The Best of 2024

Not to dwell on the past too much, but this year I decided to look back, and I had an incredible time, even after all of the adversities.

To celebrate the year, I thought it deserved a list of “The Best Of 2024”, which are things that kept me entertained, or made me learn something, or inspired me. Let’s hope at least one of these can have an effect on you.

I’ve divided in 5 caregories:

  1. Literature
  2. Records
  3. Films
  4. Internet Media

Literature

My whole life1, I always read, maybe 1 or 2 fiction books a year. But over the past ~5-7 years, the books I’ve consumed were mostly audiobooks, and non-fiction. After awhile, it was tiring to read the same insights articulated in different ways. 🙄

In 2023, I started diving more into literature. Fiction books. And let me tell you… I had a blast!

I forgot how nice it is to read a good book. I even wrote about how I was replacing screens with fiction books.

In 2024, it was no different. I read different books, shorter ones, rare ones. And here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I always thought classical literature was unapproachable for someone like me (with a bad attention span who has english as a second language), but, oh, how wrong I was! Reading this novel was a true delight. Having Lord Henry bounce his vicious ideas on and off was the most fun I’ve had while reading. Absolutely loved it.

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2. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

With every Murakami novel, it feels like I am embraced by the mysterious ambiance of his writing. It has romance, jazz, passion… I thoroughly enjoyed reading it while listening to jazz albums on my iPod. What an experience. Can’t wait to re-read it!

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3. The Key by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki

Japanese literature has become dear to my heart, with Murakami, Mieko Kawakami, and Yukio Mishima. I have heard of Tanizaki before, but his novels are so rare that it’s not easy finding a physical copy. Fortunately, a little second-hand bookshop had it sitting on its shelves: a copy of The Key. This was an interesting read, with an unexpected ending. I am so grateful to have a copy from 1960 in my “collection”.

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4. Devotion by Patti Smith

Discovering Patti Smith was like meeting a younger version of myself. It was an awakening. She writes about her life in such a way that makes you wonder whether it’s fiction or not. Her writing is very vivid, and it seems like she pours so much of herself into her work. It’s beautiful. It made me go back to journaling more intensely, and rethink the way I write.

Currently reading M Train, and it’s been really good so far.

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Records

It’s been awhile since I’ve been an avid consumer of albums over playlists. To me, it is a full experience to listen to an album from start to finish. And this year I kept this habit.

These are some of the records that stood out to me in 2024:

1. Bewitched by The Eddie Higgins Trio

Reading is a much fuller experience with a jazz on the background. Last year, it was a lot of Bill Evans Trio. This year, Eddie Higgins Trio took the charts.

Listen on Music

2. Nosebleeds EP by Talking Points

Maybe it was the best discovery I made this year? Nobody knows of this artist. It has some midwest emo licks, but it’s not emo. Each music is very nostalgic. I can’t even find information about who this artist is, and I’m gonna be really pissed off if it’s AI. But I have my hopes up that they’re human, and exist.

Listen on Music

3. этажи by Molchat Doma

It was all over social media, but I only learned about it after I discovered their album. It has that 80s soviet vibe with acid drum machines, some dissonant punk-ish guitar licks, a lot—and I do mean A LOT—of reverb. The sound is all mushy, and I absolutely love it.

Listen on Music

4. Notable albums

Films

There were two movies this year that touched me deeply, and both have similar features: the use of silence, space, and ambiance.

1. Perfect Days

It’s a beautiful story that invites whoever watches to rethink what life is, and the meaning of living a full life. I want to say a lot, but I will not say much about it.

I urge you, please watch it.

2. Past Lives

Never in my life have I experienced such strong emotions through a movie. The direction and production of this movie is nothing like I’ve ever seen. There are hardly any spoken words, but you can hear all of the words reflected in their eyes, and bodies.

Internet Media

This was the year I rediscovered personal blogs. Feels weird even saying this word… “blog”.

It’s no joke that the internet is dying. Most of the content is under the locks of social network databases, and now, with generative AI, things will become weirder and weirder. If you don’t know what I mean, read on The Dark Forest and Generative AI by Maggie Appleton.

Thankfully, there is a growing number of individuals who are still taking upon themselves to host their own digital garden, for everyone to see.

Here are some of the people that had the best content to me:

All it all, it was a fun year, with lots of discoveries. I could write about things all day, like the best of photography, or the best of design, but I will leave these topics for some other time.

If you enjoy any of the things I shared above, ping me on Twitter, I would love to discuss them!

Footnotes

  1. My whole life meaning: since I learned how to read. ↩