manuscript

        ii) having COVID and being slightly feverish while writing the final chaps meant I was highly skeptical that it would would be any good when reviewed with some perspective.

    c) Once you stop, it's really hard to pick something back up again with the fear of it actually being shit and no longer relevant, but also (moreso) the fact I have a full-time job and a full-time family and JUST LIFE.

At the time I finished the first draft I knew it needed to be longer, but it would probably only top out around 50-55,000 words. There's a missing persons element to the plot, and I knew that the "resolution" in the first draft was a bit dumb, and should really be more of a red herring, and that there was a bit part character in the 1st draft that wanted/needed more page-time, and maybe making them part of the real "answer" would "fix" things? 

So I really needed a solid block of time to unfuck the novel, writing new chapters and overhauling/ditching existing ones.

Which is why this 3-week residence was and is such a boon.

Over the first two weeks I:

• did a full read-through and mark-up in hard copy
• writing a prologue (though it's not actually labelled as such)
• expanded the first half of the novel (1st draft consisted of 10 chapters from the same character's p.o.v.; 2nd draft has two main characters alternating p.o.v. chapters)
• re-ordering the 2nd half (told through v. many p.o.v. characters), adding some new ones, rejigging some others
• doing a full read-through of this 2nd draft (using Microsoft Word's Read Through function - it's really good for picking up dumb typos and times when you've used too many words) and making necessary corrections and additions.

So the manuscript jumped up to 56,837 words (a net increase of 23,364), but any original words from the first draft really had to earn their keep.

I wasn't sure if I could achieve all of this in three weeks, but I knocked it off in two.

Which is great. Because now I am sick of that manuscript and can let it marinate again (and let some others read it) and it shouldn't be too far off.

And because that means I can also work on my second short story collection. Which is what I started doing today.

Well, I've written and published (and written and not published) many short stories since my first collection came out in 2010, and have had various word documents with my favourite selections combined since 2018 (with another flare up of activity in 2021). So the task isn't writing a shit ton more stories, it's re-assessing which ones should go in this collection and where the two or three gaps are that could/should be plugged by new stories.

Today I used the "Read Through" function to go through all the stories in my 2021 assemblage, plus a bunch I didn't think should make the cut back then (most of which I thought were good enough today, so I don't know, maybe I just love myself rn).

The biggest challenge is the majority of these stories were written closer to 2010 than 2024, so there really does need to be some new stuff. There's a story I have half-written that needs to be finished (it pairs directly with another story in the collection), and then there are two more stories I've written lots of notes for over the last 3-5 years, and just need to smash out.

So by the end of this next week, if I can add these three stories into the manuscript, that one might also be ready for other people to read.

After which, I may need a rest!

PS - all this writing means lots of listening to music, hence the longer than usual monthly playlist!

PPS - I've also done some exploring of the North Shore (and started an Instagram to share some of that stuff) and caught up with friends and family, so I have been going outside!!

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BOOKS

Parade by Rachel Cusk (physical, novel, UK, 2024)

Second Place by Rachel Cusk (physical, novel, UK, 2021)

Kudos by Rachel Cusk (physical, novel, UK, 2018)

Transit by Rachel Cusk (e-book, novel, UK, 2016)

I had to review Parade, so I read/re-read a lot of Cusk in preparation. 

Doppelganer: A trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023)

This proved to be very useful when working on the second draft of my novel, so I let a character name drop Klein.

It's way more personal (and scattershot - in a good way) that her earlier works. It could be a case of right book, right time, but I really liked it!!

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum (audiobook, novel, Korea, 2023)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (audiobook, novel, Japan, 2019)

I've read too many bookshop/library-themed works this year. Sorry pals.

Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin (audiobook, novel, UK, 2023)

I didn't think I'd like it. It seemed to be laying the gothic on really thick, but it did it really well.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (audiobook, novel, US, 2023)

Yeah! This was excellent. Funny, dark-at-times, possibly even profound. And it has dogs in it!

I really liked that the protagonist/narrator was late 40s (I think) but language and ideas still seemed to be alive to them. It felt true(ish) to my inner dialogue as a early 40s person. 

Totally unrelated negative-impulse: I don't want to Google how old Elizabeth Bennett's parents are in Pride and Prejudice...

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (audiobook, novel, Ireland, 2011)

Another book I was on the fence about reading (having already committed many hours to listening to the very good, but very Irish Franzen-y The Bee Sting already this year).

Another book I ended up really enjoying. I think I preferred this to The Bee Sting because it's a bit less Franzen-y and because I myself have been grappling with a plot point not dissimilar to (not a spoiler, guys) Skippy dying!!!

(Maybe some months I my inner hater takes a holiday)

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell (audiobook, novel, UK, 2023)

A mash-up of cosy crime and reality baking shows. Does the baking stuff well enough, but the characters were pretty meh and structurally felt like the first death came way too late.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (audiobook, novel, US, 2021)

Fantasy continues to be the steepest genre hill from my affections to climb.

Just Then by Harry Ricketts (physical book, poetry, NZ, 2012)

Along Blueskin Road by James Norcliffe (physical book, poetry, NZ, 2005)

FILM & TV

• Hacks Season 3 - *makes a love heart symbol with his hands, then feels self-conscious*
• Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 - good, but makes me hate the bandwagon Wrexham fans... I need to get an MK Dons jersey or something
• Curb Your Enthusiasm - finished the final few eps of the final season, and also watched the Seinfield series finale (which I clearly hadn't seen before (yeeeeesh))
• Prisoners
• Dream Scenario
• Blackberry
• Atlas - No ma'am, unfinishable.
• Unfrosted - Shouldn'thavefinishedbutIdidforsomereason

Consumption Diary March & April 2024

MUSIC - MARCH

My kids are 11 and freshly 9. They listen to the Edge radio station while they are ferried to futsal, football, volleyball, jazz dance, contortion and basketball. The radio bestows the quality of "goodness" on anything it plays. In contrast, anything I play for them is met with suspicion and impatience.

Rather than me wearing them down, their affection for pop and affiliate genres has not only lessened my musical snobbishness but exposed the dreariness, the boringness, the insularity of much of "my music". This is especially true for those genres, those eras, which I beloved in my youth. Grunge, stoner rock, indie rock, brit pop. The gems remain gems, but the surrounding geology has been eroded into further relief by the second coming of a pre-teen sensibility.

BOOKS

The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023)

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023)

Because I'm a climate sicko.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (novel, audiobook, US, 2023)

I'm a sucker for stories that immerse me in a world I was sort of interested in already but not obsessively so, like Saturday Night Live (which Sittenfeld repatches as The Night Owls in her novel). Pair this with a not-too-typical, not-too-out-there love story and you've got a winner.

The Call by Gavin Strawhan (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2023)

Hmm. I think this novel was able to inhabit too many perspectives to create enough tension/mystery. And the tituar call is actually a series of calls, none of which quite live up to the billing. There's a lot of great precipitating phone calls in books and movies (think: Scream, think: City of Glass), and this ain't it, folks.

Another Beautiful Day Indoors by Erik Kennedy (poetry, ebook, NZ, 2023)

The Stupefying by Nick Ascroft (poetry, ebook, NZ, 2023)

People Person by Joanna Cho (poetry, ebook, NZ, 2022)

Poetry. On my phone. From Aotearoa. Noice.

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (novel, audiobook, US, 2023)

I didn't like this to begin with, though I can't recall exactly why. Felt a bit like Elena Ferrante, with the rage tamped further down. 

The alternate history elements were interesting in isolation: that the US split post WWII, that female artists became more renowed than male artists -- but each new skewing felt increasingly tacked on. How can we have X engaging with Berlin-era Bowie when geopolitics, gender and the art world are operating from different foundations from this timeline I call reality? 

But these quibbles aside, this will probably be in the top ten books I remember most vividly this year.

What you are looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (connected short stories, audiobook, Japan, 2020)

Years ago I read a "novel" that was thinly veiled Buddhist propaganda. Aoyama's book operates in a similar way, but it's not underpinned by spirituality but kitchen psychology. No wonder people ate, and continue to eat, it up.

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray (novel, audiobook, Scotland, 1992)

I liked the film, and read this novel second. The book is better.

The List by Yomi Adeogoke (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023)

Reads like a long-form non-fiction piece that a journalist tried to turn into a novel... Oh wait.

Weirdo by Sara Pascoe (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023)

Soon only famous people will be able to publish fiction in the UK. Which, you'd think might mean,  editors will be of supreme importance. Sadly, I think this won't be the case.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (novel, audiobook, UK, 2000)

Okay, so I tried another UK celeb-turned-novelist to test my assumptions. 

The first in Osman's wildly popular series has its moments. (It's probably 1/4 too long in my view.) I liked Ibrahim and, to a lesser degree, Bogdan, but at the same time was troubled that these more minor characters' position in the narrative said something about the ethnic/racial politics of the author and his fans (and me, of course, for enjoying these ethnic cyphers). Cosy for whom, eh?

Outline by Rachel Cusk (novel, physical book, UK, 2014)

An English writer famous for writing, but really only after writing this book (and even then, not as famous as someone who appears on comedy panel shows). 

If Barry butchers the crime novel (I mean this nicely), Cusk is more like a chemist who pours a solution over her story that all but dissolves the narrator's actions, but the narrator as stage manager remains, selecting which lopsided conversations to relate and, infrequently, puncturing her interlocutor's own constructions. (I have more Cusk to catch up on, including 'Parade' which comes out in June, so expect more thoughts in the coming months).

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (novel, audiobook, US, 2023)

Gentle mastery. Though maybe knowing more about Our Town by Thornton Wilder would have helped me connect more.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff (novel, audiobook, US, 2023)

Gender-swapped Bear Grylls in early settlement America, narrated by the shade of Cormac McCarthy. But I needed a little more meat on the bone in terms of narrative.

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry (novel, audiobook, Ireland, 2023)

In 2022 I tried to write a 'butterflied' crime story which moved the insides of a standard tale to the edges (and I might return to one day). It was nothing like Barry's novel, which takes poetic license from the aging, disorientated former copper P.O.V character, but it attempts something similar. There are all the narrative elements of a standard crime novel -- the crime, the evidence gathering, interrogations, the telling connections, the satisfying denoument -- but they are meted out through, and jumbled by, the old copper's experience. Which was tiresome at points, and thrilling at others.

FILM & TV

Oppenheimer

Poor Things

No Hard Feelings

Wonka

Asteroid City

Last Holiday

Roadhouse* (1989)

The Natural - almost worth it to see 40-something RObert Redford try to play a 19-year-old. Otherwise, flawed on every count.

Anatomy of a Fall

Past Lives

Duets - never watched this before, possibly the worst movie ever made. So weird (in an ick way) that Gwyneth's dad directed it. 

The Greatest Hits

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I

Shōgun

3 Body Problem - Season 1 - I really liked it. Agree with those who say the second half goes full-tilt into Armaggedon-land. But better than the novel

New Zealand Today Season 4

Mr Bates vs the Post Office

MUSIC - APRIL

Consumption Diary: Jan-Feb 2024

MUSIC - February

BOOKS

Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking by Tyson Yunkaporta (non-fiction, audiobook, Australia, 2023) - A worthy successor to Sand Talk, but I'm worried I might come across as one of the wrong kind of fans of Yunkaporta's books (who Yunkaporta addresses in this latest book).

She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (novel, physical book, NZ, 2021) - Holy Moses this was great. This seems weird to say, and only just occurred to me several weeks after reading it, but it's like a grown-up Fight Club. The disaffection. The bifurcation. The sardonic wit. But without the empty nihilism and cheap shocks.

Madness is Better Than Defeat by Ned Beauman (novel, audiobook, UK, 2017) - So long. Too long. Lots of Pynchoneering. But about three-quarts of the way through it starts to reference how long it is and then it starts to get really good. 

Happy Place by Emily Henry (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - The third (I think) book I've read of Henry's... not as good as Beach Read, better than You and Me on Vacation. Perfectly acceptable summer holiday fare.

Shy by Max Porter (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023) - The usual Porter: lyrical, Alan Garner-esque, get-in get-out before you can be accused of dark tourism (grief, depression, despair)... but probably his most affecting (very short) novel to date.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (novel, audiobook, Ireland, 2023) - The Irish Franzen? As if anyone would deliberately set out to do that, but when pitted against Sally Rooney's sparser, more caustic vision of young people in Ireland, perhaps Murray had to go generational? 

Border Districts by Gerald Murnane (novel, physical book, Australia, 2017) - I don't read a lot of physical books due to eye/brain/life issues. I can't decide if this kind of book is perfect for people like me or a bad idea: it's so interior and meandering that it works well in 3-5 page spurts. It's clear he's a genius, turned an an oblique angle from most of the rest of us, but I'm not sure the angle is particularly... interesting??? Or am I making the mistake of reading this as fake fiction (a.k.a. autobiography without a fact checker)? Guess I'll have to read another Murnane and report back.

Baumgartner by Paul Auster (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - Auster can be hit or miss. And sometimes he can wedge the dart right in the frame of the dartboard, like with this book, which is kind of neither. 

World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023) - meh. I didn't like the Dylan book where he tried a similar thing of using individual songs to anchor each chapter (but with more brio), so maybe it's just a bad approach?

I am Homeless If This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - I love Lorrie Moore. Nothing will change my affection for Birds of America and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help and A Gate at the Stairs, but IAHIFINMH was kinda forgettable, sad to say.

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023) - felt too much like stand-up, not booky enough, soz.

Death and the Conjurer by Tom Mead (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022) - nope.

*

Checking in on my semi-random reading targets for 2024:

• At least ten single-author poetry collections: 0/10 (fear not...)
• At least one book from every continent: 3/6 (Asia, South America and Africa to go... may also need to read a book about Antarctica for completeness)
• At least four books in translation: 0/4
• At least four books by Australians: 2/4
• At least five different genres of novel: I'm going to say a conservative 3/5 (romance, mystery, and lit-fic), but pretty confident there'll be some hard sci-fi and detective fiction coming down the chute. Maybe I should have aimed higher, or set a more specific target? Oh well.

PRODUCTIVITY INTERLUDE

From December I've been participating in a Creative Impact Lab focussing on climate change. You can read more about it here or here (I'm guessing these event-based links might break one day). It culminated in a group exhibition at Tūhura Otago Museum (my first time having "art" [text-heavy video works] exhibited) and a few public events (like this one) in support of it. May potentially go a bit further (exhibiting elsewhere, and maybe a supporting publication/book). 

It's been great to be thrust out of my comfort zone, but in a really supportive environment. 

FILM & TV

Carol and the End of the World - Season 1 - So good. Watch it! It's slow-thrilling like Better Call Saul, has a couple of episodes to rival "Forks" (The Bear) as best standalone, self-contained masterpiece episode of 2023, while being this deadpan, dry-as-cold-toast animated 

Fargo - Season 5 - I have a hard time differentiating seasons 1-4, and maybe 5 will get put in the memory blender shortly, but right now it stands out for leaning less into the strong female cop and more the strong female suspect/victim/hero. Super enjoyable, but also frustrating (John Hamm is so good at being baaad).

The Curse - Season 1 - gave up after 3 episodes (it's deliberately cringy, which isn't my favourite genre) but returned after I caught wind of a crazy ending. And yep, the second half of the final episode sure is crazy. Verdict: worth it.

One Day - Series 1 - good sound track, middling execution (my wife didn't realise the premise of the show was each episode was the same day in successive years until I mentioned it in episode 4 - and I totally can understand how), some good acting, but ultimately *spoiler alert* let down by making cycling seem unsafe (LOL) and revealing that the show (and the novel) had a main character and it was the one you cared less about.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 12 (still in progress)

Spaceman

Mister Organ

Sleeping with Other People

Paper Planes

Leave the World Behind

The Other Guys

I Love You, Beth Cooper

MUSIC - JANUARY

This Fluid Thrill Awards 2023: Best Reading

This list is all about the best books I read in 2023, not necessarily those that came out this year.

I've done this before. See: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, & 2010.

I read 59 books in 2023. The first time since 2018 that I didn't crack 60. But close to the average of 62 per annum from 2010 (if you exclude 2013-2016 when I didn't keep great records, in part because I wasn't reading or blogging as much).

More graphs and junk later. Let's get to the top 10!!

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (novel, physical book, NZ, 2023)

What I said about it in February:

Potentially the best book I'll read this year and it's only Feb. If you loved The Luminaries you'll love this. Don't let the thriller billing lead you astray (though it does get thrilling) - this is a novel that revels in moving fully rendered, psychologically complex characters around the stage and getting them together at opportune/inopportune times (or, excitingly, for me at least, alone: a couple of these lonely, quiet moments seem to act as tent poles for the three act structure). 

If you are one of the people who talk openly about never finishing The Luminaries, when in the last 10 years did you start admitting this like it was a badge of honour? Go take a hard look at yourself in the mirror, then read Birnam Wood, though you might find it too slow as well. In which case, I've got nothing for you. I guess you don't need to be devastated as deeply as I do. 

Nothing further, your honour.

Foster by Claire Keegan (novella, audiobook, Ireland, 2010)

I read three very short books by Keegan this year. Foster was the first to be published by the second I read, and here's what I said about it in May:

It's probably only a short story, but it's packaged as a standalone book, much like Small Things Like These. Loved this one. Every books should be this short.

But, but, but! I didn't like So Late in the Day, when I read it toward the end of the year, and felt it didn't work as a standalone book. So maybe only great books should be this short.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (novel, audiobook, US, 2020)

Here's what I said about it in May:

Another kind of novel that doesn't care much for things like character development or careful observation at the micro-level. This is all about the macro: what if poor performance against the Paris Agreement meant there was a Ministry for the Future to try and drive intergenerational justice (and what if that needed to be complemented by a dark-wing to get stuff done without bureaucracy). I got very depressed to begin with (I deal with this shit every day, so nothing was a surprise, it was more like: why I am listening to this while I work in my garden?!) but it kind of justified this depression through the journey it goes from this launching point. 

To which I'll add: it's the kind of book people who've read bring up in conversation (and maybe even some of those who haven't read it). I think it's even influencing the framing of some climate solutions, and/or reporting thereof. Who says fiction has lost its power?

Lioness by Emily Perkins (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2023)

I listened to this audiobook while in Europe. Specifically, lying beside the pool at the house in the Algarve we'd rented with our friends from Germany. So: not normal life (and not wholly consistent with my admiration for Kim Stanley Robinson and my day job tackling carbon emissions). But it felt appropriate to be living like the 1% while immersed in Perkins story of a rich man's second wife and the slow unravelling of everything. 

Just who is the lioness? Is it Therese/Theresa, or her more forthright neighbour, Claire? Can there be only one?

Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (memoir, audiobook, US, 2023)

This is another audiobook I listened to on my trip (hence no contemporaneous micro-review to quote here). I love Williams' album, Car Wheels on a Dusty Road, but couldn't profess to knowing her full back catalogue or anything much about her life before reading this book. And it served to both point me to albums and songs I should listen to intently (hello, 'Pineola'), and, more importantly, leave me with a strong impression of the human being behind the words, her musical family, her prolonged naievty, her relationships with men, some of whom are equally lauded musicians. 

Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser (novel, audiobook, US, 1997)

What I said about it in June:

To read Millhauser is to flirt with fables and the fantastic, but never quite cross over. It's fascinating. I think I prefer his shorter works, where you spend more time - proportionately - on the knife's edge.

Yes, but, actually, in hindsight, this was one of the novels I remember most vividly from my reading this year. And part of this is from the accumulation of detail, the slow edging away from diecast reality, that only a novel can deliver. 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (novel, audiobook, UK, 2009)

What I said about it in February:

Yeah, okay, I get it now.

Audition by Pip Adam (novel, physical book, NZ, 2023)

A sample of what I said about it in my review for Landfall:

Both structurally and thematically, the closing seventy pages feel akin to the nocturnal swim in The New Animals—we are pulling a thread of strangeness and following wherever it may take us. Sometimes psychedelic, sometimes just plain stoned, but always surreal. Free of earthly forces and pre-eminent Western ideologies, might there be a chance for Alba, Drew and Stanley to remember and reconcile the past, heal, and move beyond?

Audition remixes the tricks and conceits of Adam’s earlier books in such a way that it’s hard not to think about it as a kind of capstone... 

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (novel, audiobook, US, 2019)

Here's what I said about it in May:

I grew up with a father who loved rock documentaries so I enjoyed this. Spent a lot of time wondering why others who might be less of an anorak when it comes to music would enjoy it - the love triangle never quite joins up, which means it skirts around the worst cliches of these kinds of tails but it doesn't really have a huge amount of tension to drive the narrative forward. 

Shortly thereafter, I read Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto is Back, which, despite also liking sports stories, I enjoyed less. I haven't seen the Daisy Jones TV show, but I did enjoy the album. Will it make my top ten albums of the year??

(Spoiler alert: No, it won't, but it would definitely make my top ten albums by a fictional band list.)

The Bell by Iris Murdock (novel, audiobook, UK, 1958)

One of the last books I read in 2023, and one of the earliest written. There's definitely a contrast between the depth and complexity in a book like this and, say, something by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The thing I sometimes forget, when reading mostly contemporary fiction, albeit across a range of genres, is that writers now held up to be literary greats are, so often, funny. And it's true that a brand of non-LOL humour provides the little bubbler outboard motor that kept things moving in The Bell. All the characters are faintly ridiculous. Murdoch is also a great teller. The opening of the novel is an onslaught of telling (as opposed to showing) and it's an absolute hoot. You can show me the glint of the moonlight on the blade, but I'll enjoy it more if you've told me how she got married to the wrong man, became estranged and has now decided to return to him in a rollicking dozen pages first.

---

2023 reading year statistics

Some years I set targets for diversity for the reading year ahead. Others I just wing it. I winged it in 2023 and my reading wasn't that diverse...

And only 9 of the 59 books I read in 2023 had non-white authors. Interestingly, no Australians, which must be a first, no Asian or African or South Americans, either. Sheesh.

For 2024, I'm going to set some reading targets:

• At least ten single-author poetry collections
• At least one book from every continent
• At least four books in translation
• At least four books by Australians
• At least five different genres of novel.