I usually don’t write a full “year in review” type of post, but I do sometimes highlight various milestones, goals, and/or notable things that have happened in the last year. And this year, I’ve both the desire and time to write about exactly that.

When drafting the last post, I re-read some of the posts I’d published in the past. While it’s fun to see how things evolve over the years, it also provides a guide for how to write these kinds of posts even when I feel out of the habit.

So here’s a summary of the highlights from this year.

Highlights of 2024

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Books

For the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to read two books simultaneously – one fiction and one non-fiction. I don’t participate in book clubs, I don’t try to accomplish a certain number of books per month (or year or whatever other unit of time), and I don’t always try to grab whatever the most recent best seller is.

Instead, I try to read the things that I want and that seem relevant, interesting, and/or helpful. I read a total of 20 books this year (10 fiction, 10 non-fiction).

Here are the things I enjoyed the most:

Omission from this list doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it or that it wasn’t something educational. I tried to limit this list to one book from each category but I couldn’t do it so I arbitrarily decided to include two from each instead.

Fitness

Over the years, I’ve tried to make exercise a consistent part of my day-to-day. On the whole, I’ve been good about it even though the type of fitness I do each year tends to change.

Some years, I’ve done nothing but run. Other years, I’ve incorporated some type of guided program. And there are other times where I’ve mixed it up between the two.

This year was kind of like the latter: I was running at least two-to-three 5Ks a week and lifting weights every other day. Unfortunately, I pinched a nerve in my back in September and that brought everything to a grinding halt.

I started walking every day once again in November but that’s about the extent of what I’m doing. My goal is to get back to both cardio and basic weight lifting in January, but we’ll see.

Lastly, if you workout and have an Apple Watch or an iPhone, I recommend Gentler Streak. It’s far an away my favorite fitness app primarily because it aims to keep you moving and in a healthy state without having you just blindly try to close your rings.

Music, TV, and Podcasts

My favorite music from 2024 include the following albums:

  • Moment of Truth by the Red Clay Strays (and their Live At The Ryman album is absolutely worth it, too). If there was a way to capture 50s rock and roll with 70s southern rock and timeless blues lyrics, this is the band.
  • Deeper Well by Kacey Musgraves. I’ve been a fan of hers for a longtime. Golden Hour is still my favorite by her and I haven’t really been a fan of anything sense, but Deeper Well is a bit of a return to form.
  • Rebel Diamonds by The Killers. This is more of a greatest hits collection but if you’ve never listened to the band or are looking to hear how their sound has changed over the year, it’s a good listen.
  • I started listening to Wild Rivers this year and am a fan of what I’ve heard so far. I can’t recommend any single album since most of their songs came up in a recommended playlist.

Most of the shows I watch during the year are whenever I’m on the treadmill or it’s the period between when the kids are done for the day and Meghan and I are still up.

  • Only Murders in the Building. I thoroughly enjoy Steve Martin and Martin Short’s comedy in this show (and Selena Gomez holds her own with them while also balancing them out). We’ve not watched the most recent season yet, but very much enjoy this show so far.
  • From. It’s hard to succinctly describe this show. If you’re into sci-fi horror, then read up on the premise on Wikipedia. It’s shame how much time passes between seasons, but that seems to be the norm in the age of streaming. I wish this show was available on a platform with a wider reach
  • Shrinking. I didn’t start watching this until October but am glad I did so much so that I watched it once through on my own then and immediately watched it through again with Meghan. If you’re a fan of Scrubs, you’ll likely love this show.

I was going to do a Music, Movies, and TV section but I can count the number of movies I watched this year on one hand so I’m mixing it up and adding the podcasts I enjoyed the most this year.

This is not an exhaustive list nor is my sharing this saying I’ve listened to every single episode (unless I mention it, obviously). But they are the ones that kept me coming back a few times a month.

To 2025

Since the majority of what I write here on a daily, weekly, monthly basis primarily has to do with my day-to-day, I try to cover anything outside of that in posts like this.

And these are the highlights for 2024. Like most, I have things that I’m planning to do in 2025 though I’ll wait until this time next year to share how everything went.

If anything the last couple of years has shown me, it’s that this stage of life – while great – has all kinds of ways for making it difficult to make concrete plans. So beyond the high-level goals of reading, working out, listening to music, and writing, there’s not much more to add.

Whatever it is you’ve planned for 2025, here’s to it all going well. And if not, here’s to having the fortitude to push through.