Inflammable

(NB from the future: the 'blog' was a previous one, not this one ur reading it on)

Intro / 2023 Wrap-Up

Hello! Welcome to the Very First post on this blog. I’m thrilled to find you here :)

My name on here is [redacted] and I run this blog, [redacted]. I’m in my early 20s and I love the web, culture & art, animals & nature, and comfy oversized t-shirts. Nice to meet you!

This blog is… I don’t fully know. But what I do know is that I want this space to feature Personal Cultural Wrap-Ups. Essentially, an opportunity for me to share my thoughts on what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to (among other things) each month.

Even though this blog springs out of a need for a personal outlet, I hope that if you stumble upon it, you find something interesting to leave it with.

Since this is the burgeoning of this blog, I thought it would be nice and timely to start with a condensed review of the year 2023. Hopefully, it gives you a global idea of what to expect in terms of content.

As there is a lot to unpack, I haven’t explained in great detail the content of each medium or what I thought of it, but I have hyperlinked them to other sources if you want to find out more (which I highly encourage you to do, naturally).

Now, before we jump into the fun stuff, I’d like to tell you: Feel free to share your thoughts, recommendations, and own experiences in the comments. I would love to read them.

Books

Starting off with the reading section.

This year 2023 I read 28 books (including 4 audiobooks) across 6751 pages and 39.18 hours, which exceeded my set goal of 24 books by 4 books :p

I find this graph rather funny… Up and Down, rather representative of my mood swings.

My top 3 most-read genres were: 1. Fantasy 2. Mystery 3. Literary. In my mind, I would actually have reversed that order, fantasy here is out of the blue as I didn’t read any in 2022 and barely any before!

My average read’s length was 265 pages, and it took me around 17 days to finish each book. My average rating was 3.1 stars.

The longest book I read was In Ascension by Martin MacInnes with 512 pages. It was also my favourite due to its emotional impact and how I connected with its core philosophy and ideas about science, evolution, and the cycle of life on a macro and micro level.

Other highlights of the year for me were: The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox, a beautifully written novel that tells the story of a vintner who forms a relationship with an angel; Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier, which follows a pregnant teenage Loser as she grapples with her unhealthy crush on an older woman; and Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, a fun and imaginative dark fairy tale.

Compared to 2022, I read 33% more books and 14% more pages.

Reading experience pie chart & Pace of the books I read

I’m not a fan of science fiction at all, but I loved In Ascension so much, and it was my only SF read of the year, so it skewed the data.

And finally, here are all of my 2023 reads at a glance:

I also joined an open-ended challenge in November, to read a book taking place in every European country: A Literary Map of Europe, that I will most certainly do some progress on in 2024.

Films

I’ve watched a lot fewer movies this year than in the previous years, which is sort of sad, but also means that I’ve prioritised other things. In a way, I’ve also had this latent feeling that I’ve watched every film that I possibly could love, ever, which definitely contributed to this unintentional hiatus.

It’s one of my New Year’s resolutions to get ‘back to my roots’ in terms of film watching, and thanks to this blog I will most certainly keep up with it.

Out of the 24 movies I watched, the first one I’ve seen this year, and my favourite was The Fabelmans (4.5 stars). Others I’ve enjoyed were Whiplash (4.5) and Pig (4.0).

Series

This year was rather ordinary in terms of series, I watched a usual amount of them.

Highlights: Succession’s final season 😩!!! (billionaire corporate family drama), The Durrells (wholesome vintage comedy), Good Omens Season 2 (fantasy comedy adventure), Evil (fantasy comedy mystery) and Gilmore Girls (quirky wholesome comedy). Others: The Last Of Us (post-apocalyptic action-adventure drama); WeCrashed (corporate drama based on WeWork); Mare of Easttown (small-town mystery-crime drama). They were all enjoyable. I also started All Creatures Great & Small end of December (another wholesome vintage comedy) and found the first 4 episodes enjoyable.

Videos

10 Things Succession’s Jeremy Strong Can’t Live Without by GQ. You've probably already seen this type of video before, and understandably think this one would be just another typical “talk about myself some more and think I’m an interesting person” one. It's not, or not really. Jeremy Strong is genuinely such an interesting person, and he elaborates on each item with such profound emotional depth and intellectual insight, that I was in awe. Loved learning about his life and mind. This video converted me! Mr Strong, please write a book. https://youtu.be/AYCAT5jpXKU

Games

I didn’t watch as many movies as I usually do this year, but I made up for it by doing a lot of gaming! Thanks to finally having an external monitor.

My top games of the year were Disco Elysium, a dark and gritty text-heavy detective RPG with a deeply interesting world and mystery; Death Stranding, a walking and delivery ‘simulator’ with stunning graphics and an engaging storyline, and The Forgotten City, a mystery detective game with a unique time-travelling mechanic set in an ancient Rome context.

When I wasn’t playing these more intense games, I found Powerwash Simulator to be a great alternative to House Flipper that I used to play while I listened to podcasts.

With friends, I played Civ 6, Valheim, and a lot of Monopoly :)

Music

This year I listened to a lot of Radiohead, Alex G, Elliott Smith, Fleetwood Mac, and Elton John.

New artists I discovered this year that I loved were Nicholas Brittell (thanks to Succession ending), Panchiko, Emile Mosseri, and Black Country, New Road (I learned about them from a co-worker.)

Obligatory Spotify Wrapped.

Regarding this Wrapped it seems I have strayed from my usual “vibes”, which makes me want to revisit my older playlists. Also, in my opinion, Elliott Smith should have been ranked fifth instead of Max Richter.

I would also like to mention “I’m your man” by Mitski as being an incredible song that came out of this year.

Podcasts

My top podcast of the year was Heavyweight. After listening to all the episodes of Dear Sugars, and having fallen head over heels for it, I craved something in the same vein and Heavyweight was one of the top recommendations. It is an amazing podcast, emotional, heartfelt, funny, and brilliantly led by Jonathan Goldstein. It has easily become one of my favourite podcasts and I hope that the ‘final’ season that’s to come, isn’t really the end (which I have a feeling it probably won’t be).

...

But, really, it was one of the best years in years for me, I stopped being sad all the time, and a couple of bad habits; I developed better relationships, I got more involved and consistent in my hobbies, and apart from a noisy boiler that ruined the mood of the first half of the year and life altering moments and questions in the second half, it was, indeed, a good year.

I apprehend 2024 a bit, as I know little will change for most of the year. I have dreams of travelling and moving far, far away but know that, realistically, this won’t happen before 2025.

So, 2024 will be a ‘transition year’. I still hope that I can make something nice out of it. Running this blog already feels like a good step.

A few resolutions for the year to come

  • Watch more films
  • Play guitar weekly
  • Laugh more
  • Days away from the digital world
  • Opening the windows to let in fresh air even if it’s cold out
  • Speaking with intent
  • Not letting the past weigh me down in my way forward
  • Daily movement
  • And finally, write for this blog.

If you’ve read this far, I hope you enjoyed this humble first post, and noted down a few things you found interesting and would like to experience yourself! If you did, once again, please feel free to let me know in the comments <3

I’ll see you in the next one, whatever it is.

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