Ethics of "Wrapped"

And doing it anyway — Pages of 2024

I find it simultaneously perturbing and rewarding to live in this age of “wrapped” and yearly recaps.

In one view, it is a clear symptom of our dangerously late stage capitalism that we as consumers anticipate and celebrate this fantastic annual event of data mining; that companies compete to outdo one another in assigning metrics and aesthetics to their customers’ everyday usage habits.

Doubly concerning, of course, is the climate of competition it produces. Presented eagerly with our numbers, consumers work to best each other and their past selves alike in all manner of quantitative categories: hours listened, pages read, miles run, restaurants logged, levels of fandom.

The everyday has been commodified. We are successfully incentivized to spend our time (and therefore our money) with Big Fill-in-the-Blank, all for the reward of… being aesthetically tracked? Electronic cookies, yum!

On the other hand, these year-end campaigns are so successful, so prolific, because they scratch a verifiable, existential human itch: to quantify the unquantifiable. To assign meaning to the vacuous passage of time.

The weights of our days are unequally distributed; a year stretches and compresses in curious ways. We make too much meaning of some parts and forget altogether much of the rest. Humans —especially the chronically online, constantly distracted ones— have fickle, selective memories.

A visual representation <3

I’m chagrined to admit that in some ways, though, these app-driven annual summaries recalibrate me.

All it takes is a “2024 Snap Recap” (basically the *most random* compilation of selfies you could possibly imagine, ranging in levels of tastefulness and mundanity, all loosely strung together under vague categories like “Your Plates” and “Your Top Lenses”) to remind me that, Hey, I actually kind of bodied this shit.

While I still wrestle with the troubling impetus to document everything, I —product of the system I am— find a lot of honest joy in the recapping.

I write off the concerning surveillance bit, as well as the questionable external motivator to perform, by reminding myself that the quantifiable facets of my everyday —the books I read, artists I spend time with, ways I move my body— really are the most joyful, lively parts of it. The art and media I consume are the furniture, the wall adornments, the companions of my inner world.

And having it all condensed into a sharable infographic, as dystopian as it feels, is a convenient excuse to interact with and enrich the world around me —to catch up with friends, share recommendations, to connect.

So another one of these calendar years —these elusive, man-made units of time— has passed me by. Here are my stats:

*So far

From Favorite to Least Favorite:

★★★★★

1. Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

2. Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

3. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

4. Good Material by Dolly Alderton

5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3) by ** *******

6. Writers & Lovers by Lily King

7. Parable of the Sower (#1) by Octavia Butler

★★★★

8. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

9. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

10. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

11. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (#1) by ** *******

12. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

13. Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler

14. Parable of the Talents (#2) by Octavia Butler

15. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

16. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis

17. Galatea by Madeline Miller

18. Just Kids by Patti Smith

19. Queen of Shadows (#4) by Sarah J. Maas

20. Funny Story by Emily Henry

21. Crown of Midnight (#2) by Sarah J. Maas

22. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (#2) by ** *******

23. Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

24. Heir of Fire (#3) by Sarah J. Maas

25. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

26. Empire of Storms (#5) by Sarah J. Maas

★★★

27. Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

28. Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1) by Lyla Sage

29. Throne of Glass (#1) by Sarah J. Maas

30. Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

31. The Idiot by Elif Batuman

32. I’ll Get Back to You by Becca Grischow

33. The Assassin’s Blade (#0.5) by Sarah J. Maas

★★

34. Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey

35. One Day in December by Josie Silver

36. Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

★

37. Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta

Ones I Want to Talk About:

1. Harry Potter.

In some ways I’m sad I missed the boat on these books in my adolescence, but reading them for the first time now is so fun and nostalgic. There is something to be said for a series that has this much of a cult following/cultural footprint — it makes reading 10x more fun.

Example A, from the Hinge trenches:

Will be continuing this journey in 2025.

2. Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

My college roommate told me to read this book years ago and I wish I listened then, but it also feels more precious that it found me in my first year in New York.

I really can’t put it into words except to say Jenny Slate’s brain works in such a surprising and delightful way to me that this felt like a constant foray into a dream world —meaning somehow it always made perfect sense and I was just along for the ride. It’s aptly named “weird,” but it sings all the same.

My college roommate also, ironically, told me she thought I’d love “Silver Springs” before I’d ever really listened to Fleetwood Mac at all. I guess this is my way of saying “Georgia, you were right” <3

3. Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

This was my wow of the year. Genre-bending, fourth-wall-breaking, hyper contemporary fiction with a sprawling cast of complex characters and a protagonist that is faced with dire stakes… it blew me away.

Brownie points for the awareness and humanization it brings to sex workers and those struggling with addiction!

4. Parable of the Sower (#1) by Octavia Butler

I have a soft spot for these books because of my graduate studies about critical fabulation/Afrofuturism (maybe more on that later), but I think the everyday person would be interested in reading this for its similarities to The Handmaid’s Tale in a post-government dystopia… eerily prescient considering the first chapter is set in 2024.

5. Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Male main character and she pulled it off. Need I say more?

Unsure if these metrics are real or made up but I will flex them either way.

Rapid Fire Fun Stats:

Where I got my books—

• Borrowed — 21

  • From the New York Public Library (15)

  • From a friend (6)

• Bought — 9

• Previously owned — 3

• Illegal e-book bootleg — 2

• Gifted — 1

• Borrowed then bought — 1*

*Little Weirds. And then I made this Notes App entry of every page I wanted to bookmark in my own copy:

You know the vibes.

Misc.—

• Everyone I read this year was a woman/non-binary author except C.S. Lewis… our last book club pick of the year (damn it!)

  • But one of these women was J.K. Rowling, so.

• I attended three book launch events/signings and The National Book Award Reading at NYU (special af).

• 6/37 of my reads were debuts! That is just so f*cking dreamy, no? What a privilege.

Closing the Loop:

Last year I said my goals were to re-read several books and become a harsher critic. We’re like 1.1 for 2 — I still have a long TB(re)R but my ratio of 5-star reviews has significantly decreased.

I am slowly refining my taste, but you will have to pry my generosity and romanticism from my cold, dead hands! (It’s still really important to me that we’re all reading the acknowledgements.)

Okay, I think that about does it.

I don’t want to set myself up for failure with grand 2025 declarations for reading intentions, but I’ll say I’d like to diversify my genres a bit… a little nonfiction never killed anybody, right?

All in all, stellar year for reading and community building surrounding it. I love entering my fantasy worlds and talking about them occasionally with all of you. Cheers to more of that in 2025!

If you want to see more of this book talk year-round:

Wishing you all the education or escapism or warm and fuzzies a book can offer you over this Holiday Season <3

Sending love from my screen to yours, xoxo

—Madilyn