What I read this year

Many books

Jan 01, 2024

Apologies for the inconsistent posting, but I have just finished up my first semester at university and was unsure how to write for this alongside schoolwork. And yet, despite how busy I’ve been, I still found the time to read 104 books, a few of which I will share here.

Art history books

Scottish Artists in the Age of Radical Change by Bill Hare

This book introduced me to artists I enjoyed conceptually and aesthetically, providing fodder for the art history research. No matter whether or not you’re interested in Scottish culture or not, it’s still a good read for anyone wanting to discover more about modern artists, specifically how they’re shaped by their political landscape and the artistic resources available to them.

Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Cynthis Freeland

I knew nothing about art theory and this was a good start. Freeland was able to dumb it down enough in a condensed format that covered a very wide range of topics.

Image on the Edge by Michael Camille

I highly recommend this book, because it took a topic I knew little about and opened up a whole new area of interest for me. For anyone curious about the Medieval manuscripts, religious art or how art is used to differentiate between what and who is morally correct, please read this book (and the forthcoming essay I’m writing about Medieval views on the world.)

Cannibal Culture by Deborah Root

I dedicated a whole post to this book because it was such a great read. It’s highly relevant to cultural and artistic issues of appropriation, giving the origins, examples and theories.

Girl in a Green Gown by Carola Hicks

Before reading this book, I passed the paintings of the Northern Renaissance off as creepy and a little dull, but this book has opened up to me the symbolism in- more specifically Van Eyck’s paintings, placing ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’ in its vibrant context. Intermixed with this art-historical analysis was the story of all the owners of this painting, which I found a bit boring, but I still recommend the book.

Other books

Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

Now this is a book that I have mentioned on here and one that I will continue to mention until everyone ever has read it. Please go read it. It’s a poetry collection that is masterful in its metaphor, with every poem connected, speaking to the authors’ experiences.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

I read this on the plane, attempting not to laugh because everyone was sleeping. I failed miserably.

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

This may have been the only Agatha Christies I read this year, which is very unlike me, but it was a good book regardless. I like my mysteries to be ones where the suspect and their motive have been present from the start but we the readers are just too dumb to see it. The Queen of Crime, of course, has perfected this.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I’ve had this one of my shelves since it came out, not reading for fear of disappointment after loving ‘The Night Circus’. I’m pleased to announce that it did not disappoint. No one can create a world like Morgenstern. Complete escapism.

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Truly Gothic fiction at its finest. I went in this book knowing it was going to be melodramatic, but what it didn’t know was that this was going to be one of its strengths along with the very surreal and bizarre events that it illustrates perfectly.

If I had your face by Frances Cha

I expected a light-hearted narrative commenting on social issues but left believing I had read something of a horror book. Uncomfortable body horror that is actually very real in a book I haven’t stopped thinking about. I read this after The Belles by Dhionelle Clayton, which is completely different in genre and plot but a similar focus on perceptions of our body and what we do if we can change them. Both of the aforementioned books I recommend.