There is a theory about why time speeds up as you get older: time perception and information processing are linked. When you do or learn lots of new things, time slows down. When things are same-same all the time, time goes by quickly.
So it seems like it’s not that time flies when you’re having fun; it flies when things are uninteresting.
For me, 2023 was a big fat chunk of juicy life because I was doing new things all the time. It felt long and full.
Last year, in comparison, feels entirely unmemorable.
I have a theory which is a bit like the time theory: when you’re older, you’ve seen and done so many thing, not a lot surprises you anymore. So it is absorbed more seamlessly into what already exists inside you.
This is tragic! Imagine getting bored with books and movies. What then? Will I have to start sky-diving or taking drugs to get a kick out of life?
All of which is really just to say that I’d like to share with you my media highlights of last year in these three categories: movies, series and books. The most memorable ones – the ones that slowed down time for me – are listed at the top.
Movies
Top hit: Conclave
Because: it was tight and full of tension. It made understated use of sound. Austere sets with a minimal colour palette. Thoughtful lighting. Internal dramas deftly handled against the backdrop of the larger dramas of political manoeuvring. Excellent performances by the whole cast, but I thought Stanley Tucci and Lucian Msamati in their smaller roles were noteworthy. There was not a single ho-hum moment and I was gripped all the way through, and was surprised by the end, which, as Sam said, we thought we’d guessed ahead of time. We didn’t.
Other hits:
All of Us Strangers
Kadish for a friend
Lee
Widow Cliquot
Series
Top hits (and they’re a tie, because their genres are incomparable):
Slow Horses (for many reasons, but mostly for Gary Oldman)
Somebody Somewhere (amusing; wonderful casting with actors I didn’t know; dialogue feels unscripted and natural so that you feel you are there, and which also means the laughs sideswipe you the way they do in normal conversation; small and quiet production). We finished Season 3 and now I am woebegone.
Other hits (each was extraordinary in its own way and each is worth watching):
One Day
Shrinking
Baby Reindeer
Rain Dogs
Ripley
Eric
Books
Top hits:
By the Sea, Abdulrazak Gurnah (for story, lyricism and richness)
Brotherless Night, VV Ganeshananthan (for telling a history I don’t know – Sri Lanka – vividly through the eyes of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances.)
The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry (for prose so lively and sentences so jaunty.)
Other hits: (you can read about these on my @readingdarling Instagram account)
Silent House, Orhan Pamuk
The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers, Finuala Dowling
Wifedom, Anna Funder
A Very Easy Death, Simone de Beauvoir
Lost Property, Megan Choritz
Woman at Point Zero, Nawal El Saadawi
A Registry of my Passage on Earth, Daniel Mason
The Near North, Ivan Vladislavić
The Winter Vault, Anne Michaels
Love Letters I liked writing most this year
One in response to a column someone wrote about how you should read. It’s called ‘How You Should Read’ and if you missed it, you can find it here.
One an ode to a little friendship, called ‘Brad the Bear’ which you can read here.
One remembering my bully Beatrice, and about the slowing awakening of consciousness. It’s called Beatrice the dancer, and you can read it here.
If you read or watched something in 2024 that you’d like to recommend, please let the rest of us know in comments below.
I hope you see, do, read, watch and listen to things that make time go slowly in 2025.
Lots of love,
K.
I re-read Julia Martens' "A Handful of Dust" and Penelope Lively's "Ammonites & Leaping Fish" at a time when I was recovering from surgery and I found that they echoed each other in the most amazing way. I can't quite put my finger on why, perhaps it's just considered writing about time. Anyway, your Love Letter reminded me again of that book-journey, which was pleasurably slow (as was required for recovery) and thought-provoking too.
This reset is so different ro something I have ever attempted before! I say attempted because I often give up. I have fallen behind a smidge and this is where I am now, but find myself not giving up! Your instinct is lovely Karin and I will forge forward, catch up, fall behind and finish. Because I have come to realise that coming in last is sometimes just at the right time....