Just for posterity: The list of movies/books I watched/read for leisure in 2010.
The Road
Youth in Revolt
The Hurt Locker
Up in the Air
When in Rome
Precious
A Single Man
Ashes of Time
An Education
It's Complicated
A Serious Man
Shutter Island
Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief
Kick-Ass
Iron Man 2
Toy Story 3
Inception (x2)
Berlin '36
Food Inc.
The Corporation
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Green Zone
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Enchanted
The Kids are All Right
Easy A
Grown Ups
Twilight: Eclipse (on a flight! I love watching brainless stuff on flights!)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Eat, Pray, Love
Killers
Knight and Day
Sex and the City 2
Capitalism: A Love Story
The Social Network
The Tourist
Tron: Legacy
Favourite of the year: Inception (blockbuster as it should always be done)
Special 'Where did it all go wrong' Award: Michael Cera. Poor George Michael. Jesse Eisenberg used to be mistaken for him. But soon he will be the one people mistake for soon-to-be Oscar-nominated Eisenberg. Cera gave strong, and pretty diverse (imo) performances in Youth In Revolt and Scott Pilgrim (which were both at the very least decent films) but still gets panned for doing the same shtick. Plus, both films sadly flopped. What next? Maybe that long-awaited Arrested Development movie will revive his career.
Books (on top of the dozens for school of course):
Alan Hollinghurst - The Swimming-Pool Library
J.D. Salinger - Franny & Zooey
Alan Hollinghurst - The Folding Star
Josh-Kilmer Purcell - I am Not Myself These Days
Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
Yes, Hollinghurst propels himself into the list of my favourite authors! Simply brilliant. Franny & Zooey was wonderful as well.
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Friday, January 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Kindle-free 2009
Just thought I should catalogue the list of non-academic-related books I read, which I started to do so last year on Twitter. The bulk of it was done over the long summer, plus one more in December. There is no time for leisure reading during term time for sure.
Fiction:
Max Brooks - World War Z
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
Robert Harris - Fatherland
Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Jamie O'Neill - At Swim, Two Boys
Jose Saramago - Blindness
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
David Leavitt - The Lost Language of Cranes
Non-fiction:
Noam Chomsky - Failed States
Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Leffler M. & Legro J. (Eds) - To Lead the World: American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine
Joseph Stiglitz - Globalization and its discontents
Bertrand Russell - Why I am not a Christian & Other Essays
Of them all, At Swim, Two Boys, The Road, and The Shock Doctrine joined my list of all-time favourites.
Fiction:
Max Brooks - World War Z
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
Robert Harris - Fatherland
Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Jamie O'Neill - At Swim, Two Boys
Jose Saramago - Blindness
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
David Leavitt - The Lost Language of Cranes
Non-fiction:
Noam Chomsky - Failed States
Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Leffler M. & Legro J. (Eds) - To Lead the World: American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine
Joseph Stiglitz - Globalization and its discontents
Bertrand Russell - Why I am not a Christian & Other Essays
Of them all, At Swim, Two Boys, The Road, and The Shock Doctrine joined my list of all-time favourites.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
End of an Era
I guess the cultural phenomenon that is Harry Potter is as good as any a reason for a first post. I finished reading The Deathly Hallows over the weekend, and subsequently fell into a semi-funk over the next few days. It's just sad to think that we won't be getting any more new adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione, that we won't get to share their world anymore. Sigh.
As for the book itself, I mostly loved it, but have a few complaints of course. The main one, which I've seen many raise, is the rushed ending and crappy epilogue! Children's book or not, Harry Potter is rightly considered an epic, and thus, requires a thorough enough ending to provide closure. Jumping from defeating Voldie to 19 years later was too abrupt. There needed to be an additional chapter between. It could be set immediately after, or a few days, or months. Something where we see Harry and gang dwelling on the fact that they've finally done it. Someone who has cursed his life for 17 years has been vanquished, surely we ought to have some reflection of that? LOTR is obviously the main comparison - Not that it had to be as long-winded and meticulous as that, but it's been such an arduous journey, we need to see how it's changed them, how life would never be the same again, like how the Ring quest has so profoundly changed Frodo, Sam, etc.
And what of the Ministry? Of the issue of class warfare between elves, goblins and wizards? Of the fact that Harry just found out the man he hated his entire school life was actually a hero? Of Snape's vindication? And we don't even get to see Ron and Hermione actually getting together? All the build-up to a kiss, and then it's 19 years later and three kids?
One area of writing where I think J.K Rowling is not quite adept at is definitely romance. Lupin/Tonks get together in the background, pop out a kid, and then die in the background. Point of it being (besides the so-what parallel between Harry and Teddy Tonks)? I love Lupin, but hardly give a shit about the couple. But the main failure is Harry/Ginny. It is such a shallowly depicted romance, more telling than showing, that I have a lot of problem believing Ginny is his one true love. It doesn't help that Ginny, from a shy girl in books 1-3, suddenly pops out of nowhere in 5 with a personality transplant to become a Lily Evans clone who is of course sassy, kick-ass, beautiful and popular, and Harry. similarly out of nowhere, just likes her in 6. Again, telling rather than showing. I think Luna would even be a better fit for Harry. Or better, get rid of love interests, this is a adventure/fantasy story and we don't really need romance sub-plots.
And the saccharine, sappy ending was more than I could take. Albus Severus? Seriously? For future re-reads, I've decided I will stop before the epilogue and pretend it doesn't exist.
Also, Harry's seemingly free and easy access to Voldie's thoughts? Reeked so much of convenient, lazy plot device. Just highlights the overall rushed feeling of the book, I think (which is what the ending does as well). It's as if J.K couldn't be bothered to think of a way to show what Voldie was doing, so she just repeated the mind-reading thing over and over.
Ok criticisms aside, I still really loved the book.
- Neville's character arc from 1 through 7 has been well-fleshed, and to see him become a hero in Hogwarts, leading the resistance in the trio's absence is really heartwarming. Him lopping off Nagini's head was one of the best moments of the series.
- Hermione - love her. So resourceful, so smart, and so loyal. She wiped her parents' memories - that's hardcore.
- Dumbledore - interesting to see the fleshing-out of a flawed DD.
- "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." - The most chilling line of the book.
- Harry and Ron's discussion after Ron retrieved the Sword heroically. (Paraphrasing here) "It's not as cool as it sounds." "I already told you before that it wasn't." Really shows the full-circle journey from Ron's jealousy of Harry initially to understanding him now.
I can't wait for the movie. It's gonna be action-packed, and WB better break the bank and give us an all-out effects extravaganza. Let's see: Flight from Privet Drive, Gringotts' breakout, the massive Hogwarts battle with moving knights, tables and chairs, flying crystal balls, plants, et al - these sets are gonna be amazing.
Sigh. The end of an era. Let's hope J.K gets bored sitting around her billions of dollars, changes her mind eventually and comes out with new books of the HP world.
As for the book itself, I mostly loved it, but have a few complaints of course. The main one, which I've seen many raise, is the rushed ending and crappy epilogue! Children's book or not, Harry Potter is rightly considered an epic, and thus, requires a thorough enough ending to provide closure. Jumping from defeating Voldie to 19 years later was too abrupt. There needed to be an additional chapter between. It could be set immediately after, or a few days, or months. Something where we see Harry and gang dwelling on the fact that they've finally done it. Someone who has cursed his life for 17 years has been vanquished, surely we ought to have some reflection of that? LOTR is obviously the main comparison - Not that it had to be as long-winded and meticulous as that, but it's been such an arduous journey, we need to see how it's changed them, how life would never be the same again, like how the Ring quest has so profoundly changed Frodo, Sam, etc.And what of the Ministry? Of the issue of class warfare between elves, goblins and wizards? Of the fact that Harry just found out the man he hated his entire school life was actually a hero? Of Snape's vindication? And we don't even get to see Ron and Hermione actually getting together? All the build-up to a kiss, and then it's 19 years later and three kids?
One area of writing where I think J.K Rowling is not quite adept at is definitely romance. Lupin/Tonks get together in the background, pop out a kid, and then die in the background. Point of it being (besides the so-what parallel between Harry and Teddy Tonks)? I love Lupin, but hardly give a shit about the couple. But the main failure is Harry/Ginny. It is such a shallowly depicted romance, more telling than showing, that I have a lot of problem believing Ginny is his one true love. It doesn't help that Ginny, from a shy girl in books 1-3, suddenly pops out of nowhere in 5 with a personality transplant to become a Lily Evans clone who is of course sassy, kick-ass, beautiful and popular, and Harry. similarly out of nowhere, just likes her in 6. Again, telling rather than showing. I think Luna would even be a better fit for Harry. Or better, get rid of love interests, this is a adventure/fantasy story and we don't really need romance sub-plots.
And the saccharine, sappy ending was more than I could take. Albus Severus? Seriously? For future re-reads, I've decided I will stop before the epilogue and pretend it doesn't exist.
Also, Harry's seemingly free and easy access to Voldie's thoughts? Reeked so much of convenient, lazy plot device. Just highlights the overall rushed feeling of the book, I think (which is what the ending does as well). It's as if J.K couldn't be bothered to think of a way to show what Voldie was doing, so she just repeated the mind-reading thing over and over.
Ok criticisms aside, I still really loved the book.- Neville's character arc from 1 through 7 has been well-fleshed, and to see him become a hero in Hogwarts, leading the resistance in the trio's absence is really heartwarming. Him lopping off Nagini's head was one of the best moments of the series.
- Hermione - love her. So resourceful, so smart, and so loyal. She wiped her parents' memories - that's hardcore.
- Dumbledore - interesting to see the fleshing-out of a flawed DD.
- "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." - The most chilling line of the book.
- Harry and Ron's discussion after Ron retrieved the Sword heroically. (Paraphrasing here) "It's not as cool as it sounds." "I already told you before that it wasn't." Really shows the full-circle journey from Ron's jealousy of Harry initially to understanding him now.
I can't wait for the movie. It's gonna be action-packed, and WB better break the bank and give us an all-out effects extravaganza. Let's see: Flight from Privet Drive, Gringotts' breakout, the massive Hogwarts battle with moving knights, tables and chairs, flying crystal balls, plants, et al - these sets are gonna be amazing.
Sigh. The end of an era. Let's hope J.K gets bored sitting around her billions of dollars, changes her mind eventually and comes out with new books of the HP world.
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