Happy New Year and welcome to my first post since 2024. I’ve been having kind of a break from making art for a while, just laying low for a period and only just starting to pick things up again. I’ve been making some changes and restructuring the admin side of my practice since the Christmas break, only small steps at the moment and quite time consuming, so it may be a while before I start making art again this year. Hopefully not too long, though.
I thought I’d kick off 2025 with a roundup of books I read during 2024. I’ve been keeping a journal for a while now (stopped journalling a couple of years ago and missed it) and got to thinking it would be nice to list the books I read at the end of the year, to look back on the books I actually managed to finish before my concentration withdrew into addictive doom-scrolling on social media! I don’t want to sacrifice quality reading over quantity, but if I can lessen, or even quit altogether, the social media platforms I’ve been using, it would be interesting to come back to this at the end of 2025 and compare the number of books I read last year to this, possibly as an indicator of how much more time I was able to spend in a book, long-form writing, as opposed to the quick dopamine hit from social media and the internet. Of course there are other factors, such as the guilt I feel when I decide to spend time reading above the TV, internet and my art practice, as if reading is somehow unproductive and so should be enjoyed in bed before the lights go out. And even then you should be sleeping! I can remember a time when my nose would be happily stuck in a book all day long. It was nourishing and absorbing. I could never get bored in a book. Now there are so many things drawing our attention, so many more productive things we should be doing, that sitting still with a good book seems somehow wrong.
A case in point. Boxing day with the family. At one point I was sitting in the kitchen, between breakfast and our Boxing Day walk, and I decided to re-install my social media apps on my phone that I’d signed out of and deleted about 2 weeks before. I think I might’ve had a sudden (but quite subtle) attack of FOMO - I wanted to see what was happening on Facebook and Instagram during Christmas. Within minutes I was scrolling again. Later on, after out walk and in another gap between that and the evening meal, I was sitting on the sofa with my phone. Scrolling. The thing is, upstairs I had a book I’d been bought as a gift. I could have been reading that. A long time ago that’s what I would’ve been doing. Instead I spent my time swiping up. Over and over.
So I suppose that’s what this list is about, not just my usual need to make lists, but to see if I can use it as a catalyst to be more mindful of taking time to read again without that nagging feeling I should be doing something else, or actually wasting time scrolling stuff that does me absolutely no good at all.
What’s that saying? Feed the brain, nourish the soul? I’d like to spend more time achieving both those goals during 2025.
Anyway. Here’s my 2024 reading list. Mostly thrillers, detective and horror stories with some psychology and politics thrown in. They aren’t in any particular order, except a rough memory of the order I read them. There were others I wasn’t able to finish and I may list them as well. (One list tends to lead to another with me). I’ll probably try and give abandoned books another go at some point this year along with the new additions I have waiting for me.
Reading List 2024
Ghost Story (Peter Straub)
Hell House (Richard Matheson)
TheLie Maker (Linwood Barclay)
Lowdown Road (Scott Van Doviak)
When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson (Ed. Ellen Datlow)
The Chaos Machine (Max Fisher)
How They Broke Britain (James O’Brien)
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself (Dr. Joe Dispenza)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)
Strangers on a Train (Patricia Highsmith)
You Like It Darker (Stephen King)
The Dark Wives (Ann Cleeves)
Absolute Power (David Baldacci)
The Drop (Dennis Levine)
The Long Call (Ann Cleaves)
