The Words of 2024

An Essay

Dec 19, 2024

2024 was a good year. Personally, it was a huge year for me:

I got married. I quit my job and co-founded my own company. But the most relevant to all of you: I started posting my writing here on Substack.

It’s been wonderful. I cannot believe the amazing feedback and response to my writing here. From fiction to essays, you all seem to read pretty much everything I put out and I love seeing the likes and the comments and hearing from those of you I know personally via text and chatting about the pieces you like and what resonated with you. It’s been amazing in a way I never expected and I only hope I can keep working and putting out words that y’all want to keep reading. From the bottom of my heart, as we close out this year, thank you. It’s been such a blast writing for everyone here, and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Now for the other side of the words I put out here. Let’s talk about the great stuff I’ve read and what I want to make sure you check out!

I’ve been keeping a list of the books I read each year since about 2016, and what I realized this year as I prepped this essay is that I never really go back and look at those lists. I looked at the last few years and couldn’t believe the amazing books I’d read over the years.

In 2023, I set an ambitious goal to read 52 books through the course of the year and I slid in sideways on the 31^st to meet that goal. This year, I didn’t have any specific number in mind, but I tried to keep the habits I’d built in the 52 book year in place.

All in all, as of the 17^th of December, I’ve read 36 books this year to completion. I’ve got a good 5 or 6 on my nightstand with bookmarks in them, but I don’t count a book until it’s done.

And damn it was a good 36 books this year.

As you can tell from my essays this year, I took a deeper dive into horror in 2024. A part of that is loose preparation to write a horror novel that I’ve been bouncing around in my head for a year or so, but another part of that is just the fun that there is in reading horror.

King still remains the king to me. This year I read IT, The Stand, The Dead Zone, The Mist, ‘Salem’s Lot, and The Long Walk by him. I loved them all. Check out my essays for a bit more information – gushing – about King and his writing, but to put it in a sentence or two: The man knows characters. He puts you in the place of his characters and makes you grow with them, hurt with them, feel with them, like no other. His books are doorstoppers, but something about his focus on character makes them such an easy read. Even the big ones flew by in about a month a piece. If you haven’t taken the dive into reading Stephen King, please do. He’s got something for everyone and his writing is truly an inspiration to me.

On the other side of the “writes more words in a year than most authors do in a career” coin: Brandon Sanderson. As I said in my essay on Stormlight two weeks ago, the book I was most excited about in 2024 was Wind and Truth, and man did Sanderson deliver. The book isn’t perfect, but it was everything I needed. Almost half a million words read in 10 days and I’m still formulating my opinions of the book, but what’s safe to say is that the Cosmere is still a universe I cannot wait to spend every minute I can in.

Bradbury is the third author with read after read on this year’s list. I cannot believe I’d never given the man a true shot before. I’d read the Martian Chronicles years ago and something about it didn’t stick. I’m glad that impression didn’t last though. After starting off the year with Zen in the Art of Writing, I had to keep reading Bradbury. No person who can be so excited to write can be ignored in my book. Something Wicked this way Comes is the most beautifully written horror story I’ve ever read. The words seeped into my soul as they fell off the page. The beauty of this book feels perfectly compared to the beauty of a crisp October night. I followed it with Fahrenheit 451. Standard reading that I somehow had never read. Perfection. A short science fiction tale that is standard reading for a reason. The way such a short novel can make me think upon it for so long – longer even than I’d spent reading it – is something truly astounding. My hat is off to Bradbury this year.

The classic sci fi doesn’t end there though: Childhood’s End, and Solaris were both perfect philosophical science fiction that I’d never read before. Great, short reads that I’d recommend to anyone looking to dive into some more classic sci fi.

I also powered through more than a few self-help type books. Books on writing by Austen Kleon are always a yes from me in the bookstore. His book Show Your Work! Is a major reason I post my writing here. Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott was great. And I didn’t read it this year, but I’ve read it twice before: On Writing by Stephen King is the classic to end all classics in the genre.

I’ll leave all the business books I read and skimmed outta here. They helped a bit in starting my own company this year, but their writing relevance is little.

All in all, 2024 was a year. I hate when folks define a year as good, bad, or compared to those before, as if there’s anything to be gained from that. “There were never any good old days. There is today. There is tomorrow,” as one of my favorite bands says.

But 2024 had plenty of good days for me, and a lot of those were spent reading great books and writing stories and essays for you all here. Thank you so much for joining me on this ride. I hope to keep putting out stuff you want to read in 2025 and beyond.

As always:

Love ya!

Max