My Five Fives for 2024

Just a list of 5 favorite things across the arts that I experienced in 2024

Robert Stribley
5 min readJan 1, 2025

These selections are provided for your delectation in alphabetical order by type. Some potential number ones where noted.

Black-and-white still from the film Closely Watched Trains where the actress Jitka Bendová leans down from a tain to kiss the actor Václav Neckář
Still from the 1966 Czech film Closely Watched Trains based on the book by Bohumil Hrabal

5 Favorite Books Read this Year

Of all the mediums, I don’t tend to read books primarily because they’re recent releases. 🤷‍♂️ Doppelganger, however, was completely my jam and covered off on many of my own obsessions: doppelgängers, conspiracy theories, Q-Anon, misinformation, nationalism, internet culture, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, the toxicity of capitalism, the power of belief, politics, human rights, and so on. If I were ranking these Klein’s book would be number one.

  • Closely Observed Trains — Bohumil Hrabal
  • Doppelganger — Naomi Klein
  • Every Man for Himself and God Against All — Werner Herzog
  • Small Things Like These — Claire Keegan (Would love to see the film adaptation of this, too, with Cillian Murphy.)
  • A Wild Sheep Chase — Haruki Murakami
Very dark image of a lanky shadowy Nosferatu taking a long stride with his eyes beaming bright and white, his skinny arms crossed before him as several rats leap between his legs. The title NOSFERATU handwritten in all caps slender lettering sweeps across the whole landscape-oriented poster.
Promotional poster for the original Nosferatu (1922) as seen in a 2022 exhibit in Berlin displaying ads and promotional posters for the movie

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Robert Stribley
Robert Stribley

Written by Robert Stribley

Writer. Photographer. UXer. Creative Director. Interests: immigration, privacy, human rights, design. UX: Technique. Teach: SVA. Aussie/American. He/him.

No responses yet

What are your thoughts?