J鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

10,945

pages read

books read

J L

Orpheus With Clay Feet by Philip K. Dick

Shortest Book

pages

Longest Book

1,088

pages

Average book length in 2024

353

pages

Most Shelved

5,406,766

people also shelved

Least Shelved

114

people also shelved

J鈥檚 average rating for 2024

3.4

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.46 average

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

J鈥檚 first review of the year

liked it

3.65. Not super compelling, but quite interesting and definitely made me think long and hard about what Dick meant to convey. [Tagged the review as containing (mild) spoilers, but I know 欧宝娱乐 sometimes glitches with that. Readers beware.]

I would have rated the novel 4 stars upon reaching the point at which Deckard encounters the android police force, which was a very creative little twist. Beyond that point, however, I felt that the novel go 3.65. Not super compelling, but quite interesting and definitely made me think long and hard about what Dick meant to convey. [Tagged the review as containing (mild) spoilers, but I know 欧宝娱乐 sometimes glitches with that. Readers beware.]

I would have rated the novel 4 stars upon reaching the point at which Deckard encounters the android police force, which was a very creative little twist. Beyond that point, however, I felt that the novel got a little lazy and relied too much on using Deckard's character as a mouthpiece through which to communicate its point. (I.e., much of the novel pushes the reader to question what makes us human, and whether what may set us apart even matters in the end. Deckard explicitly questions these things in the latter half of the book, and I think I would have liked for the reader to be able to approach those topics on their own time.)

That isn't to say that the entire novel was as blatant. There are still many things I'm wondering about - what is the significance of Mercerism? Of the androids' characters? Of the strangely uncomplicated ways in which Deckard retires the androids? (You would think he'd have a harder time of it.) Of Mercer's physical manifestations? Why were the androids manufactured to be so real (human) to begin with?

My favorite part of the novel was the ending, which I felt was almost profound. I thought it was interesting how Iran had gone from being cold to and resentful of her husband to wanting to care for him, specifically by means of buying something artificial. As if, by embracing that artificiality, it might allow them to pursue something real.

Maybe the point all along was that it ought not to matter whether or not something is artificial. We respond like humans to all things living or fake, and we seek purpose and try to create purpose in a world that can't offer any on its own.

At any rate, Dick has got me thinking, albeit more about his intentions than the nature of humanity. Rated the novel 3 stars because it did not generate any epiphanies and lacked certain depth. However, it was creative and interesting.
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闯鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing by H茅l猫ne Cixous

it was amazing

Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man by Joseph Heller

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

it was amazing

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

it was amazing

J鈥檚 last review of the year

it was ok

one of those things where you think it'd make for a decent action movie, but like one of those movies that relies on the action sequences to carry it and less so on the actual plot or creativity of it ...more

What did you read this year?