I read The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems today. It's quite short in terms of actual reading content, but I decided to count it. In spite of its brevity, it is more dense (and requires a lot more thought) than much of the reading I do.
You *must* read the Penguin classics translation by Robin Buss. If you aren't, you are reading a possibly abridged and almost surely bowdlerized version of the story.
This is the most depressing part about reading non-english texts on a whim. In order to read the best versions, one must do research before making a purchase or a library rental. Quite annoying.
As a result, most of my reading this year will be of American/English authors
Pergamentet was pretty good (the Voynich manuscript has finally been deciphered, but now everyone who knows anything about it wind up dead). It's the eleventh and last book in the Fredric Drum series of crime novels, none of which have been translated into English, as far as I know.
It was great watching some Sherlock again, even if I didn't think it was the best in the series, and I really enjoyed the Toy Story films as well.
This is the most depressing part about reading non-english texts on a whim. In order to read the best versions, one must do research before making a purchase or a library rental. Quite annoying.
As a result, most of my reading this year will be of American/English authors
A few quick suggestions based on my research for some past book clubs:
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov - Pevear/Volokhnosky translation is generally cited as the best (and in general for Dostoevsky and most Russian lit they've done; it's hard to go wrong with them).
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita - Burgin/O'Connor translation.
Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo - Robin Buss translation or bust
People will quibble over which one is the "best" translation, but really you just need to know which ones are argued over as the best and pick one of those.
EDIT: Good lord I've been slacking on the books side this month! I'm going to have to play catchup for sure! Oh well. I saw the new Thor (which was really good imo!) and Her finally. Her was so good! Really wanna try to see it again.
Onionkid - 0/50 Books | 8/50 Movies
Books:
Movies:
- Her
- Thor: The Dark World
- Rush
- Escape Plan
- Riddick
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Senna
- The Wolf of Wall Street
I read the B&N edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. No idea who the translator is because it doesn't say on the book, but it wasn't abridged as far as I can tell. One day I'll read the legitimate translation.
Right now I'm reading another short story collection by Ursula K. Le Guin. I've got a few of her collections left, and then I'll move onto some nonfiction, then Mistborn finally.
I get the feeling I'm going to have a harder time watching 50 movies than reading 50 books.
50 movies should be pretty easy for me, but 50 books will be tough. I'll be counting completed manga series as one entry.
asc3nsi0n - 23/50 Books | 36/50 Movies
Books:
1. George Orwell - Animal Farm
2. George Orwell - 1984
3. Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
4. Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan
5. Kouji Mori - Holyland (Vol 1-18)
6. Ernest Cline - Ready Player One
7. Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
8. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
9. Orson Scott Card - Speaker for the Dead
10. Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen
11. Yoshihiro Togashi - Yu Yu Hakusho (Vol 1-19)
12. Hitoshi Iwaaki - Parasyte (Vol 1-8)
13. Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata - Death Note (Vol 1-12)
14/15. George R.R. Martin - A Game of Thrones
16/17. George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings
18/19. George R.R. Martin - A Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and Snow
20/21. George R.R. Martin - A Storm of Swords: Part 2 Blood and Gold
22/23. George R.R. Martin - A Feast for Crows
Movies:
1. Princess Mononoke
2. Grave of the Fireflies
3. The Secret in Their Eyes
4. La Haine
5. Warrior
6. Black Swan
7. Snatch
8. Raging Bull
9. Memories of Murder
10. Antichrist
11. A Tale of Two Sisters
12. Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 2 - The Battle for Doldrey
13. Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 3 - Descent
14. Ender's Game
15. 12 Years a Slave
16. Dallas Buyers Club
17. Gravity
18. The Wolf of Wall Street
19. Snowpiercer
20. Mother
21. The Fighter
22. Gone Baby Gone
23. Miller's Crossing
24. Edge of Tomorrow
25. Watchmen
26. Under the Skin
27. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
28. Enemy
29. The Babadook
30. Gone Girl
31. Nightcrawler
32. Birdman
33. Locke
34. The Skin I Live In
35. A Bittersweet Life
36. I Saw the Devil
I read the B&N edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. No idea who the translator is because it doesn't say on the book, but it wasn't abridged as far as I can tell. One day I'll read the legitimate translation.
I suppose so. Perhaps my perspective is skewed due to being 23. There are enough movies coming out in theaters to take about half of them, I you include the smaller, artier films
I'm going to try and major in Brandon Sanderson on the books side. Have "Steelheart", "The Way of Kings", the Mistborn books, the Legion/Emperor's Soul doubleheader and "Warbreaker" on my Kindle. I'll add the second Stormlight Archive and Reckoners Saga books when they come out. Since I saw "The Emperor's Soul" on the sample list, am I allowed to count those as two separate books?
I think I'm going to struggle really badly with the movies. I made a list of everything I could be interested in coming out this year and it's barely 20. Maybe I should re-sub to Netflix or something, but then I'll probably end up watching "Breaking Bad" and going way off track.
I've watched this challenge from afar for a while now, and I think that I'm going to go for it this year. GAF already pushed me to write a novel in a month, so how hard could *this* be?
Yeah, it was like 1600 pages. I'm jealous that my sister can read French. I got her the French editions a few years back for Christmas.
And yeah, I don't tend to watch a lot of movies. My boyfriend is kind of in charge of coming up with 50 to watch. It's just tough to be in the mood for 'em. I'd rather do other things but those aren't part of the challenge. <<
Man of Steel ★★
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) ★½
Watched Man of Steel and Much Ado About Nothing. Enjoyed Man of Steel a little bit but wasn't feeling Much Ado About Nothing--at all. Not sure why this movie exists. Going to read about why Joss made it because it was just such a weird thing. I do love Whedon and his crew, but wasn't feeling this.
Man of Steel ★★
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) ★½
Watched Man of Steel and Much Ado About Nothing. Enjoyed Man of Steel a little bit but wasn't feeling Much Ado About Nothing--at all. Not sure why this movie exists. Going to read about why Joss made it because it was just such a weird thing. I do love Whedon and his crew, but wasn't feeling this.
Yeah that's what I thought it was going to be--a modernized version of the Shakespeare play. But it wasn't like...halfway modernized. It was the exact Shakespearian dialogue directly from the text but set in a modern location. But it's never addressed why it's in a modern location. They have modern clothes and drive cars and hang out in a modern mansion with TVs and stuff. But they also have the same names from the story which make it seem so out-of-place given the present-day setting. So the whole thing just threw me off. But I guess Joss Whedon made it in while shooting The Avengers. It was filmed in 12 days at his house because it was something he always wanted to do. Which is a neat project and everything, just don't think I needed to see it ha.
Yeah that's what I thought it was going to be--a modernized version of the Shakespeare play. But it wasn't like...halfway modernized. It was the exact Shakespearian dialogue directly from the text but set in a modern location. But it's never addressed why it's in a modern location. They have modern clothes and drive cars and hang out in a modern mansion with TVs and stuff. But they also have the same names from the story which make it seem so out-of-place given the present-day setting. So the whole thing just threw me off. But I guess Joss Whedon made it in while shooting The Avengers. It was filmed in 12 days at his house because it was something he always wanted to do. Which is a neat project and everything, just don't think I needed to see it ha.
So kind of in the vein of Romeo + Juliet? I don't mind the setting being changed for Shakespeare plays while keeping the same exact text. Maybe I'd enjoy this movie.
So kind of in the vein of Romeo + Juliet? I don't mind the setting being changed for Shakespeare plays while keeping the same exact text. Maybe I'd enjoy this movie.
Yeah pretty much. You'd probably enjoy this then. I only like a handful of Shakespeare plays--this is not one of them. I mainly saw it because it was Whedon and Co. But yeah, my guess is you'd like it!
Man of Steel ★★
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) ★½
Watched Man of Steel and Much Ado About Nothing. Enjoyed Man of Steel a little bit but wasn't feeling Much Ado About Nothing--at all. Not sure why this movie exists. Going to read about why Joss made it because it was just such a weird thing. I do love Whedon and his crew, but wasn't feeling this.
I'm an English major as well and upon reading your comment decided to look the movie up on IMDB. Having never previously heard about the movie nor read Shakespeare I think I'll put it on my watch list. Will watch it after I've read some of Shakespeare's works.
Somehow I only made it to around 36 movies I think in last year's challenge. This year I WILL fucking do it.
I think that still, sadly, was an improvement on 2012 too.
Yeah pretty much. You'd probably enjoy this then. I only like a handful of Shakespeare plays--this is not one of them. I mainly saw it because it was Whedon and Co. But yeah, my guess is you'd like it!
Haha, ironically, I don't like Joss Whedon much. Nor this particular play, really. But I also wasn't very fond of Romeo and Juliet when I read it, but really love Baz Luhrmann's take.
I don't know how long this will last, but I'm going to try and do keep track of my thoughts this time, at least for the books. I'm pretty sure I've managed to eschew any major spoilers, but I'll cover anything vaguely risky in black boxes anyway.
Book 1 - Pleasure Unbound (Demonica 01) by Larissa Ione (04 Jan).
Well. That was... definitely smut.
I probably should have guessed that from the blurb (and the title). but I'm honestly struggling to think of any other paranormal romances I've read where the sex was quite so frequent and explicit. I suppose it was quite well written as magic semen demon incubus sex with magic aphrodisiac sperm goes, a little repetitive but it did at least try to vary things up.
Once we're past that, the universe of the book was interesting, and I'd actually be far more interested in seeing a story set in the same universe that shifted the porn/plot slider a little closer to the plot end - the hospital was an interesting setting
that wasn't really utilised all that well, though I liked what we did see.
I'm a sucker for books where we have the world we don't know edging up alongside the one we do, so I was predisposed towards liking it, and while I could have done without the 'Things Aren't Black and White!' preaching it was actually quite good. The gates were an interesting mechanism and the variety of demons was intriguing,
though again, they felt a bit under-utilised
. I would like to have seen more of them (and possibly some smutty scenes that included some them
rather than just hinting about it
, though with the focus on the main characters I can see that it wouldn't have fit here. Maybe in another book? *cough*).
I quite liked the brothers, Eidolon and Shade most of all. Wraith was a bit of a jackass but
it seems like he has his reasons. Though whether that excuses any of his behaviour is... debatable at best. Either way,
I wouldn't be opposed to learning more. The relationship drama
was thankfully free of much of the 'No! Not you! I can't!' angsting I dreaded could be there (though there was some, of course). It seemed like they came to terms with their feelings pretty fast, which was refreshing, although it left some parts feeling a bit ... off
. The
additional s'genesis "time limit"
plot motivation mostly worked, and I liked that each brother had their own issues that were being worked through in the plot (though references to Shade's
curse
felt heavy handed. And repetitive.).
Tayla spent entirely too much time being annoying. I can appreciate her as a character, and I liked her later on
particularly once she had her 'Do you really believe that?' 'I have to' moment, which I'm paraphrasing
. Still, something about her narration was just irritating and distracting to me for most of the book :|
Side-character wise
I was surprised I liked Nancy, and while Gem took some getting used to she grew on me.
And a stupid criticism though it is, it would have been so much better without the weak pop culture references. I get it, it's set in a world just like ours but different, but Hellboy is a dumb nickname and calling a demon slayer 'a buffy' isn't cute :|
I will probably read the next one at some point, but unless I really have a hankering for smut I'll probably try and get it cheap.
And next time I might avoid reading it during my break at work, because people insist on talking to me about books I'm reading at work, and that conversation wasn't at all awkward.
I'm an English major as well and upon reading your comment decided to look the movie up on IMDB. Having never previously heard about the movie nor read Shakespeare I think I'll put it on my watch list. Will watch it after I've read some of Shakespeare's works.
Haha, ironically, I don't like Joss Whedon much. Nor this particular play, really. But I also wasn't very fond of Romeo and Juliet when I read it, but really love Baz Luhrmann's take.
I didn't like Baz's take on The Great Gatsby. Just saw that recently and wasn't a fan. But it's one of my favorite books so I may have been too harsh towards it. Some of the shots in Whedon's Much Ado are fantastic. As is the music. So at the very least, there's that ha.
My neighbor wanted to see Lone Survivor tonight, and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to watch my second film.
I don't have much to say about this one. I was lukewarm towards it. The cinematography was great during certain scenes. The characters weren't developed that well, to the point where I did not feel much impact when (spoiler if you know nothing about this film)
I plan to do the same thing for both manga and comic series. Completing a series will take as long as a typical 300 page novel (or longer if the series is extremely long).
With all the Oscar stuff and general buzz around this movie, it would have been easy for me to be disappointed, and for the most part I wasn't. Jennifer Lawrence's performance didn't blow me away or anything (I actually thought Bradley Cooper was more of a revelation), but it was pretty damn good, and the performances in general kept the movie from indulging in the more treacly aspects of its narrative. Everything wrapped up a little too neatly in the end, and the story beats got pretty on-the-nose, but generally I think the movie earned the "big moments." And even though it's not one of his greatest roles or anything, it's nice to see Robert De Niro act again. I haven't seen any of David O. Russell's films other than this and The Fighter, so I think I might dig into his filmography over the year. Glad I watched this, finally.
I also finished reading Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson. It's a travelogue for Great Britain, full of funny observations and musings by Bryson. He comes off as kind of a dick, though, and after a while his descriptions of the cities he visits get a little perfunctory. I still enjoyed reading it, though - it gave me a pretty good sense of the place, which will be helpful for when I travel to England next month. ★★★★
With all the Oscar stuff and general buzz around this movie, it would have been easy for me to be disappointed, and for the most part I wasn't. Jennifer Lawrence's performance didn't blow me away or anything (I actually thought Bradley Cooper was more of a revelation), but it was pretty damn good, and the performances in general kept the movie from indulging in the more treacly aspects of its narrative. Everything wrapped up a little too neatly in the end, and the story beats got pretty on-the-nose, but generally I think the movie earned the "big moments." And even though it's not one of his greatest roles or anything, it's nice to see Robert De Niro act again. I haven't seen any of David O. Russell's films other than this and The Fighter, so I think I might dig into his filmography over the year. Glad I watched this, finally.
Silver Lining Playbook would have been my favorite film of 2012, and hit my top 10 list if the ending didn't feel off. I loved the first 2/3rd, but the final 1/3rd slipped a little bit.
The finale felt too clean and a little too happy for the bleakness that existed during the first two-thirds.
The B&N is fine if you want to have something pretty on your shelf that isn't something you intend to read, but the Buss translation is what you want to actually read.
The Wolf on Wall Street (2013) ★★★★
I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching this film. It has a pretty good rise and fall kind of story, and I think that Leo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill did an outstanding job at portraying these conscienceless stock brokers. I thought the parts where Leo broke the fourth wall were pretty cheesy, but other than that I had no issues. I would definitely recommend it (as long as you don't get stuck with first row seats like I did). Wouldn't mind seeing it again when it comes out on DVD.
I read The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems today. It's quite short in terms of actual reading content, but I decided to count it. In spite of its brevity, it is more dense (and requires a lot more thought) than much of the reading I do.
You *must* read the Penguin classics translation by Robin Buss. If you aren't, you are reading a possibly abridged and almost surely bowdlerized version of the story.
Thanks for the suggestion! I've made sure to look into good translations prior to starting after getting burned on The Brothers Karamazov. I realized like 400 pages into it that I had picked up a shitty translation. It caused me to drop the book for a good while before restarting it.
The preview before The Desolation of Samug made it look like a typical F-Rate Wahlberg Action movie trying to be "deep" about war. Feels like he gave up on the whole "take me seriously" thing after Christian Bale stole the show in The Fighter
Went and saw the new Paranormal Activity. A friend of mine had already seen it and hyped it up quite a bit. While I still enjoyed it (Three stars) it wasn't quite what I wanted out of the movie overall. Add in that my girlfriend suddenly got motion sickness for the first time ever while watching it and the experience was a bit lacking.
Clear and Present Danger is a movie I've seen before, but not in its entirety in probably eight or nine years. Since I hardly remember what happens outside of the major plot (Jack Ryan vs Drug Cartels) I figured I'd count it. I also watched Man of Steel but since I saw that in theaters only a few months ago I don't want to count that on my list.
I'm also about halfway through my first book, Command Authority by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney. Really enjoyable read so far. Since it's quite large (739 pages) I figure I can take my time a bit with it. The next few books I have lined up are only 200-300 pages each so I can afford to do that.
I watched You Got Served tonight. Someone did in fact get served, and there was dancing after the movie. As far as cheesy dance movies go, I think I had more fun with Step Up 2.
I watched You Got Served tonight. Someone did in fact get served, and there was dancing after the movie. As far as cheesy dance movies go, I think I had more fun with Step Up 2.
S. Collins - The Hunger Games (2008) ★★★½
S. Collins - Catching Fire (2009) ★★★
S. Collins - Mockingjay (2010) ★★★★
I may try to go for the major in Isaac Asimov. I've only read "Foundation" and few other short stories, but I love science fiction, and for whatever reason haven't had the time to sit and read his work. Will probably finish "The End of Eternity" (which i'm halfway through now), and start reading his complete foundation collection (15 books counting the robot stories, the original trilogy, and the sequels/prequels). Not sure if I will manage to read the whole thing, but 6 books seems achievable.
Movies:
M. Scorsese - Wolf of Wall Street (2013) ★★★
W. Allen - Deconstructing Harry (1997) ★★★★½
Books:
Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay ★★½
finished the hunger games trilogy. Whelp. This last book was a wee bit disappointing. The ending just felt flat, kind of the like whole series. I probably would have liked it more eight years or so ago. I still like the world she created and the general ambience therein. The heroine just never did it for me. She always seemed like a blabbering dolt.
Also one-fifth through V. by Pynchon. Liking it thus far.
The B&N is fine if you want to have something pretty on your shelf that isn't something you intend to read, but the Buss translation is what you want to actually read.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson (2007)
Movies
Starlet (2012)
Jules and Jim (1962)
The World Before Her (2012)
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011)
V/H/S (2012)
V/H/S/2 (2013)
I finally finished reading Mistakes Were Made after starting on it last year. I did like it alot. It's an interesting insight into how you can get caught in a self justification loop and how it can eat away at relationships and such. There's a good bit of American history in the book and it observes how older presidents and incidents in American history have been justified throughout the years. More generally though, it examines long term relationships we have with significant people in our lives and how we can strengthen those relations by simply admitting we were wrong. This book really teaches you that you can be majorly wrong and still be a good person. As long as you aren't afraid of acknowledging your wrongdoings.
I started off my movie watchlist with Starlet. This movie was so freaking good in my opinion! Jane is such a fantastic main character and the movie is paced so well. It kind of slowly reveals to you things at a nice pace. Just a really unsuspecting movie. You go in just thinking oh ok an unlikely bond between a guilty 20 something and some lonely old lady but what you get is so much more. I strongly recommend watching this one on Netflix if you get the chance. I don't want to spoil it.
I watched Jules et Jim after being hassled about it because apparently I can't be french and like movies without having seen every old french movie. Truth be told I have seen the first few minutes before but anyway. The love triangle in this movie is really well done. I like it alot more than The 400 Blows which is the only other Truffaut movie I've seen. I just really enjoyed Jules' character and found the ending to be really bittersweet. I plan on seeing Shoot the Piano Player next.
Saw The World Before Her which I'd heard so many good things about and they were all true. It's a movie about India's society of maltreatment towards young women, and presents these two initially very different worlds (beauty pagentry v. Hindu nationalism) and how both cultures compare and contrast. And caught up in the middle of it all is young Prachi, fully aware of the double edged sword that is her future. It also gets very dark about midway through (talks about female infanticide). Highly recommended.
I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: The Star of Milos movie blah blah. Kind of predictable but I love fullmetal alchemist, one of the best animes ever. The animation was phenomenal during some of the confrontations, particularly when
Julia and false Ashley confront above Table City
. It was like one really long episode.
Last but not least I watched the V/H/S 1&2 horror anthology. It seems most people liked VHS2 more than VHS1 but I thought VHS2 despite higher production values, was just laughably bad at most parts and lacked alot of heart. I really enjoyed the last tape on VHS2 (Slumber Party Alien Invasion). It was phenomenally well done and well written. I found the Safe Haven tape to be too ridiculous even though I liked the message. VHS1 is alot more vulgar but has more going on emotionally, especially the first tape where
"I really like you" is spouted from the demon girl for maximum feels
. I also liked the tape of the four people going out in the woods where they
interspersed glitches of dead campers in the footage, really quite gruesome depictions
. The lows were lower but the highs were higher in my opinion.
And that's what I watched and read in this little half week or whatever of January! I'll include a link to my master list at some point!
I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: The Star of Milos movie blah blah. Kind of predictable but I love fullmetal alchemist, one of the best animes ever. The animation was phenomenal during some of the confrontations, particularly when
I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed Star of Milos, particularly since my feelings of the last FMA film involved me vomiting into a paper bag. The film did feel like an extended episode, but I didn't have a problem with that due to being a side story in the FMA mythos. Actually I quite enjoy seeing another country's problems that wasn't exclusively on Amestris or Ishval.
Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder - Amy Raphael ★★★★
Movies:
Monsters University (2013) ★★★★
The Help (2011) ★★★
28 Days Later (2002) ★★★★
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) ★★★
World War Z (2013) ★★
Tangled (2010) ★★
Good Will Hunting (1997) ★★★★★
Monsters (2010) ★★★
Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) ★★★★
Off to a decent start with movies but will inevitable struggle with books that aren't related to University.
Also, a special mention to Secret Life of Walter Mitty: what a visually stunning film. Really, it's gorgeous and even genuinely touching in places to boot.
2.) Phoenix by Steven Brust
Though it was better than Teckla, I still didn't like this one as much as the other books in the series. Vlad's marriage problems aren't really interesting in my opinion especially since I didn't like Cawti's character to begin with. Other than that the ending really got my hooked as to what is coming next, though I wouldn't be surprised if the next book ends up to be another prequel.
And I think Kragar might be one of my favorite side characters ever.
3.) The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding
The Ketty Jay Books are great fun to read. Nothing more and nothing less. Sure, most of the characters are walking stereotypes but somehow that doesn't matter because I don't read those books to be blown away by deep character development. Though to be fair like in the second book there was some character development in this one as well.
