2024 has been a landmark year of reading. As of writing, I have read almost 40 books, not including graphic novels and that surpasses any of my expectations for the year. I didn’t set out to reach any specific number but I did make a conscious effort to write about what I read (either here or offline) to help me remember what I read and when.

What’s interesting to see, is how some months I could not stop reading and others I barely read at all. I’m glad that I never feel forced to read anything, which I’m sure helps.

So, out of the books listed above, I present my Top Books of 2024!

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

Starting this series was a great way to kick off the 2024. Coincidentally, I just finished the latest book in November so it’s also a great series to end 2024, though I’m sure there’s more coming.

The books are the firsthand accounts of Murderbot; An artificially grown cyborg who is coming to terms with free-will in a far future ruled by insidious corporations. Told from an interesting perspective, the ever evolving plots and characters kept me engaged and looking forward to the next installment. This series is not wildly abstract like DUNE, nor is it “hard-Sci-Fi” like the Expanse series and is contented just being a fun romp through corpo space.

Looking forward to reading installments in a book series is an almost singular experience in my consumption of media. It’s a different feeling to TV or movies and I really cannot qualify here, though there may be a post in the future.

Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Also, the most complex¹ .

One of the benefits of it’s complexity is its endless depths. A surface reading feels inadequate, strange and incomplete. Further readings and comparing notes reveals the full story. A story of how we search for ourselves in the media a we consume, authorial intent is a myth and meaning is empty without context.

I cannot recommend a book more.

The Biography of X - Catherine Lacey

What if the south seceded in the 1960s? Do we ever truly know anyone? Can we remove the perception of others from the perception of ourselves? Does context matter when defining ourselves?

Questions all pondered in this meta-fictional-alt-history biography.

I have to admit that while the book is good, it’s content is not solely why it is on my list this year. Because the premise of this book is so oddly a mix of sci-fi, VH1 Behind The Music, Inside Llewyn Davis and a tell-all biography, it made realize that a book can be about anything.

I know that sounds like a silly revelation but as someone who likes to write, sitting down at an empty page and believing in my stories can be a large mental mountain to overcome. When the truth is, it doesn’t matter what I write about, a book can be about anything.

Cuckoo - Gretchen Felker-Martin

No recent book has put me through the emotional ringer like Cuckoo. Felker-Martin has the ability to capture raw queer anger, put it on the page in the most vitriolic spurts of violence that leave me physically exhausted from holding my breath.

Any queer who has grown up in unsafe places knows there is an internal language of queer dread and Felker-Martin is able to speak it clearly. This book is in part so effective because I haven’t really engaged with that dread since creating my openly queer bubble here in Los Angeles. This book takes me back to high school and even my adult life in more conservative parts of the U.S.

A truly effective queer horror.

Also, I regularly voice my annoyance at media obsessed with queer trauma and want to make it abundantly clear that what Felker-Martin writes is a more complete experience than the miserable hollowness lauded in books like A little Life (Whose author is cis, straight, did not research trauma, pedophilia or suicide and stated “I don’t think there’s anything inherent to the gay-male identity that interests me.“ despite all of her protagonists across her books being gay). Yes, there is queer pain in Felker-Martin’s books but more importantly there is a resounding response of queer-vitriol. Taking a sick pleasure and wallowing in queer trauma is a privilege of people who will never experience it. Felker-Martin’s books allow her queer characters to bash-back in ways that I’m sure would make straight-cis folks blanch.

Mask Omnibus - John Arcudi

I’ll be honest when I say that my absolute best reading experience this year was re-visiting the John Arcudi The Mask comics from the 90s.

As I recently wrote about them, I won’t belabor the subject further other than to say that the comics are on a different level compared to the Jim Carrey movie from 1994.

Titanium Noir - Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway is easily my favorite new author of 2024² since discovering his futuristic philosophical sci-fi epic Gnomon earlier in 2024.

Scaling back the grandness, he produced Titanium Noir.

It’s no secret of regular readers that I love a good neo-Noir, especially in the style of James Ellroy, but Harkaway’s noir is set in a neo-futuristic 1920 when the richest of the 1% have found a way to essentially live forever. The reality of this book takes place just one degree removed from our own, but explores all the ways this would effect society. Tremendous book and I look forward to read more from Nick.

NEXT WEEK:

I’ll be highlighting my favorite movies for 2024 so stick around to see if any of your faves made the list!

1   Infinite Jest is a very close 2nd.

2  Remember: New to me.