01 January 2024

Media Consumed 2023

I really like the format I used for 2022, so I'm just gonna continue on with that for now.


250 Books | Six Cities Visited | 48 Comics | Four Concerts and the Like | Five Conferences and Festivals | 107 Movies | Four Museums and Landmarks | Twelve Readings and Talks | 0 Sports Matches | Six Theatre Productions | 848 TV Episodes

LET'S. EFFIN. GO.



Books: 250

Scroll back on the books tag if you want to see all the "Could You Repeat That?" quotes and some other commentary. (And again, you could look at my Goodreads profile, though that tally is always slightly different than my own.) Here are quotes from twelve books I really liked this year, listed in the order that I read them.


  1. Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, RF Kuang
    He had a sudden, very clear vision of the tower in ruins. He wanted it to shatter. He wanted it to, for once, feel the pain that had made possible its rarefied existence. 'I want it to crumble.'
    Victoire's throat pulsed, and he knew she was thinking of Anthony, of gunshots, of the wreckage of the Old Library. 'I want it to burn.'

  2. Paladin's Hope, T Kingfisher
    "Paladins can't afford to be terribly bright, you know. Otherwise we'd start to think too much about what we're doing, and fret ourselves into apostasy."

  3. The Unquiet Dead, Ausma Zehanat Khan
    "If we do not speak of it, it does not mean we do not dream. Survivors are quiet because they are haunted, because they still cannot entirely accept what happened."

  4. The Hating Game, Sally Thorne
    Imagine it's two minutes before the biggest interview of your life, and you look down at your white shirt. Your peacock-blue fountain pen has leaked through your pocket. Your head explodes with an obscenity and your stomach is a spike of panic over the simmering nerves. You're an idiot and everything's ruined. That's the exact color of Joshua's eyes when he looks at me.

  5. Lone Women, Victor LaValle
    That's twice she'd contemplated killing him. There were people who would judge her harshly for her thoughts. Those people, she felt, could fuck themselves.

  6. Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema, Lindy West
    I forgot that American Pie popularized the term MILF, and that they made John Cho do it, which is a microaggression.

  7. The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka
    She does not remember saying to you, the other night, right after your father left the room, He loves me more than I love him. She does not remember saying to you, a moment later, I can hardly wait until he comes back.

  8. Ocean's Echo, Everina Maxwell
    "We have solved your situation for you," Tennal announced grandly.
    "You haven't!" Zin said. "You absolutely haven't!"
    "We have fucked up the situation," Tennal amended, just as grandly, "in a new and interesting way."

  9. Saga, Volume Nine, Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
    UPSHER: But if I worried about how every evil son of a bitch out there would respond to what I typed, I'd never touch a keyboard again.
    MARKO: All the more reason that I'm going to stick to writing novels.
    UPSHER: Why, because you think made-up stories have never resulted in actual casualties? Putting new ideas into another person's head is an aggressive act, and aggressive acts have consequences. Face it, you can be a writer or a pacifist, but you can't be both.

  10. Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubeshig Rice
    "We've seen what this...what's the word again?"
    "Apocalypse."
    "Yes, apocalypse. We've had that over and over. But we always survived. We're still here. And we'll still be here, even if the power and the radios don't come back on and we never see any white people ever again."

  11. I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston
    "Hi, Chloe, you have a fire in your eyes tonight and I hope it's for theater."
    "It's definitely for something," she says.
    "Great, no further questions."

  12. Check & Mate, Ali Hazelwood
    "So," Darcy interjects, "when are you guys going to have sex?"
    Nolan's "Hard to tell" overlaps with my "Never!" and completely swallows it.
    I face-palm.


I haven't done any big rereads, but I have been burning through the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, the various Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, and the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. I also have been reading many, many things featured through the Books and Boba podcast, and I'm fully invested in the Book of the Month ecosystem (that's a referral link), if you're curious about another way I select what books to read (aside from the Hugo award nominations and the Tournament of Books.)

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Cities Visited: 6

I had no huge travel things this year, largely due to my sister's wedding this summer. And, THANK GOD, I did not have to do a cross-country move. That said, I'm starting to go to conferences again, so a bit of wandering was done.

  • Chicago, IL (for CCCC/TYCA)



  • Idyllwild, CA (for my sister's wedding)



  • Portland, OR (for a concert)



  • Reno, NV (for CWPA)



  • Seattle, WA (for multiple concerts)--I don't know if I should get to count this, since it's the closest big city to me, but WHATEVER.



  • Yakima, WA (for TYCA-PNW)



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Comics: 48

I made a bit of a dent in my literal AND electronic stacks of comic books, but I have a ways to go still.

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #36-40
  • Doctor Aphra (2016) #01-03
  • Gargoyles (2022) #01-05
  • Once and Future #25-28
  • Saga 25-52
  • The Vampire Slayer #01-04

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Concerts and the Like: Four

  • Tegan and Sara with Deep Sea Diver opening, PDX Live, 16 August 2023



  • Janelle Monae with Flyana Boss and Jidenna opening, WAMU Theater, 30 August 2023




  • Lauryn Hill and the Fugees, Climate Pledge Arena, 09 November 2023



  • Jenny Owen Youngs with John Mark Nelson supporting, Fremont Abbey, 18 November 2023



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Conferences and Festivals: Five

Five conferences this year, and only one of them virtual! Now I just need to start, like, presenting again.


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Movies: 107

Once again, you can check my movies tag to see my thoughts on the films. (Admittedly, I still need to post about the movies I saw in November and December, so updates are still to come.) If you're curious, you could also take a look at my Letterboxd profile, as that is kind of like Goodreads for movies.


Also, shout-out to The Big Picture podcast, as they, along with my Cinemark Movie Club membership, are largely responsible for what films I have been watching.

The twelve films I chose to list below are my favorites of the year, listed in the order I watched them. They're all first watches! Instead of providing the descriptions, I've opted to include the trailers for the movies. The links are to my reviews (if I've posted them already).

  1. Fancy Dance
    Fancy Dance is something I watched via virtual Sundance Film Festival, but unfortunately it doesn't have a distributor as yet. I couldn't find a trailer for the movie, but there are a few interviews of the stars (including Lily Gladstone) and filmmakers talking about it, so here's one:



  2. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

    3. This is the only film I saw twice in the theatre, which I think is fairly significant.



  3. Suzume



  4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3



  5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse



  6. Past Lives



  7. How to Blow Up a Pipeline



  8. The Last Voyage of the Demeter



  9. The Creator



  10. Killers of the Flower Moon



  11. The Marvels (actual review forthcoming)



  12. Godzilla Minus One (actual review forthcoming)



There were SO MANY good movies this year, though! It was difficult to narrow it down to just twelve.

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Museums and Landmarks: Four

As I didn't do as much traveling this year, there were obviously fewer landmarks. These ones were pretty fun, though!


I'd like to start filling out my National Parks passport, so we'll see how much I can up this number for 2024.

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Readings and Talks: Twelve Events

This section is always an interesting mix of stuff--academic-type lectures, author talks, poetry readings. Fun stuff, and much of it virtual.


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Sports: Zero Matches

I'm not a big sports person, but I feel like I should leave this section in here, just in case.

But so we don't have NOTHING here, have some pictures of T-shirts representing stuff I attended this year.


From left to right:
  1. Tegan and Sara's Crybaby tour
  2. Janelle Monae's Age of Pleasure tour
  3. Jidenna, supporting Janelle Monae's first performance on the tour



From left to right:
  1. From Tig Notaro's "Hello Again" tour
  2. From Hadestown



From left to right:
  1. Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, celebrating the anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
  2. Jenny Owen Youngs's Avalanche tour
  3. John Mark Nelson, supporting Jenny Owen Youngs


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Theatre: Six Productions

I really need to start attending more local theatre. Note to self!


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TV: 848 Episodes

As I did last time, here are my twelve favorite first-time watches of 2023, in alphabetical order. Aside from one exception, it is all science fiction or fantasy. This is probably not surprising?

  1. Foundation S2
    I am BOGGLED that they're taking a book series that's supposed to take place over millenia and delivering personal, emotional stakes that are legible to the audience. It's astounding!



  2. The Last of Us S1
    At the end of every episode of this season, my brain concocted a "what if" scenario, where whatever horrible thing that happened to Our Heroes or, even, one-shot characters incidental to Our Heroes, didn't actually happen and maybe people could be happy after all.



  3. The Law According to Lidia Poet S1
    The one non-speculative-fiction narrative on this list is an Italian language procedural based on the true story of a woman who fought to become an accredited lawyer in Turin in the 1800s. It is SUBLIME.



  4. Loki S2
    This season was so narratively satisfying! It gave me everything I wanted from the story in a grand, mythic way. (Except for Loki and Thor hugging, but that's not so much mythic as, y'know, cozy.)



  5. The Orville: New Horizons S3
    If most Star Trek shows are dramas that sometimes do comedy quite well, The Orville is basically the same thing, except it's a comedy that often does drama spectacularly well. I love what this show has grown into.



  6. Severance S1
    This show is so fucking stressful, I can't even talk about it, but it's SO GOOD.



  7. Shadow and Bone S2
    As of right now, the show is officially cancelled by Netflix, though there's the usual fan petitions and stuff going on. I'm pretty sad about the cancellation--I enjoyed what they were doing in remixing the various book series (there are THREE in play in this TV show, in fact), and the Six of Crows cast is uniformly fantastic.



  8. Star Trek: Lower Decks S4 + Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2
    I'm counting them both here because they had a crossover. I AM BLATANTLY CHEATING. BECAUSE I LOVE THEM BOTH.





  9. The Umbrella Academy S3
    The Umbrella Academy is so messy and over the top, but every time they zoom into one character and expose their emotional reality, it hits you in the gut.



  10. Wheel of Time S2
    God, I love how they took all the stuff that works so well in the books, stripped out most of the (incredibly gross) gender politics, and then squished the narrative into a way that makes sense for a TV format (instead of a--let's be frank--too long epic fantasy series).



  11. Willow S1
    As of right now, the show is NOT on Disney+, while the showrunners remain staunchly positive that they could possibly get renewed and put back on the service. I'm crossing my fingers--I know this show got mixed reviews, but I really loved what they did with the universe, and all the actors were great. Boorman, particularly.



  12. Y the Last Man S1
    This show has been cancelled and yoinked off Hulu and I am SO MAD because first of all, it's SO GOOD, and second of all, I HATE when things disappear. I want this on DVD/Blu-ray at least, because they did some fascinating stuff with their apocalyptic universe. (And while I didn't finish reading the comic series, I do love what the TV show did in updating the way they talked about sex/gender/etc.)



And here is a list of all the other shows I did first-time full season watches of this year. It's way easier to do this now that a "season" of TV is, like, 6-8 episodes instead of the 20+ that I'm doing on my rewatches. And there's so much good TV!

  • Ahsoka S1
  • The Bad Batch S2
  • Criminal Minds: Evolution (S1 or S16, depending on how you count it)
  • Doom Patrol S4
  • The Dragon Prince S4
  • For All Mankind S4 (we have only one episode left, so I'm counting it here)
  • Good Omens S2



  • Harley Quinn S4
  • His Dark Materials S3



  • Invincible S1
  • Jupiter's Legacy S1
  • Justified: City Primeval S1
  • The Legend of Vox Machina S2



  • The Mandalorian S3
  • My Adventures with Superman S1



  • Poker Face S1
  • Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story S1
  • Secret Invasion S1
  • Silo S1



  • Star Trek: The Next Generation S4-S7
  • Star Trek: Picard S3
  • Star Wars: Visions S2



  • Station Eleven S1 (I've watched half of it so far)
  • Ted Lasso S3
  • Titans S4
  • The Witcher S3
  • The Witcher: Blood Origins S1

Things I did and/or am doing rewatches of, some of which are continuing on into 2024:

Alias S1, Angel S5, Avatar: The Last Airbender S2, Doctor Who S1-S7, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1, For All Mankind S1, Gargoyles S2 & S3, Loki S1, The OC S1, Psych S3-5, Stargate Universe S1 & S2, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S1, Star Wars: Rebels S1, Supernatural S2-S4, The Vampire Diaries S1, The X-Files S1

I'm addicted to rewatch podcasts, okay?

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And that's what I've got for 2023! And I know many people think this is a lot and wonder how I do it, to which I say: I have no partners, no children, and no pets. I have ALLLLLLL the time in the world and I revel in it.

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