Being a big ol’ nerd, one of my favorite year-end traditions is receiving stats from the various platforms I use, particularly Goodreads and PlayStation. Of course, both companies send out these annual wrap-ups several weeks before the year is actually over with, so within about 24 hours of having these Year In Review mock-ups land in my email inbox they’re already out of the date. I mean, it’s still nice and all, but it’s also not terribly accurate by the time the year is actually over with and leaves a little bit of stuff unaccounted. As an example, when Goodreads sent me the below batch of images, I had read 130 books, which is outstanding! But by the time 2024 ends, I expect that number will have increased to 133 or 134, along with the respective number of pages read. Granted, it’s not exactly life-changing information, but come 11:59 PM, Dec. 31, these stats end up being off just enough to get under my skin a little bit.

So, obviously, I spent a lot of time reading over the course of 2024, and a big chunk of these 130 books were in the vein of comics and graphics novels. I spent a lot of time working on catching up with the recent Krakoan Era of Marvel’s Merry Mutants and their various X-books and still have quite a few left. I just renewed my Marvel Unlimited subscription, so I expect to finally be able to read through the Fall of X and its aftermath in 2025, and play a little bit of catch-up with the line-wide relaunch that followed. Another batch of comics that caught my attention these last couple months was the launch of DC’s alternate-universe Absolute line, giving all new origins and brand-new stories to familiar but very, very different iterations of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. All three books have been fantastic, and I’ve found myself completely surprised by just how much I’m loving Jason Aaron’s Absolute Superman. Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman, of course, is also very good, as I had expected it to be having loved his New 52 run with the character and Black Mirror prior to that. Somehow, though, Superman has actually turned out to be my favorite of the three and I am usually very much not a Superman guy. Like, at all. I really dig how Aaron’s reinventing the character and his world(s), and really shining a spotlight on Superman’s role as a true social justice warrior that is no doubt twisting many a soiled knickers in the alt-right corner of comic book fandom.

I expect to do a whole hell of a lot more reading in 2025, particularly given the state of US politics and my likely-to-fail attempts to ignore as much of the upcoming shitshow as possible by escaping into many various fantasy worlds as a coping mechanism. Seriously, how the fucking are we doing this again? Anyway. 2025. Books and comics. That’s high on my agenda, and I’m already thinking a lot about what I want to explore or dive back into in the realm of those funny pages. Marvel’s Ultimate relaunch is a definite must-read for me, and I have a couple trades of Saga I need to catch up with, not mention a slew of omnibus and hardcover collections I’ve been squirreling away over the last few years. And, of course, that’s not even getting into my physical and digital TBR of books I’ve purchased or received review copies of. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to keep me occupied while the republican burns to cinders around me, and that’s certainly a good thing!

For these last few days of 2024, I intend on working through some Christmas horror novellas. I’ve got Brian McAuley’s two Candy Cain Kills novellas loaded up on my Kindle, along with a few of Gemma Amor’s holiday horrors, like her recently released Santa’s Grotto, which promises a murderous donkey, and how the fuck can I not read the hell out of that right away? I also snagged her Christmas at Wheeldale Inn and It Sees You When You’re Sleeping. I know I won’t be getting to all of these before Christmas strikes, but I’m aiming to get through a couple at any rate.

As for what I read this year, I’m not going to do a Best Of 2024 wrap-up. But since Goodreads thought to include the below image highlighting a few of the title I 5-starred over there, I’d be remiss not to include it here, as well. I’m kind of surprised at some of the titles it chose to highlight, but it’s a fair reflection of where my tastes were at this year. I do wish it had also included Laurel Hightower’s The Day of the Door and Ronald Malfi’s Small Town Horror, both of which I found to be exceptional and would have included in the below image instead of the Inferno X-book. Regardless, I’ve linked to my reviews for both, so please do check those out and be sure to grab a copy of the books, too.

2024 was also the year I got back into gaming, since I was able to purchase a Sony PlayStation 5 at the tail-end of 2023. I’ve been a lifelong gamer going back to the original Nintendo days and can still remember saving up my allowance money and making my parents drive me to Toys ‘R Us to purchase the Super Nintendo and Super Mario World when it launched back in 1991 and $200 felt like an astronomical price tag for a gaming system. I would have turned 12 just a few months prior. Good lord. Of course, now, we’re facing down new consoles with $700 price tags attached to them and fucking yikes on that. I suspect the video game arena will be pricing me out of this hobby sooner rather than later.

OK, a quick confession! I can’t actually take credit for sitting in front of the TV for all of those 450+ hours. My kids played Minecraft under my account on the PS4 for 45 hours over the course of 2024. Don’t worry though, they managed to rack up plenty of hours on the new system on their own accounts created just for them and their Minecraft addiction. Naturally, they eventually fell down the rabbit hole and discovered other games, as well, like a new Ghostbusters games and some Sonic the Hedgehog titles, which they were delighted to learn about after seeing the movies. Still, 400-some hours for me is… a lot. And I kind of suspect that number will only increase next year because of, well… [gestures vaguely at the current state of America.]

As for me, well, Fallout 76 was a pretty clear winner, with Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader nipping at its heels. For as much time as I spent in those worlds, though, I don’t think either managed to provide the visceral thrills and flat-out stress of Aliens: Dark Descent, which good and truly surprised the hell out of me in the best ways possible. I’m a big fan of tactical turn-based games, and Dark Descent mostly nails what I love about that play style. Like Rogue Trader, as well, It’s very reminiscent of X-COM. I’d actually hoped to get back into playing X-COM 2 this year, but never quite managed it, and then Dark Descent ended up scratching that itch really, really well. Currently, I’m working through Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 and enjoying that quite a bit. It’s a pretty linear, straight-forward shoot ‘em up, and since I started that game after Sony calculated these stats, those hours and trophies aren’t reflected here. But, again, whatever.

I guess the titles I played and the way I played them earned me the title of Sharpshooter. I have no idea what other titles are out there, but have seen other gamers awarded Adventurer and Role Player titles. Based on the games I’ve bought during the latest PlayStation digital sale, though, I’m kind of expecting to get that Role Player card in 2025. We shall see!

And then, of course, there’s Letterboxd! Honestly, I didn’t get to watch nearly as many movies as I would have liked to over the course of the year. I somehow managed to not even watch any movies at all in September and, so far, December, which is kind of crazy, in my opinion. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in yet another viewing of Die Hard for Christmas, and if the kids continue behaving themselves we’re planning on taking them to go see Sonic 3 sometime this afternoon. I also really, really, really want to see Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu if we can find a babysitter.

All right gang, your turn. What kind of stats did you rack up in 2024 that you’re most proud of?