For me, it was a year of marathons. This was the year I vowed to see all 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (I got in about 40 of them, which schooled me well for the jazz scene here at Oberlin). This was also the year that I decided to read 14 books at a time, then cycle through them and finish them on a schedule. Due to circumstances of that being a crazy idea, it didn't work, and a lot of the books I read this year went unfinished. In memory of that, one of the lists below will be the books I thought were good enough to go back and finish next year.
I told myself at the beginning of the year that I would keep track of all the books, movies, songs, and magazines I experienced, but around the time I came to college I decided that was a crazy idea, too, so I stopped. However, it's a mite useful on these review posts, so I'm going to do it again next year. I don't know if I'll hit all the best movies I saw and books I read this year, but I'll definitely try.
BEST BOOKS I FINISHED IN 2010
1. Under the Dome (Stephen King)
2. The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau)
3. Tales from Outer Suburbia (Shaun Tan)
4. Paper Towns (John Green)
5. V for Vendetta (Alan Moore & David Lloyd with others)
6. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party (M. T. Anderson)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)
8. Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
9. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
10. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness)
11. Henry VI, Part I (William Shakespeare)
12. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
13. 1984 (George Orwell)
14. Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (David Shields)
15. Noises Off (Michael Frayn)
16. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
17. Mogworld (Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw)
18. Full Dark, No Stars (Stephen King)
We start and end with a Stephen King book. These books aren't listed by preference, but by chronological order in which I read them, but Under the Dome is probably my favorite book of the year: long, engrossing, and tightly plotted. Shakespeare, dystopian futures, and comedy make appearances, including the staples Brave New World and 1984 -- both of which troubled me, but also entertained. Highly visual works are here, such as V for Vendetta and Tales from Outer Suburbia. And smack dab in the middle is the only marathon I managed to complete this year: The Chronicles of Narnia, in preparation for the role of Aslan.
Unrepresented here is a large amount of philosophy I read this year, particularly Aristotle. He turned out to be a bit of a misogynist, and The Republic was a little boring, so I included neither. Instead, I chose Reality Hunger, a vastly entertaining little book full of quotes and thoughts on the future... none original, but none found anywhere else, either.
BEST BOOKS I'D LIKE TO FINISH IN 2011
1. House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
3. Labyrinths (Jorge Luis Borges)
4. The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)
5. Dragonhaven (Robin McKinley)
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larrson)
7. Henry VI, Part 2 (William Shakespeare)
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith)
9. All in the Timing: 14 Plays (David Ives)
10. A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
11. The Bedford Anthology of Literature, Volume 1
12. Will Grayson, Will Grayson (John Green & David Levithan)
BEST MOVIES I SAW IN 2010: Released in 2010
Alice in Wonderland
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Inception
Iron Man 2
The Kids Are All Right
Megamind
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Worst movie of the year: Hot Tub Time Machine
BEST MOVIES I SAW IN 2010: Misc. Casual Viewing
12 Angry Men
(500) Days of Summer
Cloverfield
Company
Extract
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
In the Loop
The Informant!
Inglorious Basterds
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Minority Report
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Moon
National Lampoon's Animal House
Pinocchio
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Sherlock Holmes
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Spirited Away (Japanese dub)
This Film is Not Yet Rated
The Truman Show
Tron
W.
Where the Wild Things Are
Zombieland
Honorable mention: all Pixar films
BEST MOVIES I SAW IN 2010: Cinema History
Battleship Potemkin
Bicycle Thieves
Birth of a Nation
Bonnie and Clyde
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Citizen Kane
The Dark Knight
Dog Day Afternoon
Double Indemnity
Duck Soup
The Gold Rush
The Graduate
Grand Hotel
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
In the Heat of the Night
High Noon
The Intruder
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Jaws
The Maltese Falcon
Meet Me in St. Louis
Metropolis
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Week
The Philadelphia Story
The Public Enemy
Rear Window
Safety Last!
Shoot the Piano Player
Star Wars
The Spanish Prisoner
Vertigo
A Woman is a Woman
The Wizard of Oz
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