Books I read in 2024: Year of the Soul

And my writing year-in-review.

Nini browsing my history/extraterrestrials/physics books.

YEAR-IN-REVIEW

The main thing I wrote this year was “My Spiritual Evolution.” I want to write a whole book on spirituality, which I define as the study of the soul, the spirit world, and related topics, such as death and psychic phenomena. Spirituality is the most mysterious and poignant subject I’ve encountered. I wasn’t ready for it until this year.

2024 was the Year of the Soul for me. The near-death literature, primed by my psychedelic experiences, was my way into spirituality. I’m excited to keep exploring this subject. Researching it has zoomed out my perspective to include my entire life and beyond, giving my life a shape in which I can relax and do my work.

This year, I also wrote “Antigravity and the Deep State” (~3k words), “My Childhood Toy Poodles” (~3k words), and “GemStone III,” a ~6k-word not-yet-published essay about being addicted to a text-based multiplayer online role-playing game in middle school.

(Thank you to my editors on the above published pieces: Josie Mitchell at Granta, Jordan Castro at Blimp Biannual, Olivia Kan-Sperling at Paris Review.)

I’m currently finishing essays titled “How to Write an Essay Collection” (~5k), “The Jiu Jitsu Tournament” (~3k), and “Nini” (~12k). After I finish these, my essay collection Reasons to Live will be done. It contains eleven essays.

Lali on my to-read/unread table.

BOOKS I READ IN 2024

I read 42 books this year, below average for me. (See my reading history here.) I read less because I often felt I was still absorbing what I’d read and didn’t want to move on to something else, and because I wrote and drew more. I drew twelve mandalas.

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE (10)

I love reading about near-death experiences (NDEs). It feels like pure spirituality. First-hand accounts of death, the soul (its properties, phenomenology), immateriality, and myriad higher beings by a variety of people—secular, religious, Western, East Asian, African, modern, ancient, aboriginal. I wrote these books in “My Spiritual Evolution.”

Life After Life (1975) by Raymond A. Moody

Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-death Experiences of Children (1990) by Melvin Morse

Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010) by Jeffrey Long

On Life After Death (1991) by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times (1988) by Carol Zaleski

Dying to Meet Them: One Woman's Incredible Journey from NDE to UAP (2023) by Mindy Tautfest

After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond (2021) by Bruce Greyson

Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience (2000) by Barbara Rommer

Saved by the Light: The True Story of a Man Who Died Twice and the Profound Revelations He Received (2008) by Dannion Brinkley

Impressions of Near-Death Experiences: Quotations From Over 100 Experiencers (2023) by Robert Chistrophor Coppes

SPIRITUALITY (NON-NDE) (5)

Materialism: A Historical and Philosophical Inquiry (2019) by Robin Gordon Brown and James Ladyman. This helped me understand the history of materialism.

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Far Journeys (1985), and Ultimate Journey (1994) by Robert Monroe. Robert Monroe worked in radio. He accidentally began to leave his body, maybe due to the sounds he was developing/testing at his job to help people fall asleep. Eventually, he developed the Hemi-Sync technique of playing different frequency sounds in each ear to help people go out of body. He founded the Monroe Institute to teach people how to go out of body, remote view, and other paranormal abilities. I want to go at some point to take classes, in part for a chapter for my spirituality book.

UFO/extraterrestrial researchers do not seem to have—but would benefit from—looking at Monroe’s experiences. He encountered and documented his many interactions with a range of nonphysical entities (all benevolent, it seems) during his hundreds or thousands of out-of-body experiences. His books are nonfiction, but they read like highly creative, mystical science-fiction.

Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013) by Jim Tucker. The evidence for reincarnation seems strong. Kids remember past lives which are later confirmed. This book alone convinces me of the reality of reincarnation. I have five more books on reincarnation with me or coming in the mail. Reincarnation can be chapter two in my spirituality book.

CATS (3)

I read these in part for research for my in-progress ~12,000-word essay on my cat Nini, titled “Nini,” and in part for my own interest. I have more cat books “on deck” to read.

The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour (2000) by Dennis C. Turner, Paul Bateson, editors

The Mind of the Cat (1990) by Gary Brodsky

The Cat: A Complete Authoritative Compendium of Information About Domestic Cats (1977) by Muriel Beadle

HISTORY (3)

I read these books as research (and for fun) while expanding my essay “The Partnership Before War” this year. The draft I linked is ~8k words. The current, unpublished draft, retitled “Before War” is ~12k words. It could be the first essay in a collection by me titled Dystopia, with “Antigravity and the Deep State” and essays on MKULTRA, Gloria Naylor, suppressed physics, Atlantis (and other pre-Younger Dryas civilizations), and, to put things in far perspective, the Great Year (explained below).

Astrological World Cycles (1933) by Laurie Pratt. I reread this. I’d read it in 2022. Here’s part of a passage on this book in “Before War”:

Like Earth’s season-generating orbit around the sun, the solar system also has a cyclical motion that changes the quality of electromagnetic radiation we receive. Ancient Indians called this the Yuga Cycle. Greeks called it the Great Year. Evidence for it can be seen in the Precession of the Equinoxes, in which the stars revolve in the sky every 24,000 years; this is usually attributed to Earth’s alleged wobble, but ancient Indians and other ancient cultures attributed it to the solar system moving toward and away from Alcyone (a star in the Pleiades), according to Astrological World Cycles (1933) by Laurie Pratt. Modern researchers, including Walter Cruttenden and Jim Weninger, also dispute the wobble theory, arguing instead that the sun spirals through the galaxy.

Crete (1966) by Nicolas Platon. Farmers arrived on the island of Crete around 9,000 years ago and their society became gradually more advanced over millennia. They culminated in the Goddess/Nature-worshipping Minoan civilization and remained peaceful until being conquered around 3,500 years ago.

Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013) by Joseph Campbell. Marija Gimbutas’ work on the Neolithic Goddess religion—showing that humans lived in egalitarian, nature-worshiping societies in prehistory—deeply resonated with Joseph Campbell. He incorporated it into his work and lectured on it a lot.

AUTISM (1)

Girl Storm: A Memoir of Chaos, Humor, and Resilience in the Path of Profound Autism (2023) by Peg Kerswell. I wrote about this devastating book here.

POETRY (2)

Notes on Shapeshifting (2022) by Gabi Abrao. I found this when Delicious Tacos quote-tweeted my photo of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, saying it reminded him of Notes on Shapeshifting. Based on her name and the title and cover of her book, I assumed, when I ordered her book, that Gabi was a South American author and that her book was translated. Am happy I read this charming book because it led to Gabi and I becoming online friends. I enjoy her vibe and interests. I recommend her X account.

Tao Te Ching (1993), translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. I reread this to see if Tao, or Dao, works as a metaphor for the spirit world. It does, I think—“Deep and again deep: The gateway to all mystery.” Dao works as a metaphor for both the spirit world and aether—the “sea” of tiny particles that physicists before Einstein assumed existed and which many people, including me, still believe in. This translation has my favorite first line—“Tao called Tao is not Tao.”

My favorite translated last line of the first page—out of these 175+ translations—is by my mom: “Dao is the way to explain the mystery of the universe.”

That translation by my mom is different than every other translation I’ve seen (others seem hopelessly convoluted, meaningless: “The cause of the First Cause itself is the gateway of the Essential”; “Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful”), and it most supports Dao being a metaphor for the spirit world. The spirit world is the way to explain the mystery of the universe. This is what I independently came up with this year too. I’d asked my mom to translate the first page of the Daodejing in 2022. This was her translation—it’s my favorite:

Dao is the rule of the universe and nature, it is always changing, so we cannot use any language to describe it, if it could be described, it is not Dao. Universe started with the smallest particles which created the sky (like a father) and the earth (like a mother) which everything on earth thrives on. The sky provides sun, rain, wind, and the earth provides soil, etc. We should use "nothing" and "having" to explain the mystery of Dao. Dao is the way to explain the mystery of the universe.

HEALTH (2)

Poisoning for Profits: Why So Many of Us Are Sick and Dying Young (2017) by Grant Genereux. This book is free here. This seems to be the first book to argue that vitamin A is nonessential and toxic, an argument I’ve found compelling and revelatory. Grant Genereux is to vitamin A as Judy Wood is to 9/11.

Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance (2025) by Laura Delano. A rare, inspiring, research-backed memoir about escaping the nightmarish trap of psychiatric drug treatment. "The more I suffered, the more medical treatments I was convinced I needed, but the more treatments I received, the more I suffered,” wrote Delano. Coming out in March. Recommended for people on psychiatric drugs.

OTHER NONFICTION (6)

Molly (2023) by Blake Butler. I liked how intimate Blake was with the details of his and Molly’s marriage. This is my favorite book by Blake. The structure was moving and satisfying, with a longish denouement with spiritual undertones.

You Are Important by Noah Cicero. A nonfiction positive self-help-like book. I found this calming and nourishing. This was in prose but the final version, retitled Thank You, is in something more like poetry.

My Altered States: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Trauma, Psychedelics, and Spiritual Growth (2024) by Rick Strassman. Funny, heartfelt memoir by the doyen of DMT studies, covering his life up to when he joins a Zen Buddhist monastery while on leave from medical school in his early twenties.

Health and Safety: A Breakdown (2024) by Emily Witt. I highly enjoyed the personal parts. Contains references to me. It was interesting to read this as an update of what Emily has been doing the past ten years.

The Education of Koko (1981) by Francine Patterson. After reading this, I’m much more convinced that Koko, the gorilla, was able to understand English and communicate via American Sign Language. Highly recommended for Koko fans.

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade (2014) by Walter Kirn. My first Kirn. I was pleased by its interwoven range of material, from family to relationships to friendship, reporting, and the life of a writer. Want to read more Kirn. His prose is lucid and readable while also containing original language and syntax. I’m curious about his arc, from working in legacy media to being now, as I’ve discerned from his X account which I recommend, critical of it.

ART (2)

M.C. Escher: The Graphic Work (2016). I got this to help me with new ideas for mandalas. It did give me ideas.

The Voyeurs (2012) by Gabrielle Bell. Relatable autobiographical comics. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Bell and other “graphic novelists”—Jeffrey Brown, Chris Ware.

FICTION (8)

Our Strangers (2023) Lydia Davis. I don’t remember this much. My favorite Davis books remain Break It Down (1985) and The End of the Story (1995).

The Second Self by Alan Rossi. Unpublished novel about two writers. Funny and relatable and poignant, with flowing prose and realistically complex psychology. It’s currently out on submission to editors I think.

Bitter Water Opera (2024) by Nicolette Polek. Brief pleasing novel with understated, gentle, quirky humor and original language, exploring the shift from doubt to faith.

Pan (2025) by Michael Clune. A strange, intense, gratifyingly Clune-y novel about the mystery of consciousness and the magic of childhood. Coming out in July.

Thanks For Letting Me Share by Brad Phillips. Unpublished novel about three siblings. I recommend editors and agents read this. Has a complete self-aware arc, featuring very dark humor that I found delicious and endearing.

Liars (2024) by Sarah Manguso. Compulsively readable, autobiographical-seeming, charged novel charting a relationship from beginning to end. Told in short, blocked sections. Made me want to write something in this form.

Bitter Texas Honey (2025) by Ashley Whitaker. Refreshingly had a non-liberal narrator—a conservative in 2012, a supporter of Mitt Romney. Explores writing and friendship and grief. I enjoyed the deadpan tone combined with the zany happenings.

Perfume & Pain (2024) by Anna Dorn. My favorite Dorn novel. A novel about romantic relationships, being a writer, and writing autobiographically. Made me laugh. It’s being made into a movie I think.

CONCLUSION

I look forward to reading more books in 2025. Writing-wise, my next book will be Reasons to Live (essays), which I’ll finish next month probably. After that I want to work on the spirituality book leisurely. I also want to finish my book Self Heal: How I Cured My Autism, Autoimmunity, Eczema, Depression, and Other Health Problems Naturally (~70% finished) at some point. I’m still working—successfully, I believe, over months/years—on curing my autoimmune disorder that gives me chronic pain.