I keep track of everything I read, play, and watch over the year, and looking back is always fun. Below I’ll share most of it, and highlight my particular recommendations. This year was a much busier year (being the first full year I spent in a PhD program!) and so I really didn’t have as much time as in the past for media consumption. I worked on 10 papers in some form this year, 6 in a first-author status and 4 in some middle-author status. This was… too much! With any luck, I’ll focus on fewer but more impactful projects this coming year, and this list will be a bit more interesting. I also (perhaps due to just… getting old?) tried to spend my free time hanging out with people, or mucking around with hobbies (we’ll see if I finally learn more than a few chords on guitar this year). So maybe expect less time-expensive things like video games in the future.

Books (& selected comics)

  • The Year of the Locust
  • Question 7
  • Babel
  • God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning
  • Plays of Aristophanes (all)
  • Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  • Rejection: Fiction
  • Going Infinite
  • The Sandman (all)
  • Sex Criminals
  • Uzumaki
  • Sensor
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (all)
  • CITY

Sadly, not much reading this year, although I want to fix this (lots downloaded on my kindle)! I focussed a bit on more non-fiction this year. I really, really enjoyed Rejection: Fiction, but I have to say it’s not for the prude or squeamish. Theory and Reality was also a solid read, and I recommend it to anyone in a PhD program – it feels important to have some grounding in the philosophy of science if you plan to be, well, a scientist. And yes, I (re)read all the plays of Aristophanes this year – sadly in English, but I do always love ancient comedy.

In terms of comics not listed here, I enjoyed (like many) the new Ultimate lines by Marvel, with Ultimate Spiderman and Ultimate X-men being particular highlights. I also didn’t mind the Zdarsky Batman run, and the new Absolute Batman seems promising from initial issues! I reread a lot of manga this year, including Bleach and Hunter x Hunter, which remain solid shounen (especially Hunter x Hunter). I also enjoyed the ongoing SJ comics Witch Watch, Dandadan, and Akane-Banashi. I also read (and got really into) CITY by Keiichi Arawai, author of perhaps my favourite gag manga ever (Nichijou) – and it was like discovering that not only did a sequel to your favourite show existed, but also that the author had really evolved their craft in the meantime – just a really great manga to read start to end.

Films

  • Bottoms
  • Oldboy
  • Killers of the Flower Moon
  • The Boy and the Heron
  • The Zone of Interest
  • X
  • The Suicide Squad
  • Starship Troopers
  • Incredibles 2
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
  • Dune
  • Napoleon
  • Dune: Part Two
  • Poor Things
  • Ricky Stanicky
  • Dream Scenario
  • Looper
  • Anyone But You
  • The Gentlemen
  • Challengers
  • The Holdovers
  • Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
  • Mad Max
  • Mad Max 2
  • I Saw the TV Glow
  • Godzilla Minus One
  • Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
  • Hit Man
  • Upgrade
  • Pearl
  • Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
  • Dogtooth
  • Longlegs
  • Deadpool & Wolverine
  • Problemista
  • Aliens
  • Alien³
  • Alien Resurrection
  • The Social Network
  • Alien: Romulus
  • Love Lies Bleeding
  • Prometheus
  • Kinds of Kindness
  • The Fall Guy
  • The Babadook
  • Fresh
  • Civil War
  • Ghosted
  • Another Round
  • The Substance
  • Megalopolis
  • Mysterious Skin
  • The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
  • Us
  • Fantastic Four
  • Woman of the Hour
  • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
  • Trap
  • Anora
  • Look Back
  • Vermiglio
  • Alien: Covenant
  • No Time to Die
  • MaXXXine
  • The Lives of Others
  • Twisters
  • Conclave
  • Blitz
  • A Real Pain
  • Red One
  • Thelma
  • Challengers
  • Die Hard
  • I Saw the TV Glow
  • Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
  • My Old Ass
  • Transformers: The Last Knight
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • Sunshine

Unlike reading, I managed to watch alot of films this year - 79 total! You can go read my reviews and ratings on my letterboxd for actual details or recommendations. I went into both Mad Max and Alien phases this year, and (re)watched them. Actually, I discovered that the first Mad Max was shot partly in the same area as my Australian family! I Saw the TV Glow probably ended up being my favourite film of the year, but certainly not for everyone. There was also a decent amount of watching ‘comfort food’ films, which for me are mediocre superhero flicks.

TV Series

  • Echo
  • Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
  • The Curse
  • Mr and Ms Smith
  • Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
  • Three-Body Problem (Netflix version)
  • Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean
  • Avatar the Last Airbender: Legend of Korra (all)
  • Invincible Season 2 Part 2
  • Baby Reindeer
  • Silicon Valley (All seasons)
  • The Sympathizer
  • The Boys S4
  • The Acolyte
  • Doctor Who (2024) + Christmas Special
  • House of the Dragon (S2)
  • The Bear (S3)
  • The Umbrella Academy (S4; final season)
  • Industry (S1-3)
  • Agatha All Along
  • The Penguin
  • Pantheon (all)
  • Dune: Prophecy
  • Dandadan S1
  • The Franchise
  • Squid Game 2
  • What if…? S3
  • Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War S3

I watched a decent amount of TV too this year! I’m also slowly working on House, M.D. (current comfort show). In hindisght, there were a few big highlights of the year. The Curse is perhaps an all-time piece, and Baby Reindeer and Pantheon really stuck in my brain. I particularly recommend Pantheon for anyone looking for ‘anime sci-fi’ vibes – sure, it’s not 100% technically accurate, but it has interesting ideas and explores them in interesting ways, which is all I can ask for. The Sympathizer and The Penguin also really got me – I really recommend The Sympathizer, with great Park Chan-wook stylings (as the showrunner), and the uniqueness of watching a big-budget TV show mostly in Vietnamese. However, both shows are certainly pretty rough in terms of violence, and aren’t perfect by any means.

Games

  • Outer Wilds
  • Silent Hill: The Short Message
  • Needy Streamer Overload
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake

Sadly, this is where work really reduced the amount of time I had (compare this list to last year…). I have a long, long backlog of games that came out that I really want to try out. Of these, I found Outer Wilds amazing – it absolutely lives up to its (almost insane levels of) hype, and Paper Mario was a fun take on an RPG. I also played through Final Fantasy XVI, but I have a bit to go to finish the platinum for it, so it’ll have to be on next year’s list.

Other

I didn’t track these other things myself, but Spotify told me I really liked Porter Robinson, Magdalena Bay, Beabadoobee, Charli XCX, and Royel Otis. I managed to see 3 of these in person at concerts this year, along with other great artists like Clairo and Odessza, which was fun. I got super into Magdalena Bay’s stuff, which comes with cool websites, production breakdowns, and just generally some fun vibes.

I watch way too much youtube, but I really liked Jacob Geller’s video essays, WolfeyVGC’s videos on competitive pokemon, and Tom Walker’s generally insane VODs.

I spent way too much time on tiktoks and reels this year, and trying to track what I saw would probably send me insane and/or into a depressive funk. I like the stupid yap dollar trend. I like the educational Map Men series. I enjoy the unhinged Sydney Metro fanpage. Short-form video content is fun and here to stay, but by god is it too addictive.

And that’s about it from me this year! I guess this is probably the most consistent blog post I have, so I’ll see you same time next year. I have a feeling that next year might have some more interesting items on the list :)