It’s a new year and time for my annual reflection on the books I read and movies I saw in the past year.  In terms of numbers, I’m very close to last year’s totals: this year I read 45 books and saw 52 movies.  These numbers are so close to last year’s that if there were such a thing as a margin of error, they would be identical.

I again attempted a breakdown of movies by genre, but I have to admit that some of these are fairly arbitrary.  But hey, this is my blog, so I can do my own thing.  Here is what I came up with: Children’s – 2, Comedy – 6, Documentary – 4, Docu-Drama – 9, Drama – 17, Literary Adaptation – 4, Musical – 1, SciFi/Fantasy – 8, Silent -1.  As happened last year, I simply could not pick the Top 10, much less the Top 6, so I’m offering the following, listed in alphabetical order, as “most deserving of being better known than they are.”  So these are by no means the best movies I saw last year, but simply the ones that I thought are most deserving of a larger audience:

• The Descendants
• Hugo
• Mommo
• Rabbit Hole
• Rock of Ages
• A Separation

It was easier, I think, to categorize the books I read.  Of course, fiction vs nonfiction is the basic division: I read 20 nonfiction books and 25 fiction.  Here are the sub-classifications for nonfiction: Autobiography/Biography – 8, History – 3, Science – 3, Social Science – 6.  My fiction sub-classifications are more subjective: Classics – 1, Historical Novel – 5, Mystery – 7, Novel – 9, SciFi/Fantasy – 3.  As with the movies, I’m offering these titles, in alphabetical order, as the books most deserving of being more widely read than they are:

• Bastard of Istanbul
• Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
• Common Ground
• Confessions of Zeno
• Primate’s Memoir
• The Submission

Click here for the complete lists.  So update your movie queues and get yourself to your public library.  There are treasures waiting there for you!

For the fifth year in a row, I present my “Year in Review” in which I consider only the movies I watched and the books I read. In terms of numbers, I’ve kept pace with previous years, though my numbers for 2011 are slightly down from last year.

I saw 50 movies in 2011, about 70% of them on DVD and the rest in theaters or on TV or on Hulu.  This year I attempted a breakdown by genre.  Here is what I came up with:  Action/Thriller – 7, Animated – 1, Comedy – 10, Documentary – 4, Docu-Drama – 6, Drama – 17, Sci-Fi/Fantasy – 5.  As I mentioned last year, I’m finding it difficult to pick the “best of,” so this year I’ve come up with a different take.  The following 6 movies, in alphabetical order, are the ones that I think are most deserving of being better known than they are:

• Biutiful
• Blue Valentine
• Green Zone
• Hereafter
• The Town
• White Meadows

I read 46 books in 2011, of which 25 were fiction and the rest non-fiction.  As with the movies, I’ve come up with numbers for the different genres:  Biography or Autobiography – 9, Classic – 1, Cooking (these are not cookbooks but books about food or cooking or chefs) – 5, Detective – 2, Fantasy – 3, Fiction – 18, Juvenile – 1,  Science – 4, Social History – 2, Stories – 1.  Here are the 6 books that I think should be more widely-read than they are, in alphabetical order:

• Antarctica on a Plate – Alexa Thomson
• The Bond – Wayne Pacelle
• The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
• Fate is the Hunter – Ernest K Gann
• Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
• The Tiger’s Wife – Téa Obreht

So what else can I say?  Just see the movies, just read the books!

Click here for the complete lists.