It’s that time again: this is the eighth January in a row in which I post a discussion of the books I read and the movies I saw in the past year and also attempt some kind of evaluation of these works.
In 2014, I read 52 books and saw 16 movies. To my surprise, I broke last year’s record number of books read. As I did in 2013, I read twice as much fiction as non-fiction, 34 to 18. Fiction genres ranged from the standard novel to sci-fi/fantasy to mystery/thriller to short story collections. The non-fiction books included history, linguistics, biography/memoir, environmental science, and textile arts. Here’s another type of categorization: Classics – 6, Modern Novels – 13, Historical Fiction – 5, Journalism and Social History – 9, Biography and Autobiography – 5, Language and Art – 2, Fantasy and Sci-Fi – 6, Mystery – 6.
By contrast, the number of movies I watched was way below my previous seven-year average of 49, but the reason is clear: I spent a lot of time watching downloaded TV shows. This was not binge-watching because I watched only an episode or two per viewing session, but this is what I did instead of going out to Redbox and renting DVDs. The movies I watched included the genres of biopic, comedy, adventure, animated musical, and domestic drama.
As in the past few years, I could not pick a top five or six titles as Best of, even though that’s what these posts are supposed to be about, so this year I’m again doing something a bit different for both books and movies. For movies, because there were so few, I picked my all-around favorite, which was Frozen (conventional choice, but what can I say — I don’t have outré tastes).
For books, I decided I would make up oddball categories and pick a “Best” title for each, and since I read so many more books, I’m not limiting myself to five or six. Here they are, in alphabetical order by title of book:
Classic Which I Didn’t Mind Re-Reading – 1984
Tome Worthy of All the Hype – 2666
Book Which Is Just Plain Weird – American Gods
Novel With Distasteful Protagonist But Also Quite Funny – Confederacy of Dunces
Memoir by Contemporary Privileged Female – Eat Pray Love
Memoir of Surviving Terrible Childhood – Glass Castle
Psychological Thriller – Gone Girl
Fantasy For People Who Don’t Read Fantasy – Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Memoir by Debauched Male- Kitchen Confidential
Nonfiction for Word Nerds – Language Visible
First Novel Which Is Better Than One Might Expect – No One Thinks of Greenland
Unknown Novel by Famous Author – Post-Office Girl
Click here for the complete lists. Enjoy, and I welcome your comments.