M.鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

4,630

pages read

books read

M. Jones

Shortest Book

128

pages

Longest Book

706

pages

Average book length in 2024

385

pages

Most Shelved

987,477

people also shelved

Complete Screenwriting Course by Charles Harris

Least Shelved

197

people also shelved

M.鈥檚 average rating for 2024

3.9

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.46 average

M.鈥檚 first review of the year

it was amazing

A great story and a great book: one that all schoolkids should read, but especially those whose exposure to religion is unquestioning, with no regard to why faith exists and where it comes from, and how it is so often twisted by ritual and doctrine into something exclusive and harmful.

惭.鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

it was amazing

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

M.鈥檚 last review of the year

liked it

Three stars for a book that many people praise to the heavens? First, it's not bad, and it's insightful in many ways. But... It's just not as comprehensive or as deeply insightful into all aspects of the story-writing process (including editing, and motivation for tough times), as, for example, Charles Harris's Complete Screenwriting Course - and before you say "That's screenwriting, this is novels!" take a look; Harris is just great. Brody's boo Three stars for a book that many people praise to the heavens? First, it's not bad, and it's insightful in many ways. But... It's just not as comprehensive or as deeply insightful into all aspects of the story-writing process (including editing, and motivation for tough times), as, for example, Charles Harris's Complete Screenwriting Course - and before you say "That's screenwriting, this is novels!" take a look; Harris is just great. Brody's book deals only with Snyder's 'Save the Cat' "Hollywood Approach", which is what it says in the title, so while this might seem like an unfair criticism, at no point does Brody ever touch on other kinds of story beyond the redemptive story-arc of the initially flawed character who battles their flaw to find peace with the world (what Angus Fletcher refers to as Greek 'comedy': the character changes to be happy), and there are others out there. And while Brody is a knowledgeable guide, she doesn't offer enough advice in my view to 'discovery writers' aka 'pantsers', or on how to meddle with timelines and structure to achieve different effects; for example, Harris points out the value of juxtaposition in switching from one kind of scene to another to achieve a mood or tone or pacing shift. Added to that, around half Brody's book is given over to 'beat sheet' breakdowns of novels which represent each of her 10 different plot genres (more on these below). Now while this is useful in a way, as the old saying goes "if you know one book you know no books": having examples from two novels in each genre would have allowed readers a better sense of how the model can be applied flexibly. Also, Brody's own novels are mostly (but not exclusively) real-world stuff, and this shows, because her appreciation of the role of worldbuilding in creating story and character is non-existent in these pages; unsurprising if you are setting books in the real world which is already familiar to the reader. Finally, I also hate this slang-y, "I'm your best mate" style to the prose, but that's just me being a dour Brit. Plusses, and there are some: the 10 genres are an interesting way to view plots, the beat sheets are handy (though as I said, Brody needed to emphasise more how to use them flexibly), and if you want a simple linear-time single POV Hollywood-style protagonist who just walked in off the street into a world instantly recognisable as our own and then becoming whole and gazing misty-eyed into a better future at the end, this is your go-to. (Just look at Harris too. It really is a gem). ...more

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