2013 - My Year in Books and Movies (and Games)

Finished a trilogy? Sans Ewoks? Gasp!

Lest someone accuse me of not posting often enough on my blog, or (zounds!) of ignoring it for several months at a time, as I have patently done, here is the obligatory, self-aggrandizing, and, rather fun ritual of writing up the best of all the books and movies that I have read this year.

Because I completed a Goodreads 2013 book challenge of reading 50 books, I'll start with the books, and then (because I haven't watched nearly enough movies this year) I'll come around to films. (Plus, I'd already written up the books bit)

I'll also deal with video games in this post - but that one's easy to recap right away. Like literally in the next 100 words: Game of the Year's a tie between Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Short list! (Yeah, I'll write up a review of AC4 once I'm done playing that vast open world. Ask me again in 2015 if I'm done!). Onwards...


The Book Awards

• Best comic book I read in 2013 - "Identity Crisis" by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales
• Best fantasy fiction I read (short form) - "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman
• Best fantasy fiction I read (long form) - "Shadowrise" (book 3 of 4 in the Shadowmarch saga) by Tad Williams
• Best science fiction I read - "Wool Omnibus" by Hugh Howey
• Best audiobook I heard in 2013 (non fiction) - "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood", by James Gleick, narrated by Rob Shapiro
• Best audiobook I heard in 2013 (fiction) - "The Graveyard Book", written and narrated by Neil Gaiman
• Worst book of the year (There Can Be Only One) - "The Flash: Rebirth" by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. Just fell flat for me, sorry!
• Discovery of the year (aka the "Hey ma, I finally read it!" award) - The "Discworld" series by Sir Terry Pratchett
• Author of the Year - without a doubt, +Brandon Sanderson for being prolific, reliably great at writing, and belting out short-form fiction to keep the fans sated in between door-block sized novels. Also, for finishing up a little series called The Wheel of Time with aplomb!

My 2013 Reading Stats

• 19,189 pages read (including progress on ongoing reads) in 2013 vs. 13,247 in 2012.
• 59 (+3 in progress) books read in 2013 vs. 68 in 2012.
• One of 15,580 challenges completed globally out of 440,070 total participants (3.5%)
• Beat global average number of books pledged (56).
• Alas, couldn't make the personal stretch goal of 68 books... mostly because the ones I was reading this year were on average, longer/ denser. 

2014 Reading Challenge is on, by the way - updated widget on the right there. Goal is 60 books, plus finishing all the Discworld books.

On to cinema then...

2013 Movies - In Review 

Upstaging Clooney is probably harder than getting back to Earth. Well done, Bullock!

I can't be bothered with making a top 10 list, and worrying over the ranking too much. Also I have barely seen enough movies this year (I count 16, but might be missing one or two). So here's a wins and losses categorization, and one line reviews as opposed to actual ranking...

Movies of the Year (because I can't pick just one)

• Gravity - For proving that an intimate tale about people facing very personal demons can be set against an awe-inspiring backdrop. Also for being the best 3D usage since Avatar.
• Before Midnight - For proving that not all trilogies leave their authors clueless about how to close them, and for just being... perfect... in every regard. Also, for recording for posterity the best husband wife fight ever fought...

Good movies, but not perfect

• Thor: The Dark World - yes, yes, we know you're setting up the Infinity Gauntlet... get on with it!
• Special 26 - Fun, but no Ocean's Eleven
• GI Joe: Retaliation - Proved that decent movies can be made based on toy-lines; did not transcend the genre of movies based on toy lines
• The Wolverine - Everyone's favorite ornery X-Man in Japan? What could possibly be wrong about that? Also, look - they fought atop the Shinkansen!
• Pacific Rim - Robot hit Monster. Monster hit Robot. Stupid filler about inter-dimensional breach in ocean. Random quirky scientists. Monster hit Robot. Robot hit Monster. Robot win. Maybe...

Seriously Flawed, but still OK

• Man of Steel - Sigh. OK, at least Superman didn't turn out to have a son he didn't know about or lift a mountain of Kryptonite... Damn you Bryan Singer! What's next, Zach Snyder?
• Iron Man 3 - Hey, remember like an hour ago you had PTSD, and were running away from 'splodin thingies? Yeah, what happened with that? Now you're joining more and more empty shell suit 'splodin thingies to the mix... Also, repeat after me: The Mandarin Is Not A Joke...
• Oblivion - Gee, Tom Cruise. Faxed and re-Faxed until there's a whole army of him. Audit that, Scientology!
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Fan fiction. Right down to the inter-species fantasy sex. (You imagined it, admit it!)

The "Why, Why, WHY oh WHYY would you make this movie this way?" er... Awards

• Star Trek Into Darkness - So you said your name is Khan Noonien Singh? One second while I check with the old dude about whether that should mean something to me...
• Despicable Me 2 - Let's grab some money, yes?
• Bhaag Milkha Bhaag - (ROM uvacha:) Gee, I don't know if I want to remake Rocky, or just a really loud version of Rang De Basanti again. I know, I'll do both. At once. I know... I blew your mind a little, didn't I?

Categorization Defying Madcap Experiences

• Fast and Furious 6 - Because all runways should be that accommodatingly long
• Chennai Express - Erm... Fuck! I dunno man, it's a trip.

I should also say, there's a raft 2013 of movies I haven't seen yet that I might get around to in the next... oh, decade or so... These are categorized into:

The Plan to Watch list (yes, this is longer than the one with movies I've seen):

• Bombay Talkies
• Lootera
• Ship of Theseus
• Madras Cafe
• The Lunchbox
• Movie 43
• The Place Beyond the Pines
• The Butler
• About Time
• Riddick
• Don Jon
• Rush
• Captain Phillips
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Fifth Estate
• Frozen
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Inside Llewelyn Davis
• American Hustle
• Her
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• August: Osage County
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Ender's Game
• 47 Ronin

The "I Heard It's So Bad, I must see it" Class

• Dhoom 3 - Because I need to know whether Katrina Kaif really wore a Princess Leia costume
• A Good Day to Die Hard - Long live the 80s, y'know?!
• The Internship - My wife's a Googler. Sigh.

And there you have it folks. After nearly four months of  silence, that's all this blog gets. A Buzzfeed style bulleted list of snark. Still, do dignify it with a comment!