I could just not tell you what I read/watched in 2023, but I already had a bunch of this drafted and it never made it to publication, so I’m posting two years worth of things I read and watched and listened to. This has turned into a straight up list and it is not comprehensive. Hopefully in 2025 I can just give you a review of the top handful that stuck with me.

What I read/watched in 2023

2023, the year of Dracula and criticizing capitalist institutions (but that’s every year).

• The Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima
  Made me think a lot about the work that contributes to my art enough that I’m now making these lists a regular thing.
• White Trash by Nancy Isenberg
  Very huge and informative. I learned a lot about white poverty.
• Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto
• Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida
• The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
  Maybe coming in just at the right time behind White Trash I ended up coming out the other side convinced that “talent” is a realm for the lucky and privileged and has little to do with the intrinsic human.
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  This put me on a Krakauer stint in 2023. Fucking excellent and juicy journalism along with visceral nature writing.
• Andor (2022)
• Master & Commander (2003)
  I remember lots of people loving this movie but it’s so severely in young post-911 brain that it’s a bit cringey now.
• Ravenous (1999)
  Have you seen this movie? You should.
• Glass Onion (2022)
• Dead Wake by Erik Larson
• The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren
  Read this in full again in 2024. :)
• The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
• Stranger Things s4
• Gungrave (2003)
• The Enigma Machine
• The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz (RIP)
• Rogue One (2016)
• American Predator by Maureen Callahan
  I listened to this as an audiobook and I’ve already forgotten pretty much everything.
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kloen
• Man of Medan
• Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer
  It had been some time since I thought much about the Iraq war.
• Like a Dragon
• Nope (2022)
• Blood Blockade Battlefront (2015)
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
  The protagonist in this story has a lot in common with Oscar Wilde, which I would only realize in 2024.
• Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki
• An Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James
• Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• Tokyo Babylon by Clamp
• Cultish by Amanda Montell
• The She-Devil in the Mirror by Horacio Castellanos Moya
• The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
• Supercop (1992)
• X 1999 by Clamp
• Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
• Legal Drug by Clamp
• Card Captor Sakura by Clamp
• Mother 3
• No More Heroes
  Tried to also play NMH2 before the third one but it turns out I don’t like NMH2 at all.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
  Probably my favorite book I read in 2023
• Vermis I by Plastiboo
• No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again
• Across the Spiderverse
• Sebastiane (1976)
• Edward II (1991)
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Ducks by Kate Beaton
• Scarface (1983)
• Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by Clamp
• XXXHolic by Clamp
• Rise of the Videogame Zinesters by Anna Anthropy
  So much of what is in this book is irrelevant now, and it was published before Gamergate, but I still learned a lot about thinking differently about games as zines.
• Succession
• The Hole in the Ground (2019)
• Halloween (1978)
• Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White (1995/2020)
• Flaming Ears (1992)
  My friends and I have been watching a roulette of random stuff on Criterion lately, which began in 2023. Flaming Ears might be one of my favorites from this experiment.
• My Love Mix-Up by Wataru Hinekure
• Yellowjackets s1-2
• The Lure (2015)
• Will-o-the-Wisp (2022)
• Perfect Blue (1997)
  One of my favorite movies of all time. Got to watch it in a theater on the big screen. :)
• The Forever Witness by Edward Humes
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Promised Land (2023)
• The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• No More Heroes 3
• Blue Flag by Kaito
• The Hit (1984)
• Caravaggio (1986)
• 22 Murders by Paul Palango
• The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Laws of Medicine by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
  I understood and remember so little of this I doubt it’s even worth mentioning.
• My Pancreas Broke but My Life Got Better by Nagata Kabi
  So she says, but it doesn’t really look like that.
• Dracula (1897)
• Night Trap
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Our Flag Means Death 
• Happy Birthday by Summer
• Double 1-5 by Ayako Noda
• Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
• Cod by Kurlansky
• Carmilla by Sheridan de la Fanu
• This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
• 1968 by Mark Kurlansky
• Street Fighter (1994)
• David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
• Radiant (anime)
• Looper (2012)
• Drive (2011)
  This is an amazing movie and I’m mad I didn’t see it before this.
• The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
• Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  Everyone owes it to themselves to read this.
• Barbie (2023)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

What I read/watched in 2024

2024 was the year of Ken Russell and learning about Gothic and Victorian authors.

• Saving Time by Jenny Odell
  I didn’t like this as much as How to Do Nothing, perhaps because I’ve now read a lot of the things she talked about in that book, so little of what was said in this book blew my mind, though I did get some recommendations that I need to read.
• From Chaos to Creativity by Jessie L. Kwak
• Lair of the White Worm (1988)
  I’ve become a Ken Russell fanatic in 2024.
• Salome’s Last Dance (1988)
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• On Stieg Larsson by Stieg Larsson?
• Interview with a Vampire season 1
• Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  I wished this dude would stop talking about the work he did with the Israeli military. Surely he had no way of understanding how bad it would look when I read it in 2024.
• Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Darkest Dungeon
• Something in the Blood by David Skal
• Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead
  Watched this performed by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan at the local theater and had the time of our lives. Then we watched the 1990 film after.
• I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  Borrowed the audiobook for this after seeing people talk about it. Woof!
• 13 Sentinels
• Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
  This wasn’t my first time seeing it but the memory of this film was so soggy that I remembered barely anything. I don’t think I was paying much attention when I saw it as a teen.
• Dune (1984)
• Long Vacation (1996), Japanese Drama
• The Limey (1999)
• Sexy Beasts (2000)
  Another treasure from our esoteric movie nights. Actually I should tell you we call it “Big Gay Movie Night” regardless of if the movies are gay.
• Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
• Cocoon 
• Monkey Man (2024)
• The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
• Maurice (1987)
• Purge by Sofi Oksanen
• Bear by Marian Engels
  Finally found a copy of the legendary award-winning Canadian novel about being horny for a bear.
• Dead Ringers (1988)
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  My favorite book. Read it one and a half times in 2024.
• Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Lost City of Z by David Grann
• It’s Just a Dream…Right?! by Huingwi
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Rope (1948)
• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
  I thought I knew a thing or two about what is going on in Palestine but this book taught me that I had barely scratched the surface.
• Semantic Error by Angy and J. Soori
• Clearcut (1991)
• Checkmate by TAN
• Interview with a Murderer by KJK
• Siege (1983)
  Haven’t been able to shut up about this movie since I saw it the first time. Good anti-fascist action fun, shot in Halifax.
• Attack the Block (2011)
  Hadn’t seen this before, which is a shame. It’s definitely my cup of tea.
• Evicted by Matthew Desmond
  Came for the journalism, stayed for the ethnography.
• A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Major Grom: The Game (2024)
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson
• Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton
• What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Cry of the Hunted (1953)
  This and The Maltese Falcon were sold on Criterion as “homoeroticism in noir” and I can see it in both but boy howdy Cry is quite gay.
• Ricochet (1991)
• Stiff by Mary Roach
• Santa Jaws (2018)
• Wicked (2024)
  Mad that I didn’t know this was going to be two movies until I got to the theater. I’ll never forgive it.
• The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) by Eminem
  I read an article on this album that reminded me that most of Eminem’s early albums were all sort of concept albums, so I checked this one out. While thinking of it as a narrative I found it very good.
• Oppenheimer (2023)
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Bando Stone and the New World by Childish Gambino
  I haven’t stopped listening to this album pretty much all year. Can’t wait for the movie.
• Powers of Darkness by Bram Stoker, Valdimar Ásmundsson, and Hans De Roos
  My wife thinks it’s very funny to tease me by adopting my voice and going “Have you heard of Icelandic Dracula?”
• Ghostwatch (1992)
• Freejack (1992)
• Starcrash (1978)
• Gothic (1986)
• Beau Travail (1999)