Library Retrospective 2024
The year I slacked on reading books and watched 111 films in a month.
Music
Look, I always listen to the same tracks on loop for months until I change my playlists. I should try to listen to more diverse tracks in 2025. I’ll mention artists and albums that I listened a lot, but no project influenced by a single track. You’ll see, it makes for a short list.
The album I listened the most is the same as in 2023: 10,000 gecs by 100 gecs. My statistics highlight “757” and “mememe” as the top tracks. 1000 gecs didn’t score as much, but took a non-trivial amount of my time thanks to “money machine” and “stupid horse”. Laura Les, one half of 100 gecs, took the top 10 of my most listened tracks by herself with “Haunted”, as she did in 2023.
As most people, a large chunk of my listening was dedicated to Charli XCX and her latest album Brat and the remixes that surround it. Notably “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde” which I listened a shy more than the two other songs I listened the most, “360” and “365”. I always had a few tracks by Charli XCX in rotation in my playlists, and this year is no different because Crash has two tracks in my top, “Good Ones” and “Used to Know Me”.
I listened to a lot more artists than them, but they really took a large portion of my listening this year. By a large margin. I want to give honourable mentions nonetheless. I enjoyed Théa’s singles, Cavale! Cavale!, and HANNAH MONTANA to name a few. I listened “Rush” by Troye Sivan like a maniac, maybe my favourite K-Pop track ever, I loved the queer joy it sparks. Finally, I’d like to say that Fentanyl, TWIN Resurrection, ZUTOMAYO, Ado and Caroline Polachek were a blast to listen as well. I did not dive into Chappell Roan’s tracks as much as other people did.
Having 100 gecs and Charli XCX in my top artists didn’t surprise me. I’m really obsessed with the goblin duo, and Charli XCX delivered an amazing album and good remixes. I can’t say that I enjoyed the marketing campaign surrounding Brat, though.
Films
According to Letterboxd, I had 140 viewings, totalling 250 hours for 135 films. Not bad!
The truth is that I didn’t watch a lot of film until the month of August. I then watched multiple films per day until October, the month I moved to Angoulême. Making 140 viewings on a small fraction of the year. I think that I have a monomania issue. Rewatches took 23% of my viewings¹. But without further delay, let’s see which first time viewings impressed me.
I discovered Jūzō Itami and started to watch a chunk of his filmography. Three of them stood out. Tampopo (1985) is a deliciously pretty and lovely film that will make you cheer for the protagonist. Supermarket Woman (1996) made me forget that work sucks. Finally, Woman in Witness Protection (1997) sealed the deal. Some of these film are heart-warming, they all share a joyful facade over a well crafted critique of their respective topic.
House (1977) is my first Nobuhiko Obayashi, and what a film. It instantly became my cinema fun house.
Come and See (1985) is still haunting me. I can’t even talk about it. Read the synopsis and assume that the word “nightmarish” is not strong enough.
I also watched stunning and fascinating films. Inland Empire (2006), The Face of Another (1966), The Assassin (2015), Fruits of Passion (1981) come to mind. But I don’t know if my genre of the year was the queer and campy stuff with The Empire (2024), Misericordia (2024), or Queens of Drama (2024)². Or was it the romance drama kind of films from East Asia? I’m thinking about The Handmaiden (2016), Floating Clouds (1955), Two in the Shadow (1967), My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989).
2024 was the year I discovered Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). How come it was my first viewing? I don’t know how I could have missed the yaoi everyone was talking about during all those years? Speaking of a film with Sakamoto…
My favourite film of the year was, without a shed of doubt, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (2023). I was familiar with Sakamoto’s work, and this music documentary left me in tears. Hearing all those familiar musics, as well as new ones, during this last concert, his last steps… Damn, I can only encourage you to watch it, tissue paper within hand’s reach.
You can find the list of my favourite films of the year on Letterboxd. I will update this article if I get back to my cinema habits.
Television
This will be a short section. I don’t track my series viewings, I’m going to write these lines from memory.
I mainly watch series with my fiancée when we’re over with work. When I’m alone, I watch films.
2023 was the Doctor Who rewatch year. 2024 didn’t have anything like that. I watched some anime. Frieren, Dan Da Dan, Death Note, Platinum End, Wind Breaker, Kaiju no. 8, Mashle: Magic and Muscles, Bucchigiri?!, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bocchi the Rock! and One Piece to name a few. Frieren, Mashle: Magic and Muscles, and Bocchi the Rock! were my favourites!
Anime aside, I watched some reality televisions like L’Agence and The Boyfriend. As for bad shows, I watched some seasons of Lucifer. I can’t stress how bad it is, but I’m hooked and not looking for any excuse.
The end of the year is dedicated to Mad Men. I think that I should catch up with the last season of Doctor Who because I loved Ncuti Gatwa and how the season started with all the fantasy elements that were added on top of an already quirky show.
Video Games
I bought a Steam Deck late April to fight boredom during a succession of month long sick leaves. It’s a great machine, and it made me enjoy video game again, which is something I didn’t feel for years. I played some recent AAA games, but retro console emulation made up for the largest part of cycles this machine went through.
I read three Nintendo DS versions of volumes of the Ace Attorney series, which were as enjoyable as ever. Likewise, I revisited games of the Megami Tensei series. Notably Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, with three runs, and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army.
As for more recent games, I played a lot of Mini Metro and Balatro, and began Yakuza 0 and Death Stranding, which I really should finish in 2025. I discovered Neon White, which I didn’t even know by name, but that I found lovely.
There’s one game that really felt special. And I’m thinking lifetime special. Return of the Obra Dinn had my full attention during the whole playthrough, and I’m usually too much of a scatterbrain for detective work games. But the gameplay mechanic and the journal’s design made it really enjoyable and easy to follow. By the end of the game, it felt like a two hours only investigation, but I finished the game after six hours. I just wish I could forget all about the Obra Dinn to play the game again. It’s the same feeling I had with Disco Elysium.
The honourable mention of this section will be Animal Crossing: New Horizon that I rediscovered for the first time since COVID-19 related lockdowns.
I’m not a huge gamer, but I’d like to play more games. Will 2025 be the year of desktop gaming? Who knows.
Books
Now, here’s the shameful part³. My year in book can be summarized by a single work: One Piece. I read everything from volume 1 to volume 80. That’s almost it. And what a ride! I used to think that One Piece was some overhyped shonen that didn’t deserved my time. I was wrong. I tried to read it in the past and didn’t go further than a few volumes. When they say that it gets good and engaging after a dozen, they are not wrong! If you are a One Piece skeptic, you should try to overcome its slow beginning.
I read some other comics, but nothing that really shook me. Although I was glad and grateful that The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All got translated and published in France. I recommend any lesbian reading these lines to read this light and sparkly story, there are two volumes as of now.
My plans for 2025 is to get back to reading novels. The chanson de geste itch is real.
