Some end of the year thoughts

01 - The months just sped by. I can't say I didn't do things but I can't list those things either. I guess the routine of life sometimes make you think you haven't done anything new and it's true. This whole year in comparison to the previous one felt like I didn't do much. I wouldn't say I had been extra lazy but I probably had been. (I may have been watching a bit too much youtube.) I wouldn't say 2024 has been bad but it certainly hasn't been particularly good but at least, I'm still here.
 
02 - On this blog, I posted a lot more than last year. I had thought I would reach 400 posts by now but it looks like I'm not going to make that milestone but I'm okay with that. I really like that I had posted a lot.

03 - I had wrote a lot of fiction and have been updating my writing page with links but I guess people don't bother with that but I like it. I like seeing all the stories I had posted. Sure, they are a bit long and not all polished but I'm proud I posted them and finished them. The link is below the header or go here.

04 - I did read a lot this year, more than previous years but they were mediocre books and yet, I think I had a good reading year. I didn't have in-between long pauses while reading a book like I usually do. But I DNF a lot quicker which I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. If I'm not enjoying a book, it's better to quit right away than to linger on and try to muster interest when there is none. But also, reading only borrowed library books, it's best to return a book and let others enjoy it rather than to keep it and hope to get back to it when I know I wouldn't. I had never really took the full 21 days to read a book. Besides, if I really want to try the same book again, I can borrow it at a later time.

05 - What I failed to do this year is to draw. I had set October each year to draw and to post those drawings but I got lazy. I do have tons of drawings but I just didn't scan them into my computer so I couldn't finish them. I guess if you work digital like I do, it's a bit useless to have your work on paper. I don't know why I was so lazy about it but that's that.

06 - It really would be nice to say I had done or not done other things other than what I listed above but I don't remember them. And I didn't post about them so I couldn't look them up on my blog. My blog is becoming like a record for my various endeavors but what I didn't post about, I seem unable to recall. It's kind of sad to think the only thing I can remember clearly doing is blogging. But without a blog, I'm nowhere on the web.

07 - Here are the final books I had finished reading this year:

The lantern of lost memories by Sanaka Hiiragi, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
What's it about: life & death, memories, photographs
The premise of dead people stopping at an in-between station before moving on sounds intriguing. These three stories are connected by the main character (Hirasaka) and also by other character associations. The first story, The old lady and the bus, was kind of dull. The second, The hero and the mouse, was amusing, and the third, Mitsuru and the last photo, I think is the most interesting as it involves the main character (Hirasaka) who have no memories of his own life and is the host to these dead people. Having no memories seems to make Hirasaka have a mild, almost bland kind of personality which I suppose this makes him the perfect guy for the job.
    As with most translated Japanese books, it is rather reading more American than Japanese which I have always thought is a bad thing. You could only tell this is a Japanese setting by the character and place names. Maybe this is how the author writes and so the translator translated it that way but I'll never know.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (A Vera Wong Novel) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
What's it about: old Chinese woman, tea, food, family, brothers, murder
This was good but it's more about the characters while the murder mystery is an excuse to get these characters together. I think if you like at least one character, you would enjoy this book and I like Vera. She is likable and amusing even if we are told many times she is Chinese and everything she does is Chinese-related and there's no escaping the whole Chinese this or Chinese that all over every page though it's not much about details, more like it's Vera's influence over all the characters. The many points of view is a bit much but I didn't expect any of them to be the murderer and readers wouldn't either and that's how it turned out which I guess is a spoiler but at the same time, people reading this book is not here for the murder.

How is your December going? Are you ready for the new year?