2023 in review: consumption

[updated 30 Dec]

Books

Not a great reading year. During the autumn term from Hell, I gave up entirely. So, I ended on 13 finished books, two of which were graphic novels and six of which were linguistics. (It was better than last year, though!) The only fiction was for work: Station Eleven, which I enjoyed but had some quibbles with. 
  • Sticking with me months later: Pyongyang by Guy Delisle (2004)
  • Most inspiring: Ten Lectures on Diachronic Construction Grammar by Martin Hilpert (2021)
  • Honorable mentions
    Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (2007)
    Why Is This a Question? by Paul Anthony Jones (excellent lay linguistics book; 2022)
    Written by Bec Evans and Chris Smith (2023) and The Reader's Brain by Yellowlees Douglas (2015) (both useful books for writers)

Films

38 films this year (down on last year), many excellent ones. If I have to pick a Best Picture, I'm going to go with Past Lives (Celine Song), mostly because I find Greta Lee absolutely mesmerising, wherever she appears.

But there are plenty of super-honorable mentions among those I saw as new releases. In chronological order:

  • Tár  
  • Women Talking
  • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
  • Return to Seoul
  • Asteroid City
  • Barbie
  • Theater Camp  
  • Fallen Leaves
The Self-Indulgent Bullshit Film of the Year prize goes to Passages. 

Because the Duke of York had an A24 film series, I also got to see some great ones I hadn't seen before, and among those the under-talked-about stand-out is The Last Black Man in San Francisco. 

Theatre, comedy, circus

Ten stand-up shows (three of them showcases), one circus, eight plays.

Of the individual comedians: James Acaster's Hecklers Welcome and Mike Birbiglia's The Old Man and the Pool stood out, with an honorable mention for John Mulaney's From Scratch. The latter two are now on Netflix, though Mulaney's has a new title: Baby J. 

The best of the stand-up showcases were Sam Campbell and Celya AB, so we've got tickets to see their solo shows in 2024. 

The stand-out play was Feeling Afraid as if Something Terrible is Going to Happen at the Bush Theatre, but it's gone now, so I can't be recommending it. Samuel Barnett is fantastic. Other than that, we saw a fair amount of meh stuff, but got to show The Book of Mormon to our 15-year-old musical fan, so that was a repeat treat.

Music

Saw seven concerts, six of them winners, but no doubt the most special were Gary Numan's acoustic tour at St George's church in Kemptown and Sparks at the Albert Hall. 

  

Exhibitions

The ones to remember this year were Hallyu: The Korean Wave at the V&A (much fun) and two really great photography/life exhibitions at Brighton Museum: Roger Bamber and Lee Miller. 

Television

I watched less tv than usual this year, but the things I enjoyed most were: Extraordinary Attorney Woo, the first UK season of The Traitors, and Awkwafina is Nora from Queens. Oh, and I got to watch the first season/series of Only Murders in the Building with Allison, which was a treat. 

I wasn't sure whether to put this under films or television, but Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl films for Netflix were an absolute treat, especially The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.