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| This is the third year I have kept track of movies and books on my wall calendar (2007, 2006). I only recorded books that I had read for personal enjoyment (no textbooks!) and movies that I had seen in the theater. So, today I took down the calendar and had a look at my year in book and film.
JANUARY
A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
Juno
I Am Legend
Charlie Wilson’s War
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I’m Not There
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Michael Clayton
FEBRUARY
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
27 Dresses
The Savages
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Row Hard
Murch
The Collaborator of Bethlehem: An Omar Yussef Mystery by Matt Beynon Rhys
MARCH
A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
APRIL
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz
Best American Non-Required Reading 2007 ed. Dave Eggers
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
MAY
Iron Man
What Happens in Vegas
Prince Caspian
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
JUNE
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Get Smart
JULY
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
AUGUST
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Wall-E
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon
Brideshead Revisited
Basin and Range by John McPhee
Tropic Thunder
SEPTEMBER
Superpowers by David Schwartz
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
Elegy
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
OCTOBER
Body of Lies
NOVEMBER
Quantum of Solace
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
DECEMBER
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
A Changed Man by Francine Prose
Slumdog Millionaire
In Progress: America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins
I moved from Spokane to Tacoma in May and I haven't been reading as much or watching as many movies since then. I'm still working on getting back into a routine.
By far, the worst movie I saw in 2008 was What Stays in Vegas (which wasn't particularly surprising). 27 dresses and Body of Lies weren't that great either. I Am Legend probably had the worst ending. Robert Downey Jr had a fantastic year. Both Iron Man and Tropic Thunder were great. I also really loved Juno, No Country, I'm Not There, There Will Be Blood, Wall-E, and Slumdog Millionaire.
You can read my book reviews at goodreads.com. Superpowers and Benedict Society were incredibly disappointing. But, I read a whole stack of FANTASTIC books in 2008. A Changed Man, Theodore Roosevelt, Then We Came to the End, and A Sense of the World were probably my favorites of the year.
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| This is the second year I have kept track of movies and
books on my wall calendar. I only recorded books that I had read for
personal enjoyment (no textbooks!) and movies that I had seen
in the theater. So, today I took down the calendar and had a
look at my year in book and film.
JANUARY
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
JPod by Douglas
Coupland
Borat
Pursuit of Happyness
Volver
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Queen
Babel
The Departed
The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook by Justin Spring
Notes on a Scandal
FEBRUARY
The Last King of Scotland
Pan’s Labrynth
Letters from Iwo Jima
Music & Lyrics
Children of Men
A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind
MARCH
Because I Said So
Zodiac
The 8:55 to Baghdad
by Andrew Eames
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
APRIL
The Lives of Others
Blades of Glory
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
The Zero by Jess Walter
MAY
Spiderman 3
Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen
Waitress
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Thirteen Days by Robert F Kennedy
JUNE
Knocked Up
Pirates of the Carribbean: At World’s End
Ocean’s 13
Nancy Drew
The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
JULY
Transformers
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK
Rowling
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
Ratatouille
Sicko
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
You Kill Me
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
AUGUST
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
The Simpsons Movie
Death at a Funeral
Superbad
Becoming Jane
SEPTEMBER
Four Quarters of Light: An Alaskan Journey by Brian
Keenan
Stardust
Stardust (second time)
Once
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
OCTOBER
Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury & Patton
Into the Wild
The Darjeeling Limited
NOVEMBER
The Nightmare Before Christmas – 3D
Trade
Lars and the Real Girl
America
(The Book) by Jon Stewart
DECEMBER
The Best American Travel Writing ed. Susan Orlean
The Big Four by Agatha Christie
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
Atonement
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Currently Reading
(but not finished in 2007):
A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s
Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
P.S. (Jan 28, 08)
The worst movies were Because I Said So, Spiderman 3, and Nancy Drew.
The best books were A Long Way Down (a hilarious and uplifting story about attempted suicide), Snow (set in Turkey), The Worst Hard Time (personal stories about the Dust Bowl. National Book Award winner. Seattle author.), The Zero (excellent 9/11 fiction that never mentions 9/11. Spokane author.), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (natch), and The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Jews, chess, and Alaska. What more could you want?). | | |
| Apparently an entire article about arctic ice melting to open up the long sought-after Northwest Passage does not need to mention global warming. Go figure.
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| The new issue of Bookslut has a great article about John
McPhee and the many books he has written. I've read Annals of the
Former World, but now am inspired to read more of his stuff. He has
written on such a wide range of topics, that I would guess just about
everyone will find something of his they would like to read.
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2007_09_011632.php | | |
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