I read 66 books this year. I set a goal of 52, or a book per week; obviously I did more than that, but still a lot less than last year. That was a deliberate decision. By the end of last year, reading started to feel competitive (even though I was not actually competing with …
Category: lists
Favorite Albums 2013
#agir Favorite Albums 2013 This list comes with the same caveat as my favorite songs: I’m not claiming they’re the “best,” just the ones that I enjoyed the most, that stuck with me, and that I listened to many times. Julia Kent: Character A former (?) member of Rasputina, Kent writes cello pieces that could …
Favorite Songs of 2013
I’m never really comfortable putting together a list of songs (or anything else) and calling it the “best” of the year— not because I don’t think it’s possible to make a reasonable stab at such a list, but because I think that in order to do so you really have to have heard a lot …
My Year in Reading, 2012
I read 105 books in 2012. That is unusual; it’s the first time (at least since I have been keeping track) that I have read more than 100. I am not really sure why or how it happened this year, except that for most of the year reading was how I usually felt like spending …
My Year in Movies, 2012
I have never been a very disciplined movie-watcher; much more than with books or even music, , I have no ability to make myself watch the next thing on the list if it is not what I am in the mood for at the moment. So my list of movies is always unsystematic, and the …
My Year in Music, 2012
2012 for me was, first and foremost, the year of Spotify. Having access to Spotify dramatically changed both the quantity and the range of music I listened to. I went through, at various points in the year, a jazz phase (lots of Anthony Braxton, Miles Davis, Jason Adesiewicz, and Colin Stetson, among others), an Early …