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50 Books. 50 Movies. 1 Year (2014).

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T

TheWarrior

Banned
Just finished Words of Radiance, which is basically my book update for the month. Really an amazing book, this is shaping up to be an incredible series.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Still reading it myself. Few chapters into Part 2 now. Shallan is actually growing on me, maybe because she's facing some actual adversity and rising to the challenge.
 
N

Necrovex

Member
Cyan said:
Still reading it myself. Few chapters into Part 2 now. Shallan is actually growing on me, maybe because she's facing some actual adversity and rising to the challenge.
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Shallan is an awesome character. If you don't like her, you're a bad person.
 
R

_Ryo_

Member
Haven't updated in a while. Books only for now, since I misplaced my list of movies and I can't call them to mind so easily!

15/50 books.

Read: Ready Player One by Cline Ernest ★★★★
Read: The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami ★★★★
Read: Paddle Your Own Canoe by Nick Offerman ★★
Read: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn ★★★★
Read: How to Disappear Completely by David Bowick ★★★
Read: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn ★★★★
Read: The Revolution was Televised by Allan Sepinwall ★★★★
Read: The Fualt in Our Stars by John Green ★★★
Read: The Quiet American by Graham Greene ★★★
Read: Parika by Yasutaka Tsutsui ★★★
Read Tokyo Zero by Mar Home ★★
Read: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum ★★★

I'm trying to get up to 20 books this month, and I'm almost done with the ones I'm reading so I should be close.
 
T

TheWarrior

Banned
Tragicomedy said:
/jamesfrancosogood.gif

Even better than the first.
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Sanderson is so good at eliciting feels.

I liked Shallan's story and development through the book. Kal is awesome as always but Dalinar came on strong in this book. The overall character development in this book was exceptional. I'm completely invested in everyone.
 
K

kswiston

Member
I finished Blood Meridian, which took me about 2 weeks to finish (way longer than normal for a novel of that size). I don't know if it is because I am a new dad, or because I wasn't in the mood for that sort of story, but it took me 75% of the novel to get into it. It's just so bleak. Even moreso than the Road, since none of the characters in Blood Meridian are likable as human beings. Just rape, murder, and death wrapped in elaborate and dense prose. If the American west circa 1840-1850 was anything like what was depicted in Blood Meridian, I am glad I live in the 21st century.

The Judge was an interesting character for many of the same reasons that Anton Chigurh was in No Country for Old Men. I'm sure he was supposed to be an allegory for something, but I'm not well read enough to pick up on most of the metatextual stuff in heavier novels such as this one.


I have decided to pseudo cheat again by reading a couple of 90-150 page novellas to keep ahead of the competition's required pace. I am almost done Legion by Brandon Sanderson, which is really interesting so far. In some ways, the concept reminds me of what was done with the Marvel character of the same name, but Sanderson takes it in a different direction. I will be looking forward to the sequel novella when that launches next year.

My next full size novel will probably be Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I have heard good things about it in the past, and picked it up cheap a month or two ago.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
kswiston said:
I finished Blood Meridian, which took me about 2 weeks to finish (way longer than normal for a novel of that size). I don't know if it is because I am a new dad, or because I wasn't in the mood for that sort of story, but it took me 75% of the novel to get into it. It's just so bleak. Even moreso than the Road, since none of the characters in Blood Meridian are likable as human beings. Just rape, murder, and death wrapped in elaborate and dense prose. If the American west circa 1840-1850 was anything like what was depicted in Blood Meridian, I am glad I live in the 21st century.

The Judge was an interesting character for many of the same reasons that Anton Chigurh was in No Country for Old Men. I'm sure he was supposed to be an allegory for something, but I'm not well read enough to pick up on most of the metatextual stuff in heavier novels such as this one.
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You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg&list=FL_kQZ1ySo6Iv21CcZc0PIEw&index=7

She found some things that I didn't pick up on when I first read it. Her mentioning of Paradise Lost and Moby Dick helped ratify my own reading of the novel. Both parts are worth watching if you're interested in getting another person's research on the novel.
 
Z

Zippedpinhead

Member
Link back to my original post

*Mages Blood - The first third of the book is really really difficult to get through, Lots of one off viewpoint characters, and not a lot of cohesion on the direction of the story. The second third is a bit easier, as they consolidate the view points down and give each character things to do. The final third is actually pretty good, it just took so long to get there. I will read the sequel when it releases in America this September, but I hope it is written more like the last half of the novel than the first half. The four star rating is entirely because of the last third of the book, the first half is really boring and would be a 1 star.

*The Maze runner - My wife wanted me to read it before the movie comes out. Not a bad book, I'll probably finish the series in a week like I did with the divergent trilogy. Easy reading and lightly entertaining

Movies: Alex Cross and Our Idiot Brother - two stars because I got the plot, jhowever I found them boring and fell asleep. With Alex Cross, Morgan freeman's portrayal of the character was better than Tyler Perry's. I woke up intermittently with the movies but neither could keep my interest. If I couldn't remember the plot, or if I had been watching them by myself and able to turn them off, then I would have given them a 1 star.

Divergent - fairly good, a better adaptation than I expected. It was weird to see all the actors that I recognize in small roles and all the main stars being relative new starring actors

Tombstone - Unbelievably well done movie, I had caught bits and pieces throughout the years, but never actually watched the whole thing through before. really good.
 
S

suberzat

Member
I need to get back to update on the regular but here I have watched so far from my last update

Kick Ass 2
Grudge Match
Homefront
X-Men Origins
2 Guns
Out of the Furnace
The Croods
Disconnect
It's Kind of a Funny Story
Fruitvale Station
Lone Survivor
This is the End
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
Raymond Carver - Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? ★★★★½

Carver has a terse style that begs inspection. His characters feel like real people. They either go through some internal problem, or are reflecting on something that happened in the past. They confront anger and deal with bottled up discontent. They act on their motives and recognize sometimes that 'oh shit, I dun fucked up'.

Alain De Botton - Kiss and Tell ★★½

This is a story about a biographer determining how to write a biography about the next person that walks into his life. It comprises of insights into the biographer's mind, how they determine what is useful for the reader to see. The book contains both his musings on biographies and conversations between the 'biographer' narrator and the woman he is attempting to write a biography on. It contained some interesting little tidbits that definitely was worth the relatively quick read. There were some parts that tended to roll on past its welcome.
 
T

Teptom

Member
Teptom - 20/50 Books | 17/50 Movies​
Books

I got into a good rhythm this month. I'm not sure if I'll make make my goal of 25 books, but it'll be pretty close.


  • Joe Meno - The Boy Detective Fails - ★★★★★ - Mar 5
  • Kurt Vonnegut - A Man Without a Country (2005) - ★★★★ - Mar 24
  • Bill Simmons - The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy (2009) -★★★★ - Mar 25
  • Jorge Luis Borges - The Book of Imaginary Beings (1957) - ★★★ - Mar 29
  • Andy Weir - The Martian (2014) - ★★★★ - Apr 1
  • David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000) - ★★★ - Apr 2
  • Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) - ★★★★ - Apr 7
  • Patton Oswalt - Zombie Spaceship Wasteland (2011) - ★★★★ - Apr 7
  • Isaac Asimov - Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime in Letters (1995) - ★★★★★ - Apr 16
  • Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010) - ★★★★★ - Apr 18
  • Kurt Vonnegut - Deadeye Dick (1982) - ★★★ - Apr 21
  • Tom Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) - ★★★★ - Apr 23
Movies

Only four movies since Feburary 12th...


  • Anthony and Joe Russo - Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - ★★★★ - Apr 7
  • Joel and Ethan Coen - Barton Fink (1991) - ★★★★ - Apr 17
  • Joel and Ethan Coen - Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - ★★★★★ - Apr 21
  • Tom Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) - ★★★ - Apr 23
 
A

avengers23

Banned

Books
19. Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett

Even before news about Pratchett's illness was made public, I had come to cherish each new Discworld book that was released. I have my favorites (Small Gods > Watch books > Von Lipwig books > Death books > Wee Free Men books > Witches books > Rincewind/Wizards books), but they're the only books that I'll buy hardcover, first edition as they come out these days. Grouped differently, my rankings probably change. I like the Von Lipwig books, but if you grouped them with The Truth and Monstrous Regiment as the "Industrial Revolution" series, I would probably rank them lower than the Death books. If you group Small Gods, my favorite Discworld book, with Pyramids, I'd probably rank them below the Watch books. And I suppose the Wee Free Men/Aching books should be considered part of the Witches series, but I don't think they would move very much in my hierarchy of Discworld books.

That's why Snuff hurt so badly. It was a Watch book starring Sam Vimes, and he's arguably my favorite character. But it was a chore to read; there were moments I wanted to put it down and consider whether I had outgrown the Discworld books or if Pratchett's illness had affected his writing to the point that we should part ways so I could leave the memories alone.

I am nothing if not a creature of habit, so I bought Raising Steam with the hope that Snuff was just an aberration and not a first sign. I was relieved by a quarter through the book, well pleased by midway, and very happy by the end. As always, Pratchett asked us to imagine a finer world and examine what "progress" should mean for the wider society.

Pratchett's books have always been infused with a sense of optimism and compassion. Given the choice, most people in Pratchett's works will make the right one. Our protagonists embody pragmatism, innovation, and acceptance; Vetinari, Lu-Tze, and Mustrum Ridicully could all have shut down the steam engine at the core of Raising Steam, but they see the value of "progress." There's a strain of delightful technological utopianism in Raising Steam; I had dark thoughts of massive troop movements that the steam locomotive made possible and the greatly increased war casualties that would result, but the Discworld now is too interconnected for that kind of large scale armed conflict.

To his credit, Pratchett didn't leave the question of assimilation and identity untouched, though he presented the conservative argument about maintaining cultural identity in the face of assimilation weakly. There's a hint of privilege in Pratchett's approach, an assumption that filing away the edges of being a troll, a dwarf, or a golem to adopt the larger identity of an Ankh-Morporkian citizen is the optimal way of life. He wrote, "Trolls in Ankh-Morpork were rarely talked about these days because, amazingly, people barely thought of them as trolls anymore, just as, well, large people. Much the same, although different. And then there was the position of dwarfs, the Ankh-Morpork dwarfs. Dwarfish? Yes, but now on their own terms." Pratchett lays out a story about how a human man and a dwarf woman were going to marry each other, but they weren't concerned about the biological differences because there were plenty of orphans to adopt. It's liberal, and it's commendable in the abstract, but it seems strangely dismissive of the differences in culture that shouldn't be put aside as if they mean nothing.

But that didn't bug me as much as Moist Von Lipwig insisting that his golem horse act like flesh and blood horses in order to satisfy his own guilt about working the golem horse hard or his need to fit the golem horse into how he needs a horse to behave in order to conform to his sense of normalcy and reality.

The story in Raising Steam runs at a fast clip, and it's delightful to see so many characters make cameo appearances throughout the story. Raising Steam might have the largest scope of the Discworld books, in terms of spiritual and physical geography and the number of characters who are impacted by the development of the steam engine. More importantly, it's funny. Unfortunately, the plot seems to be at a loss to how to connect point A to point B, and the denouement seems to come at a rush in the last 30-50 pages, but I felt that it was a fine return to form after Snuff.

Movies
33. Searching for Sugar Man

VH1 usually re-airs its old Top 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders shows when it's desperate for programming, and to those shows' producers' credit, they usually try to show what happened to the artists after their singular hits. The same curiosity about lost history, mysteries, and urban legends drives Searching for Sugar Man, which was a visually interesting, if somewhat slight documentary. (That it beat 5 Broken Cameras, The Gatekeepers, How to Survive a Plague, and The Invisible War for the Academy Award for Best Documentary seems surprising, given the seriousness of the other documentaries' topics compared to the lightness of Searching for Sugar Man's thesis.) I don't think it successfully addresses the question at the center of mystery though.

The film posits that the most important question about Sixto Rodriguez is whether he actually killed himself on stage and where he is now, but it doesn't probe the question of why he stopped performing and recording far enough. We are left to infer that Rodriguez, once he was dropped from his label, gave up on the idea of becoming a professional recording artist and became a construction worker and minor Detroit social and political activist for the rest of his life. But it doesn't actually show us Rodriguez's own explanation for why he stopped performing and recording for so long; we can only infer based on what his daughter tells the documentarians. It's possible that they asked Rodriguez and found his answers boring for screen, but it's still an odd choice.

34. Brother

I was thinking about Bong Joon-ho's (Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother) upcoming film Snowpiercer, which is his first film in English and wondering whether he would have more success than Kim Jee-woo (The Quiet Family, The Foul King, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, The Weird, I Saw The Devil) had with the Arnold Schwarzenegger feature The Last Stand or Park Chan-wook (Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Thirst) had with Stoker (which I had mostly enjoyed). Then I started thinking about how John Woo was the cautionary example of an Asian director who couldn't translate to Hollywood tastes (Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II, Windtalkers, Paycheck) along with Ringo Lam (Maximum Risk, Simon Sez, Replicant) and Tsui Hark (Double Team, Knock Off). (Maybe Woo, Lam, and Hark all had trouble because they all worked with Jean Claude Van Damme, for some reason.)

All of this ties in with Brother, Takeshi Kitano's first (and likely only) film for Hollywood, which he has basically disowned due to executive meddling and his troubles with the MPAA over the film's content. Kitano has apparently sworn to never direct another film in the United States. I wish I could say that it was a shame, but I don't see why everyone has to make films in Hollywood in order to be seen as successful.

I had a whole big post about how Brother seemed like a weak echo of Kitano's other films, like Sonatine, but it turns out that Dan Edwards already catalogued almost all of my criticisms of the film in 2001, so I'll just direct you to read that.

35. Oblivion

It's all dirt. As vast as the cinematic landscape in Oblivion is, it's all dirt. A destroyed stadium where Tom Cruise delivered a cringe-worthy monologue about the final Super Bowl? Dirt. The Empire State Building? Dirt. The caves where the Scavs seek refuge? Dirt. The dirt corrupts Cruise's Jack Harper; the dirtier his uniform gets, the more he learns about the truth of the world, and the harder it is for him to stay with his communications officer Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough, in the gleaming, glass-windowed tower standing high above the dirt.

You can see the homages from a mile away. Morgan Freeman plays his best Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus. The Tet are probably a close cousin of the aliens from Independence Day. The film's first big twist comes straight from I Am Legend, the second big from Moon. The recovered wife from Solaris.

The film treats Victoria's and Jack's everyday life to be much more interesting than it actually is. We're invited to give our attention to the film during these moments with plays subtle (Vika seems a bit suspiciously robotic, and why does the Tet go offline) and not so subtle (here, have some explosions, and maybe some bare backs and nudity carefully covered by shadows and steam as if this were a comic, which isn't far from the writer/director's graphic novel that serves as the film's source material).

When the film's first big twist was revealed, it felt like a cheat, as if the evidence that the film had presented to us had the film playing unfairly.

I'd say more about Olga Kurylenko's performance except there's not much of a performance here at all. The film literally gives her nothing to do; it places a gun in her hand at one point, but her moment of glory is robbed. Her character's ultimate destiny is to be a single mother. And what does she mean when she says that Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World reminds her of home? It was as cringe-worthy as Cruise's monologue about the final Super Bowl.

The film wasn't as dull as dirt (and dirt is fairly interesting), but I wish the film gotten itself a little dirtier with its characterization.
 
S

SolKane

Member
SolKane - 43/50 books | 29/50 movies

Books
1. Hiroshima - John Hersey
2. The Good War - Studs Terkel
3. The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
4. The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
5. Night - Elie Wiesel
6. Dawn - Elie Wiesel
7. Day - Elie Wiesel
8. A Bell for Adano - John Hersey
9. Human Smoke - Nicholson Baker
10. Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo
11. War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk
12. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski
13. Leaving the Atocha Station - Ben Lerner
14. Everything Flows - Vasily Grossman
15. The Stalin Front - Gert Ledig
16. Against All Enemies - Richard Clarke
17. The Assassins' Gate - George Packer
18. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq - Thomas Ricks
19. Blind into Baghdad - James Fallows
20. Clandestine in Chile - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
21. The Pastures of Heaven - John Steinbeck
22. In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck
23. All the Shah's Men - Stephen Kinzer
24. The Short Novels of John Steinbeck - John Steinbeck
25. To a God Unknown - John Steinbeck
26. The Long Valley - John Steinbeck
27. Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck
28. Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
29. The Narrow Corner - W. Somerset Maugham
30. Cakes and Ale - W. Somerset Maugham
31. The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somserset Maugham
32. Of Human Bondage - W. Somserset Maugham
33. Liza of Lambeth - W. Somserset Maugham
34. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
35. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
36. The Magician - W. Somerset Maugham
37. Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
38. The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898 - G. J. A. O'Toole
39. Profiles in Courage - John F Kennedy
40. The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell
41. Burmese Days - George Orwell
42. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham
43. Howards End - E.M. Forster

Movies
1. Reality Bites
2. Prisoners
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
5. Blue Jasmine
6. Her
7. Vicky Christina Barcelona
8. Play It Again, Sam
9. Bananas
10. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
11. Neighbors
12. The Grand Budapest Hotel
13. 22 Jump Street
14. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
15. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
16. Sleeper
17. Love and Death
18. Annie Hall
19. Pain & Gain
20. Total Recall
21. Batman [1989]
22. Batman Returns
23. The Trip [2010]
24. Oldboy [2003]
25. Batman Forever [1995]
26. Magic in the Moonlight [2014]
27. A Most Wanted Man [2014]
28. Heathers [1988]
29. The 'Burbs [1989]
 
D

DieUnbekannte

Member
New update for this month

books
  • Sebastian Fitzek - Noah ★★★★
  • Walter Miller Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz ★★★1/2
  • Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita ★★★★1/2
movies
  • Adaptation (2002)
  • Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
  • Hunger Games - Catching Fire (2013)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro (2014)
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
lastflowers - 25/50 books | 24/50 movies

Books:
  1. F Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night ★★★★ (315) [8655]
  2. Roland Barthes - A Lover's Discourse ★★★★(235) [8890]
  3. William Faulkner - Light in August ★★★★(480) [9340]

Another productive weekend for reading.

Tender is the Night had a very slow start, but Books II and III were hauntingly beautiful. The prose felt a little stuffy and bloated at times, but reading the events unfold was worth the read.

Barthes' "A Lover's Discourse" is a series of small essays that attempt to analyze the various aspects of a person who is 'in love'. He defines a common phrase or construct that is nearly universal to the amorous subject, and provides both through examples (Goethe's Werther, Nietzsche, et al) in literature and Philosophy along with his own personal comments. It really is an interesting piece of work due to its ability to help us clarify and classify the bizarreness that is being in love.

Faulkner's novel reminds me quite a bit of 'Go Down, Moses'. The novel switches between the narrators. It goes from present to a retelling of events that weren't quite explained in the previous chapter. The various ways the novel's plot and character histories are revealed display a mastery of storytelling. This tragic novel of the legacy of Southern racism has an effect on multiple generations.
 
J

Jintor

Member
avengers23 said:
The story in Raising Steam runs at a fast clip, and it's delightful to see so many characters make cameo appearances throughout the story. Raising Steam might have the largest scope of the Discworld books, in terms of spiritual and physical geography and the number of characters who are impacted by the development of the steam engine. More importantly, it's funny. Unfortunately, the plot seems to be at a loss to how to connect point A to point B, and the denouement seems to come at a rush in the last 30-50 pages, but I felt that it was a fine return to form after Snuff.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who found Snuff bizarre and a bit of a chore. Both that and Unseen Academicals felt like they deviated in some unspoken way from the traditional Discworld flow, feeling more like increasingly bizarre fever dreams that had to be devoured in one sitting than what I was used to for Pratchett.

Can't wait to pick up Raising Steam in paperback.
 
R

roosters93

Member
I'll sneak in another update before the new month :)

roosters93 - 22/50 books | 42/50 movies​


Books

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell ★★★★
My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist - Mark Leyner ★★★
Books V Cigarettes - George Orwell ★★★
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon ★★★★


Books v Cigarettes is the shortest book I've read this year at 144 small pages.

Films

That Awkward Moment ★★★½
Rush ★★★
True Romance ★★½
Pi ★★½
SubUrbia ★★★½
Half Baked ★★★★
 
A

avengers23

Banned
Jintor said:
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who found Snuff bizarre and a bit of a chore. Both that and Unseen Academicals felt like they deviated in some unspoken way from the traditional Discworld flow, feeling more like increasingly bizarre fever dreams that had to be devoured in one sitting than what I was used to for Pratchett.

Can't wait to pick up Raising Steam in paperback.
Click to expand...

I chalk up any weirdness in Unseen Academicals to the focus on characters that are fairly unknown. Snuff seemed especially weird because it's a Sam Vines novel, even if it didn't have most of the other Watch characters.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
Jintor said:
I read a 1000 page book this week. Unfortunately it was one I'd read before. Which is to say, I've read it before 4 times in my life
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Which novel?. I'm looking forward to rereading Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, and Blood Meridian in the coming months for some research. I'm frightened to tackle Infinite Jest or Against The Day at the same time as my above rereads (which will be happening probably in parallell
 
J

Jintor

Member
lastflowers said:
Which novel?. I'm looking forward to rereading Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, and Blood Meridian in the coming months for some research. I'm frightened to tackle Infinite Jest or Against The Day at the same time as my above rereads (which will be happening probably in parallell
Click to expand...

The First Man in Rome. I've read it at 9, 13, 17, 19 and 22.

I love the Masters of Rome series so much
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
Jintor said:
The First Man in Rome. I've read it at 9, 13, 17, 19 and 22.

I love the Masters of Rome series so much
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I did a quick Wikipedia check. I'll probably get it and add it to the bucket list. Ever since listening to Hardcore History's show on Rome, I've been wanting to read some more works about the roman empire (whether fiction or nonfiction).

This book challenge was supposed to help me increase the % of books read out of my library. Instead it seems to be lowering it...
 
X

X-Frame

Member
The ASOIAF series is killing my flow, but on Book 4 now and once I finish them I want to read shorter and more uplifting books, haha.
 
G

Glaurungr

Member
Glaurungr - 61/50 Books | 77/50 Movies​

New update!

Books:


  • Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex (ill.) - Chu's Day (2013)

Films:


TheWarrior said:
Well congrats and all that, pretty insane pace you worked at.
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Tragicomedy said:
And book goes the dynamite.

27 March 2014...book it!
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TestMonkey said:
Congrats to Glaurungr who, after looking at his list, appears to have never had a childhood and chose this year to make up for it.
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Mumei said:
ahahaha

His parents clearly didn't approve of Disney.
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Cyan said:
Approved!
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Thanks! And they did (and do) approve of Disney, but I was never very interested in watching movies when I was young. I have some catching up to do there!
 
V

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
Update.



Books:

12. The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp - ★★ - Started off as an entertaining indiana jones/swords and sorcery sort of story. Falls apart in the last quarter or so because of an awful rape plot that is handled horribly.
13. Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence - ★★★ - Solid ending to the series.
14. Annihilation by Jeff VaderMeer - ★★★★ - Essentially Roadside Picnic 2, but very well done.
15. Blackdog by K.V. Johansen - ★★★
16. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson - ★★ - Average Sanderson book made way too long.
17. Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell - ★★ - Fun little Musketeer-like story, but early on it has one of the most awkward info dumps I've ever seen. Then the author tries to ground the action of a the story only to later ignore all his grounding for crazy feats.
18. The Thousand Names by Django Wexler - ★★ - Girl pretends to be boy and joins the army. Stuff happens. Stuff is entertaining for a time. Then stuff gets tedious.​


Movies:

45. Frozen - ★★★ - Nice little movie.
46. Artifact - ★★ - Jared Leto acting like a 14 year old raging against his parents. His complaints are legitimate, but he fails to articulate them.
47. Enemy at the Gates - ★★★ - Good sniper movie held down by basically everything else. Weisz doesn't even get to play a character, just the idea of strife between two bros.​
 
M

Mumei

Member
Updated!

Mumei - 56/50 Books | 21/50 Movies

Books:

  • The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
  • The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara
  • Words of Radiance, by Brian Sanderson
  • Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, by Michael Kimmel
  • Conan: The Barbarian, by Robert E. Howard
  • Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture, by Richard Pipes
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce

Comics:

  • Marvels, by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross (Illustrator)
  • Ultimate Spider-Man, by Brian Michael Bendis (#22 - 39)
  • Thor: God of Thunder (#1 - 11), by Jason Aaron, Essad Ribic
  • Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cook

Movies:

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Skyfall

Video Games:

  • Diablo III
  • Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
 
K

kswiston

Member
Mumei reads 7 books this month, including one that is 1000 pages long, and he complains about being slow :/


I'm just happy that I made the quota for the month. Movies are holding me back, since I work 12 hour days, and have a newborn to help out with on the 3-4 hours I am actually home/not asleep. It's hard to set aside 90-150 mins.

I am about a third of the way through Hyperion. Really good novel so far.

lastflowers said:
You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyZ4ia25gg&list=FL_kQZ1ySo6Iv21CcZc0PIEw&index=7

She found some things that I didn't pick up on when I first read it. Her mentioning of Paradise Lost and Moby Dick helped ratify my own reading of the novel. Both parts are worth watching if you're interested in getting another person's research on the novel.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that. Blood Meridian is an interesting book. I sort of disliked reading it for the majority of the novel, but it's been a week and a half or so since I finished it and I still find myself thinking about it. Maybe in a year or two, I will return to it again. With the shock of the horrific level of violence gone, I might be able to digest it a little more than I did the first time.
 
P

Pau

Member
I'm not the only one slacking, yay! My boyfriend came to visit this month, so I didn't spend a lot of time reading. I can catch up this summer to meet my 90 book goal.

I have started writing a little review for each book I read, and I'm gonna go back and write some on the books I've already read this year.
 
F

Forsaken82

Member
Forsaken82 – 7/50 Books | 85/50 Movies

Books:
1. Leviathan Wakes
2. Dark Places
3. Sand
4. All you need is Kill
5. Caliban's War
6. Abaddon's Gate
7. The Strain: Book 1

Movies:
1. Carrie (2013)
2. The Last Stand
3. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
4. The Place Beyond the Pines
5. Jack Reacher
6. Escape Plan
7. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
8. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
9. Ender's Game
10. The Counselor
11. Thor: The Dark World
12. 42
13. Gangster Squad
14. Prisoners
15. American Hustle
16. 12 Years a Slave
17. Snitch
18. 47 Ronin
19. Lone Survivor
20. Anchorman 2
21. The Book Thief
22. 2 Guns
23. Olympus Has Fallen
24. Pompeii
25. I Frankenstein
26. We're The Millers
27. Robocop (2013)
28. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
29. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
30. Godzilla
31. The Collector
32. The Collection
33. Her
34. Frozen
35. The Lego Movie
36. The Monuments Men
37. Raze
38. Silent House
39. House at the End of the Street
40. X-Men: Days of Future Past
41. Snowpiercer
42. Would You Rather
43. Transcendence
44. Under the Skin
45. Need For Speed
46. The Internship
47. Fright Night(2011)
48. Oculus
49. Lucy
50. Divergent
51. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
52. A Haunted House 2
53. Getaway
54. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
55. The Amazing Spiderman 2
56. Guardians of the Galaxy
57. The Raid 2
58. Brick Mansions
59. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1
60. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2
61. Starship Troopers: Invasion
62. Draft Day
63. Neighbors
64. Open Grave
65. Million ways to Die in the West
66. Edge of Tomorrow
67. Transformers: Age of Extinction
68. Gone Girl
69. 22 Jump Street
70. The Purge: Anarchy
71. Deliver Us From Evil
72. Expendables 3
73. Hercules
74. Maleficent
75. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
76. Horns
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
78. The Salvation
79. VHS: Viral
80. Predestination
81. Tusk
82. As Above, So Below
83. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
84. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
85. The Maze Runner
 
T

Tragicomedy

Member
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” - Buddha

Current pace needed for completion (as of 1 May):
  • 16/50 books | 16/50 movies

GAF totals:
  • 1,631 Books
  • 3,606 Movies

Monthly Progress:
4fFbvd9.png


Members who have completed the challenge:
  • Glaurungr - 61/50 Books | 77/50 Movies (completed 27 March)

Members currently on pace to complete the challenge:
  • 29 in total...too many to list!

Top 20 book worms:
  • Glaurungr - 61
  • Mumei - 56
  • Lumiere - 46
  • lastflowers - 26
  • kinoki - 25
  • Pau - 25
  • Reyne - 25
  • Jintor - 25
  • jarofbees - 24
  • Empty - 23
  • TestMonkey - 23
  • Tragicomedy - 23
  • campfireweekend - 22
  • rooster93 - 22
  • Saphirax - 22
  • the-iek - 22
  • X-Frame - 22
  • Teptom - 21
  • Ephidel - 20
  • EverythingShiny - 20
  • markhimself46 - 20
  • TheWarrior - 20

Top 20 film buffs:
  • Henry Swanson - 177
  • Saya - 115
  • Narag - 106
  • jarofbees - 83
  • Glaurungr - 77
  • siyrobbo - 76
  • Ephidel - 60
  • number11 - 56
  • daffy - 50
  • white dynamite - 49
  • Verdre - 47
  • Ashes1396 - 37
  • roosters93 - 42
  • markhimself46 - 41
  • SaltyDoughtnut - 41
  • Kinoki - 38
  • avengers23 - 35
  • honeymustardn - 35
  • ridley182 - 35
  • DiddyBop - 34

Most balanced with the force:

Least balanced with the force:

Check the OP if you want to see the master list of all participants.
 
K

kinoki

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.

Books​
  • Från hot till löfte (2013), Camilla Elmhorn - ★★★ - Stockholm is an interesting City and this book details the events after 1945 where the politicians basicly decided to tear down major parts of the city and rebuild an economically utopia based on ideology with correct social values. Obviously it failed in more than one regard.
  • The King in Yellow (1895), Robert W. Chambers - ★★★½ - Delving deeper into Lovecraft (with a detour into True Detective) I came upon this. First half of the stories are far more interesting and more akin to Lovecraft's writings. The second half consists mostly of artists in Paris and has no real connection to the first half.
  • S. (2013), J.J. Abrams, Doug Dorst - ★★★★ - How do you judge this? By the book itself Ship of Theseus you can notice that our authours aren't talented enough to completly sell the illusion. Our two protagonist's tale in the margins is so cliched it's painful at times. But, it's such a great piece of art. The footnotes, inserted pictures, napkins, letters and the sheer production value of the book is amazing. It's a rare treasure of a book if only for its physical aspects.
  • Att sälja en stad (2013), Karin Ågren - ★★★½ - A book about tourism in Stockholm from the 30's to now. How a boring people in a boring city tried its very best to market itself internationally to get that sweet tourist revenue (that's now a 5th of the total economy).

Movies​
  • Daybreakers (2009, dir. The Spierig Brothers) - ★★★½ - A nice and interesting twist on the Vampire-routine.
  • Texas Killing Fields (2011, dir. Ami Canaan Mann) - ★★ - A poor man's True Detective. Badly edited and barely strung together.
  • Tomb Raider (2001, dir. Simon West) - ★½ - In light of the recent reboot I couldn't resist... but maybe I should have tried harder. I don't know who this caters to as it has little to do with Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider-story. Well, it has the Scooby Doo-gang and overly elaborate platforming. The one redemption is Daniel Craig who is really fun to watch in it.
  • Thor: The Dark World (2013, dir. Alan Taylor) - ★★★★ - I liked it. I liked it a lot. A lot more than I thought I would. I like having a story in the margins where it merely serves as a backdrop for the real story that's going on between the characters.
  • Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005, dir. Jon Favreau) - ★★★½ - First non-Iron Man-movie I've seen of Favreau's and it's a charming Jumanji-space-romp that's entertaining through-out. Kristen Stewart's part feels a shoe-horned as she has basicly nothing to do in the entire movie.

Games​
  • Hitman Go [iOS] (2014, dev. Square Enix Montreal) - ★★★★½ - Saw the trailer and was sold in a second. Game is my first foray into the Hitman-franchise and it's an excellent one. Loved every moment.
  • Trials Fusion [PS4] (2014, dev. RedLynx) - ★★★★ - The last game to really play my nostalgia heart strings was Renegade Ops but now comes a second game. I love these types of games. I suspect my R2-button is getting a beating.
  • Octodad: Dadliest Catch [PS4] (2014, dev. Young Horses) - ★★★½ - Whimsical and unique. The only game I've played that has had humour as the main gameplay element.
  • Outlast [PS4] (2014, dev. Red Barrels) - ★★ - Scary and boring is what I took away from this. Oh, and stupid. The setting is great at the beginning and the opening parts are really tense but the game hits a bump early on never really recovers. Horror is back in fashion and I expect Daylight to be equally flawed but some game soon is going to come along and take all these broken ideas and put them back together again and we'll have a second coming of the genre.
 
B

Beeblebrox

Member
Oops, totally forgot to update my master list in time for new month :/

Beeblebrox - 6/50 Books | 20/50 Movies

So, anyways, saw 3 new moviews since my last update:
Captain America: The First Avenger - so-so. It was fun, and dumb. Looking forward the second one, since everyone's talking about it (I'd watch it in the cinema, but they're only showing 3D version of it, so I'll wait for some digital/disc release).
The Thing (the original one, from 198...4? Ah, 1982) - interesting one, really liked the atmosphere and Russel's amazing beard :D
X-Men: First Class - really liked this one since I'm a sucker for origin stories, and this one was fun. Can't wait for the sequel!

Also, saw couple more movies on TV, but I didn't watch them from the (very) beginning, so I won't count them. But they were fun (Groundhog Day and X-Men: The Last Stand).

And man, am I slow with books :/ I swear I'll finish that damn Metro 2033 (the book, not the game) this month, and then some.
 
T

TheWarrior

Banned
Good thing I keep track of books on goodreads, I missed a book, updated at 22 books for the year, according to goodreads this is 6 books ahead of schedule.

A cool stat they provide is pages read, I'm up to 7,683 pages for the year, which is a little more than half of what I read last year.
 
Flying Toaster

Flying Toaster

Member
I feel like a dirty, dirty junkie. I just went into a reading frenzy of Warhammer 40k novels. They are pretty much trashy romance novels for Sci-Fi geeks. Pulp would be a better term. But god damn they scratch that stupid speed reading junk itch like no other book I have touched in quite a long time.

I did promise myself to read more fulfilling books. I hope to start that soon.
 
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