8.-The Game -Neal Strauss 1/2 ★★★★
Very well written account of a writers progress through the PUA community. It reads as a lesson of what do to for self improvement and what not to do
9.-The Game -Neal Strauss 2/2 ★★★★
10.-The Rational Male - Rollo Tomassi ★★★★
Book on psychology of sex and becoming a better version of yourself.
11,-Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill ★★★
Good book but it all boils down to discipline, drive, repetition and plain old hardwork. It does give some great rules on how to achieve financial success but the underlying theme is application.
I counted Leaves of Green a few years back. But that was 100+ pages and pretty heavy reading. Last year I just listed the few I read in a not-counting list. So, to each his own, really. If it helps you read something you otherwise wouldn't then it's a plus even if it's at odds with the spirit of the challenge.
1. It's Even Worse Than It Was - Thomas E. Mann, Norman J. Ornstein
2. 1493 - Charles C . Mann
3. Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber
4. The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy - David Graeber
5. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Cathy O'Neil
6. Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (Audio) - Charles P. Pierce
7. The Trial - Franz Kafka
8. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide - Carol Anderson Phd
9. Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
10. Politics in the Age of Austerity - Wolfgang Streeck, Armin Schäfer
11. The Origins of Totalitarianism (Audio) - Hannah Arendt
12. River of Dark Dreams - Walter Johnson
13. The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosiński
Movies:
1. Hugo
2. The Hunt for The Red October
3. Patriot Games
4. Clear and Present Danger
5. Nightcrawler
6. Raging Bull
7. Perfect Blue
8. The Usual Suspects
9. Quiz Show
10. The Rock
11. Burn After Reading
12. Barton Fink
13. John Wick 2
14. Arrival
15. We Bare Bears Season 1
I've watched more seasons of TV than anything else this year so far. I have like 7 books I'm in the middle of, but I seem to take forever to actually finish them. I think I started reading Guns, Germs and Steel in like 2014 and I'm still only like 70% done with it lol
1/2. The Dragon Reborn - Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #3) (Counted as 2 books)
3/4. The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #4) (Counted as 2 books)
Movies:
1. The Departed (2006)
2. Collateral (2004)
3. Locke (2013)
4. The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
6. Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)
7. Horns (2013)
8. RED 2 (2013)
X. John Wick (2014) - Rewatch; Uncounted
9. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
10. Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016)
I counted Leaves of Green a few years back. But that was 100+ pages and pretty heavy reading. Last year I just listed the few I read in a not-counting list. So, to each his own, really. If it helps you read something you otherwise wouldn't then it's a plus even if it's at odds with the spirit of the challenge.
Books:
1. Existence by David Brin
2. Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott
3. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
4. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
5. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. Caliban's War by James S.A Corey
7. Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candace Millard
8. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
9. Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey
10. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg's
11. Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg
Movies:
1. Moana
2. Gone Girl
3. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
4. Good Will Hunting
5. Finding Dory
6. Nightcrawler
7. The Jungle Book (2016)
8. Silver Streak
9. This Means War
10. X Men: Days of Future Past
11. Glengarry Glen Ross
12. John Wick: Chapter 2
Minishdriveby - 2/24 Books | 20/100 Movies | 4/12 TV Seasons
Books
2. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
Movies
11. Breathless (1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
12. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) directed by Jacques Demy
13. Belle de Jour (1967) directed by Luis Buñuel
14. The Handmaiden (2016) directed by Park Chan-wook
15. Castle in the Sky (1986) directed by Hayao Miyazaki
16. Finding Dory (2016) directed by Andrew Stanton and AngusMacLane
17. The Great Dictator (1940) directed by Charlie Chaplin
18. Gantz: O (2016) directed by Yasushi Kawamura
19. The Seventh Seal (1957) directed by Ingmar Bergman
20. Mecanix (2003) directed by Rémy M. Larochelle
Movies
1. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
2. Black Rain
3. Lethal Weapon 2
---
4. Ferriss Beuller's Day Off
5. Night At The Museum
6. Back To The Future
7. Rambo: First Blood
8. 21 Jump Street
9. Dragon
10. John Wick
Books
1. Awaken The Giant Within
2. Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
3. The Lean Startup
---
4. Models
5. Restaurant At The End Of The Galaxy
already fallen behind on books. slightly ahead on movies. albeit trash-tier movies.
Still no books, I really do need to fix that.
Watched a lot of TV series though, our Sky Box is having problems and if they need to replace it we'll lose everything we've recorded, so we're trying desperately to get through most of it first.
Movies
16. The Convenient Groom (2016) ★★★ (04 Feb)
17. Her Evil Twin (2014) ★★★½ (08 Feb)
18. The Vanished Family (Aurora Teagarden Mystery 4)(2016) ★★½ (09 Feb)
19. Web of Deceit (1994) ★★★½ (12 Feb)
20. Managing Manhattan (2016) ★★½ (12 Feb)
21. Run For Your Life (2014) ★★½ (18 Feb)
22. Who Gets The Dog? (2016) ★★ (23 Feb)
23. Wedding Bells (2016) ★★★ (26 Feb)
24. Undercover Angel (2016) ★★★ (26 Feb)
25. Left Behind (2014) ★★★½ (26 Feb)
Not much to say about any of these really.
TV Series
5. Person of Interest Season 3 ★★★★★ (25/01/17 - 03/02/17)
6. Person of Interest Season 4 ★★★★ (24/02/16, 05/02/17 - 09/02/17)
7. Agent Carter Season 2 ★★★ (28/01/17 - 13/02/17)
8. Dark Matter Season 2 ★★★ (04/07/16 - 14/02/17)
9. Killjoys Season 1 ★★★½ (14/02/17 - 15/02/17)
10. Killjoys Season 2 ★★★½ (15/02/17 - 16/02/17)
11. Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 ★★★ (16/02/17 - 17/02/17)
12. The X-Files Season 10 ★★ (25/01/17 - 19/02/17)
13. Colony Season 1 ★★★★ (19/02/17 - 20/02/17)
14. The Tunnel ★★★★ (23/02/17 - 28/02/17)
Person of Interest was great, and even better I managed to get through S3 and S4 in time for S5 premiering here (it started last week). Agent Carter was okay, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first series. The stuff with Jenkins and his wife was very well done, but I wasn't overly fond of (ending spoilers)
Carter and Souza ending up together
. Jack continued to be an arse, which was fun, but I thought (ending spoilers)
killing/leaving him for dead as the last shot of a cancelled series is a bit meanspirited, even if it might not have been cancelled at the time
. Dark Matter is a weird one. I enjoy the cast (especially the Android), but plotwise it still feels like it has no idea what it's doing. Killjoys was pretty good, but I was pissed off when I realised the version I'd been recording was censored and rather obviously cut a whole bunch of stuff out. Searching around it seems they aired an uncensored version later at night, but that's no good to me now as I recorded the earlier airing, which they never actually said they were editing. I enjoy the actual show though. The characters are fun to watch, it can be quite funny, and I liked how season 2 gave more time to some of the supporting cast.
I can't in good conscience say that Legends of Tomorrow was all that good, but I can say it was very enjoyable and I will definitely be watching the second series at some point. The cast was weird though - Snart/Rory/Lance really stole the show and the Firestorm duo were pretty good, but the Hawks were dull and Atom was about as interesting as drying paint. X-Files was boring and all over the place tonally. The episode with the were-human was sort of amusing though. Colony was great, though not what I was expecting when I started it (I mean, it's a show about (mild spoilers)
an invasion that never shows any invaders
). The world building is strong and the designers did a great job with the authority logos and the resistance posters. I liked all the internal politics and seeing the different factions operating within the bloc. The Geronimo reveals felt plausible, and the religion stuff was interesting too. I liked Will, and Snyder really grew on me through the series too. Shame the main family suffer from a rather serious case of inability-to-talk-to-each-other. The Tunnel was really good, a well crafted story and Dillane and Poesy did a fantastic job. Karl's family stuff was very well done, as was Elise's unusal way of looking at things, and the two characters (and actors) bounced off each other brilliantly. I also liked how (I can't find the right word, so excuse my use of this one) unglamorous everything was. Everything looked very realistic, which kept it all down to earth despite the wider reach of the story. I probably would have ranked it higher if I hadn't watched The Bridge S3 last year.
Books:
5 - Call Me by Your Name (2007), André Aciman ★★★★
6 - The Secret History of Twin Peaks (2016), Mark Frost ★★★
7 - Jagannath (2011), Karin Tidbeck ★★★½
8 - 1889 (2013), Laurentino Gomes ★★★★
Movies:
5 - Imperial Dreams (2014), Malik Vitthal ★★★
6 - Arrival (2016), Denis Villeneuve ★★★½
7 - Blair Witch (2016), Adam Wingard ★½
8 - Your Name (2016), Makoto Shinkai ★★★
9 - Moonlight (2016), Barry Jenkins ★★★★
Books:
1. Hickory Dickory Dock (Agatha Christie) ★★★✫
2. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Yuval Noah Harari) ★★★★★
3. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (Agatha Christie) ★★
Homo Deus is an amazing book. Lots of interesting ideas packed together, explored in just enough detail, leaving just enough questions. The two Agatha Christie books were nice reading alongside it.
Movies:
1. Amour ★★★★
2. Hush ★★★✫
3. Crimson Peak ★★★
4. The Fundamentals of Caring ★★★✫
Props to Hush for being a real surprise. Wasn't expecting much out of it but came away having really enjoyed myself. The Fundamentals of Caring has such an odd cast but makes it work surprisingly well - the story is heartwarming. Amour is heartbreaking.
Books:
1/2: Dead Beat - Jim Butcher (over 500 pages)
3: Now I Know - Dan Lewis
4/5: Swan Song - Robert McCammon (>500 pgs)
6: The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
7/8: Boys Life by Robert McCammon (>500)
9: Astronomy 101 by Carolyn Collins Peterson
10: The Art of Manliness by Brett McKay
11: The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
Movies:
1: Shenandoah (2012)
2: Oldboy (2003)
3: Philomena (2013)
4: Tabloid (2010)
5: Hidden Figures (2016)
6: Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010)
7: Team Foxcatcher (2016)
8: Amanda Knox (2016)
9: Ip Man (2008)
10: Captain America: Civil War (2016)
11: The Fear of 13 (2015)
12: Furious 7 (2015)
13: Arrival (2016)
14: Keanu (2016)
15: Beware the Slenderman (2016)
16. Everest (2015)
17: The Visit (2015)
18: Joy (2015)
19: Deadpool (2016)
20: Spider-Man (2002)
21: Jurassic World (2016)
22: Children of Men (2006)
23: Crimson Peak (2015)
24: Black Mass (2016)
25: LEGO Batman Movie (2017)
26: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
4. In the Mood for Love
5. At Caffe 6
6. Nice Guys
7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
8. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
9. John Wick
10. Gangs of New York
11. Nocturnal Animals
12. The Man from Nowhere
13. The Good, The Bad, The Weird
14. A Bittersweet Life
15. A Dirty Carnival
16. Moana
17. City of Violence
18. John Wick 2
19. All About My Wife
20. New World
21. A Company Man
22. No Tears for the Dead
Shamefuly no books in February for me... must work on that. But I was sick and watched a lot of Korean gangster movies which was really great experience.
The Vision vol. 1 - Tom King ★★★★
Movies:
Godzilla (1956) ★★★½
Zootopia (2016) ★★★★
Ya Feb was a real slow month for me. Reading a few books at the same time though so hopefully March will be better numbers wise. Going to have to work in some graphic novels to have any chance at cracking fifty. The Vision vol. 1 was so good, can't wait to see how it turns out; rec to anyone looking for more adult comics.
Movies:
1. Tomorrowland
2. The Glimmer Man
3. Highlander: The Movie
4. Krampus
5. How High
6. Dead Presidents
7. Finding Dory
8. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
9. The Conjuring 2
10. Get Out
11. Sausage Party
12. The Impossible
Get Out was fantastic. Must watch.
How High was surprisingly funny.
Finding Dory was disappointing.
The Glimmer Man was a masterpiece.
Also, I really fell off the wagon when it came to books.
Movies
1.Telefon
2.Dirty Harry
3.The killers
4.Godzilla Resurgence
5.John Wick
6.Sausage party
7.Inside Out
8.13 hours
9.Coogans Bluff
10.Cell
11.The Accountant
12.Christine
13.Hell or High Water
14.The Neon Demon
15.Split
16.Doom
17.Money Monster
18. Project Almanac
19. Train to Busan
20. I am not a serial killer
21. I don't feel at home in this world anymore
Books
1. Queer
2.No Country for Old Men
3. The Sunset Limited
4. Piercing
My pace will drastically rise once I graduate in April. So far so good!
1. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851), Herman Melville - ★★★
2. La tierra que pisamos (2016), Jesús Carrasco - ★★★★
3. Butcher's Crossing (1960), John Williams - ★★★★★
4. Dešťová hůl (2016), Jiří Hájíček - ★★★★
Movies:
1. Lake Tahoe (2008), dir. Fernando Eimbcke - ★★★★
2. Bacalaureat (2016), dir. Cristian Mungiu - ★★★★
3. Julieta (2016), dir. Pedro Almodóvar - ★★★★
4. The Sea of Trees (2015), dir. Gus Van Sant - ★★
5. American Honey (2016), dir. Andrea Arnold - ★★★★
6. Loving (2016), dir. Jeff Nichols - ★★★
7. The Edge of Seventeen (2016), dir. Kelly Fremon - ★★★★
8. Jackie (2016), dir. Pablo Larraín - ★★★★
9. Manchester by the Sea (2016), dir. Kenneth Lonergan - ★★★★
10. T2 Trainspotting (2017), dir. Danny Boyle - ★★★★
Books:
02. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (2014) - Feb. 5
03. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1960) - Feb. 13
04. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1932) - Feb. 20
05. The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien (1954) - Feb. 23
06. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (2005) - Feb.26
Movies:
12. Amadeus (1984) - Feb. 11
13. The Lego Batman Movie (2017) - Feb. 11
14. Jackie Brown (1997) - Feb. 19
15. No Country For Old Men (2007) - Feb. 20
3. Racing Trough the Dark: Crash. Burn. Coming Clean. Coming Back - David Millar ★★★
4. Mijn verhaal: de autobiografie - Johan Cruijf ★★★★
Movies: 8 (Total of 18)
11. Sicario (2015) - ★★★★★
12. Sully (2016) - ★★★½
13. Gangs of New York (2002) - ★★★½
14. T2 Trainspotting (2017) - ★★★½
15. Masterminds (2016) - ★
16. Hell or High Water (2016) - ★★★★
17. Burn After Reading (2008) - ★★★½
18. The Founder (2016) - ★★★★
Also added some series this month. It's not official i know but it keeps the list:
Series seasons: 3
1. Atlanta S1 - ★★★★
2. Taboo S1 - ★★★★
3. The Wire S1 - ★★★★★
Books
7. Disrupted: My Misadventures in the Start-Up Bubble
8. Confederates
9. The Moving Target
Movies
6. Highlander II: The Quickening
7. The Nice Guys
8. Airborne
9. The Witch
10. The Lego Batman Movie
11. Jason Bourne
12. Central Intelligence
13. Arrival
5. Thinking Fast and Slow (2011), Daniel Kahneman - ★★
6. American Gods (2001), Neil Gaiman - ★★★★★
7. A Man Called Ove (2012), Fredrik Backman - ★★★
Movies:
6. The Neon Demon (2016) - ★★★
7. John Wick Chapter 2 (2017) - ★★★
Slow month for me. Got bogged down in Kahneman's book for far too long and it ate into my reading time. Loved American Gods though, particularly Gaiman's writing style. Will be reading a lot more of him this year.
A Wrinkle in Time (1962) - Madeleine L'Engle - ★★★★ - Started on Jan 30th - Finished on Feb 1st
The Big Four (1927) - Agatha Christie - ★★ - Started on Feb 1st - Finished on Feb 2nd
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made (2013) - Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell - ★★★★ - Started on Feb 3rd - Finished on Feb 5th
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - Agatha Christie - ★★★ - Started on Feb 4th - Finished on Feb 8th
Movies:
12 Angry Men (1957) - Sidney Lumet - ★★★★★ - Feb 2nd
In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Norman Jewison - ★★★★ - Feb 2
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Ang Lee - ★★★ - Feb 18
Split ★★★
Kubo and the Two Strings ★★★½
Your Name ★★★★½
Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them ★★
The Cat Returns ★★★½
Underworld Blood Wars ★★½
Shin Godzilla ★★★
The Handmaiden ★★★★
Assassin's Creed ★★★
Books:
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch ★★★☆☆
17. Edge of Tomorrow (2014, dir. Doug Liman)
18. La Chienne (1931, dir. Jean Renoir)
19. Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese)
20. Shotgun Stories (2007, dir. Jeff Nichols)
21. Woman in the Dunes (1964, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
22. Blind Chance (1981, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski)
23. Caged (1950, dir. John Cromwell)
24. Rushmore (1998, dir. Wes Anderson)
25. Phoenix (2014, dir. Christian Petzold)
26. Bitter Rice (1949, dir. Giuseppe De Santis)
27. Videodrome (1983, dir. David Cronenberg)
28. A Canterbury Tale (1944, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
29. A Fistful of Dollars (1964, dir. Sergio Leone)
30. Chungking Express (1994, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
31. Cleopatra (1934, dir. Cecil B. DeMille)
32. The Terminator (1984, dir. James Cameron)
Top 5 films, in descending order: Woman in the Dunes, Taxi Driver, Chungking Express, La Chienne, Blind Chance
Movies:
8. Arrival ★★★★★
9. Leap Year ★★
10. The Legend of Tarzan ★★
11. Trolls ★★★
12. Manchester By the Sea ★
13. Hacksaw Ridge ★★★★★
14. Moonlight ★★★
Books:
3. The Girl With All the Gifts ★★★★
4. The New Jim Crow ★★★★★
Second month, coming and went. Yikes. Seems so long ago since it was 2016. Bookwise I'm going strong but I feel so uninspired by the movies I've seen. In 2013 the very first movie I watched was a 5-star (Moonrise Kingdom), in 2014 it took four movies for a perfect movie (Beasts of the Southern Wilds), and 2016 there was only six (Wild Tales) -- guess I'm back to the slump that was 2015 where it took 48 movies to find a really great movie (Her).
Books
Barn av sin stad (1962), Per Anders Fogelström - ★★★★ - Suffers from the usual sequelitis where there are too many loose threads from the first book that you have to tie up. A little trouble getting there but it ends up being one fine piece of literature.
Tarantula (1971), Bob Dylan - ★★½ - Stream of consciencesness à la Dylan. Take it for what it is. If you don't have an interest in Dylan you won't have an interest in this.
Minns du den staden (1964), Per Anders Fogelström - ★★★★ - Third part of the City-novels and it continues on with its high quality brand.
The Hound of Baskerville (1902), Arthur Conan Doyle - ★★★½ - You know you've created a good characters when the quality of the book is automaticly elevated by their presence.
Min kamp 4 (2009), Karl Ove Knausgård - ★★★ - A book about how a 19 year old norweigen guy tries to get laid. If it weren't for the superb quality of the writing this could easily been so bad.
Movies
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), dir. Zach Snyder - ★★½ - While not as bad as people make it out to be doesn't make it good.
Dear White People (2014), dir. Justin Simien - ★★★★ - Inspired, fun, creative and I think that it's my favorite movie of the year, so far.
Divines (2016), dir. Houda Benyamina - ★★★ - The typical fare. Interesting from a social perspective but uninteresting in every other regard.
Leviathan (2014), dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev - ★★★½ - Excellent shot, wonderfully acted and oh so boring.
Shaun of the Dead (2004), dir. Edgar Wright - ★★★½ - I'll give Wright that he's probably the master of storytelling throught editing but I can't shake the feeling that it comes off as forced.
American Graffiti (1973), dir. George Lucas - ★★★★ - Look, George can make good movies. This and Star Wars (ep4) are classics in their own right. What happened George?
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), dir. James Bobin - ★½ - Worst movie of the year so far. Apart from some creative designs it really is an all out failure of a movie. Bad acting, bad story, no conflict, no respect for the source material, etc, etc.
4 .The Fellowship of the Ring ( J.R.R Tolkien) - 5/2
5. The Two Towers (J.R.R Tolkien) - 13/2
6. Return of the King (J.R.R Tolkien) - 18/2
7. Britain's Lost Cricket Grounds (Chris Arnot) - 21/2
8. Britain's Lost Cricket Festivals ( Chris Arnot) - 26/2
Movies
3. Everest - 3/2
4. The Bling Ring - 10/2
5. The Incredible Hulk - 11/2
6. Black Gold - 12/2
7. La La Land - 14/2
8. Blue is the Warmest Colour - 16/2
9. Milk - 17/2
10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 19/2
11. The Call - 25/2
12. Speed Racer - 26/2
I'm one of those people who vastly prefer the LOTR films to the books. The books were a real slog. Lots of films and all of them were pretty good too, well apart from the last third of The Call which was completely dumb.
1. Catch a Fire The life of Bob Marley - Timothy White
2. Hendrix Setting The Record Straight - John McDermott
3 Chasin' That Devil Music Searching for the Blues - Gayle Dean Wardlow
4. Milestones The Music and Times of Miles Davis- Jack Chambers
5. Cromwell - Antonia Frasier
6. The Age of Federalism- Stanly Elkins Eric McKitrick
1. Ratchet and Clank
2. Get The Gringo
3. The Wraith
4. The Third Man
5. Death Race 2050
6. The Submarine Kid
7. John Wick 2
8. Lure
9. Kill Command
10. iBoy
February was a slow month with a lot happening. March will be harder because of Spring Training but best of luck to everyone.
Books
8. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
9. The Stranger by Albert Camus
10. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
11. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
12. The Plague by Albert Camus
Movies
February was just not a good month for me reading books. I've been a funk lately and I just haven't felt like reading. I hope I'm able to catch up in March.
