50 Books. 50 Movies. 1 Year (2014).

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I finally finished my 50 books this month. I'm currently at 46/50 for the film tally, so I shouldn't have any problems wrapping up the challenge in December.
 
being on a semester exchange for university has killed my reading habits lol
I've only managed to finish one book since I got here 3 months ago!
I hadn't updated since towards the end of September, I saw most of these round then.

roosters93 - 44/50 books | 104/50 movies​

Films:
Waiting... ★★½
Edge of Tomorrow ★★★
22 Jump Street ★½
Obvious Child ★★★½
Do The Right Thing ★★★★½
What If ★★★½
Begin Again ★★★★
The Thieves ★★★
Palo Alto ★★
Under the Skin ★★★½
Interstellar ★★★★

Book:

Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East ★★★
 
Update


I only finished one book, and watched one film, in the whole month. I blame Nano.

Book - Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany. Which was excellent.

Film - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. After the thread about it being a really well done sci fi film, I was expecting great things, but I was a bit disappointed. It was decent, but it had just as many annoying things as most action films, people being stupid and acting unreasonably, but that's unsurprising in action films I know, and I think the story just didn't grab me. The part where Koba acts 'chimp-like' was fantastic, though.
 
December Update: TestMonkey - 68/50 Books | 68/50 Movies

Books
  • The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
  • Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
  • Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Movies
  • Patton Oswalt: My Weakness is Strong
  • Donald Glover: Weirdo
  • Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats

Off pace again this month but have a few books in progress. Trying to get to 75 by end of year.
 
Maklershed - 48/50 books | 47/50 movies | 18 games

Books
42. Dracula
43. The Savage Boy
44. Sharp Objects
45. The Great Gatsby
46. Ask the Dust
47. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee
48. Ham on Rye

Movies
41. Prohibition part 1
42. Prohibition part 2
43. The Wolf of Wall Street
44. Prohibition part 3
45. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
46. Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats
47. Hello Ladies the Movie

Games
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
18. Destiny
 
Glaurungr - 152/50 Books | 168/50 Movies​

Update!

Books:

  • Andy Weir - The Martian (2011)
  • Anette Riise-Hansen - Runesteinen (2005)
  • Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom (2004)
  • Charles Bukowski - Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972)
  • Henry Charrière - Papillon (1969)
  • Lois McMaster Bujold - Ethan of Athos (1986)
  • Ludvig Holm-Olsen (trans.) - Edda: I - Gudedikt (1975)
  • R.A. Salvatore - The Spine of the World (1999)
  • Samuel R. Delany - The Einstein Intersection (1967)
  • Seamus Heaney - The Haw Lantern (1987)
  • Siri Katinka Valdez - Det ble Bud (2012)
  • Snorri Sturluson - Heimskringla: Norske Kongesagaer - Tredje del (Heimskringla: Norwegian Kings' Sagas - Part Three) (ca. 1230)
  • Terry Pratchett - Dodger's Guide to London (2013)
  • Terry Pratchett - Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Stories (2014)
  • Val McDermid - The Last Temptation (2002)
  • Velle Espeland - Svartebøker: Fra Svarteboka til Necronomicon (2013)
  • W.H. Auden - The Shield of Achilles (1955)
  • Willy Ustad - Vokterne (1998)

  • Aimé Césaire - Opptegnelser ved hjemkomsten til fødelandet (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land) (1947)
  • Benni Bødker - Angantyrs sverd (2012)
  • Ellen Grimsmo Foros - Jordbok (2008)
  • Geir Gulliksen - Se på meg nå (2005)
  • Jon Ewo - Ranglebein og Skrømt (2013)
  • Jon Ewo - Kampen begynner (2013)
  • Linn Stokke and Hans Normann Dahl (ill.) - Trollet Trym og den hemmelige farven (1994)
  • Niels Fredrik Dahl - Vi har aldri vært her før (2011)
  • Torill Thorstad Hauger and Jan-Kåre Øien (ill.) - Simon og St. Hallvard (1999)
  • Tormod Haugland - Straumen går (2012)

Films:

  • Angels & Demons - Ron Howard (2009)
  • City Lights - Charles Chaplin (1931)
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Matt Reeves (2014)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy - James Gunn (2014)
  • Hercules - Brett Ratner (2014)
  • Lady and the Tramp - Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson (1955)
  • Lucy - Luc Besson (2014)
  • Neco z Alenky (Alice) - Jan Svankmajer (1988)
  • Pitch Black - David Twohy (2000)
  • Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
  • Saints and Soldiers: The Void - Ryan Little (2014)
  • Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - Sidney J. Furie (1987)
  • Tarzan - Chris Buck and Kevin Lima (1999)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Jonathan Liebesman (2014)
  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - John Lounsbery and Wolfgang Reitherman (1977)
  • World of Warcraft: Looking for Group - Kern Konwiser and Kip Konwiser (2014)
  • Yellow Submarine - George Dunning (1968)
 
“How did it get so late so soon?
Its night before its afternoon.
December is here before its June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?” - Dr. Seuss

Current pace needed for completion (as of 1 December):
  • 45/50 books | 45/50 movies

GAF totals:
  • 3,318 Books
  • 6,935 Movies

Monthly Progress:
wk46lin.png


Members who have completed the challenge:
  1. Glaurungr - 152/50 books | 168/50 movies (completed 27 March)
  2. TestMonkey - 68/50 books | 68/50 movies (completed 8 August)
  3. lastflowers - 62/50 books | 70/50 movies (completed 9 August)
  4. EverythingShiny - 54/50 books | 55/50 movies (completed 18 August)
  5. kinoki - 65/50 books | 95/50 movies (completed 24 August)
  6. TheWarrior - 50/50 books | 50/50 movies (completed 17 September)
  7. Tragicomedy - 55/50 books | 59/50 movies (completed 9 October)
  8. Empty - 52/50 books | 50/50 movies (completed 31 October)
  9. Reyne - 53/50 books | 50/50 movies (completed 31 October)
  10. Lumiere - 109/50 books | 53/50 movies (completed 30 November)
  11. Jungleland - 51/50 books | 50/50 movies (completed 30 November)

Members currently on pace to complete the challenge:

Top 20 book worms:
  1. Glaurungr - 152
  2. Mumei - 111
  3. Lumiere - 109
  4. Cyan - 72
  5. TestMonkey - 68
  6. kinoki - 65
  7. lastflowers - 62
  8. bggrthnjsus - 56
  9. EverythingShiny - 54
  10. Tragicomedy - 54
  11. Reyne - 53
  12. Empty - 52
  13. Pau - 52
  14. Jungleland - 51
  15. kswiston - 50
  16. TheWarrior - 50
  17. Jintor - 49
  18. DieUnbekannte - 48
  19. Maklershed - 48
  20. Saphirax - 46

Top 20 film buffs:
  1. Henry Swanson - 323
  2. Narag - 265
  3. ridley182 - 188
  4. Glaurungr - 168
  5. Ephidel - 161
  6. siyrobbo - 157
  7. Saya - 115
  8. jarofbees - 110
  9. Verdre - 109
  10. BrokenEchelon - 107
  11. roosters93 - 104
  12. avengers23 - 99
  13. Kinoki - 95
  14. SaltyDoughtnut - 82
  15. zoozilla - 82
  16. markhimself - 77
  17. FUBAR McDangles - 76
  18. lastflowers - 70
  19. suberzat - 69
  20. Enco - 68
  21. TestMonkey - 68

Most balanced with the force:

Least balanced with the force:
 
Ashes - Books 37/50 | Films 59/50 | Seasons 18/12 |

I didn't reach my goal of ten books last month. I had to decide between finishing nanowrimo and falling even further behind on this.

Still, my new found philosophy of looking at a more realistic picture, shows that I read 7 books and over 1500 pages last month. And that's along side 50,000 words!

I'm quite pleased with that. Me and Narag may be trailing behind a lot of people where books are concerned, but I think we've done tremendously well over the last few months. Hopefully, we can both bring this in home.
 
Mumei said:
I'm feeling lazy so I'll update at the end of December. :)
Click to expand...

Think of the children!

Ashes said:
I'm quite pleased with that. Me and Narag may be trailing behind a lot of people where books are concerned, but I think we've done tremendously well over the last few months. Hopefully, we can both bring this in home.
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I'm always impressed with your progress, since it's usually on a more compressed timeline. You end up doing the 50/50 Half Year Challenge, and somehow get it done. You've got this.
 
Looks like I'll probably be five books under the limit, if I dedicate my time to reading (and stop reading my magazines). Curse you, Goodkind! Curse you and all of your future descendants!

I am at least happy that I read significantly more than I did last year. Perhaps next year, I'll meet my goal of 50 books (since the only video games I'll get to play are portable ones)!
 
Necrovex said:
I am at least happy that I read significantly more than I did last year. Perhaps next year, I'll meet my goal of 50 books (since the only video games I'll get to play are portable ones)!
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I might have the opposite problem, since I'm getting a PS4 and some fun looking games for Christmas. I haven't done much gaming this year outside of Marvel Heroes, but I'm looking forward to playing all the big releases I've missed this year.

-----

As we get further along in December, I need to gauge interest for the 2015 version of this thread, and whether or not someone else wants to take over OP duties. This is the third edition on GAF, and we've had three different organizers. A fresh perspective and new ideas can be a good thing, so if someone wants to run the show I'll kindly bow out.
 
Ashes said:
I'm quite pleased with that. Me and Narag may be trailing behind a lot of people where books are concerned, but I think we've done tremendously well over the last few months. Hopefully, we can both bring this in home.
Click to expand...

That's what December is for! Time to knock out all those half read books I have laying around.
 
5 books to go. I should be able to do this, but work really is trying hard to mak me fail.

Is it weird that I've found the watching part to be more difficult that the reading one?
 
Guamu said:
5 books to go. I should be able to do this, but work really is trying hard to mak me fail.

Is it weird that I've found the watching part to be more difficult that the reading one?
Click to expand...

Nope. That was a very common theme last year. Many participants had the books knocked out in September or October, but had to blitz through 20+ movies in December to complete the challenge.
 
I got way ahead of pace in August/September and then completely slowed down in November. I think I only read like three or four books in the entire span of October and November.

Really have to buckle down and blitz through these last few.
 
Cyan said:
Cyan - 75/50 books | 33/50 movies

17 movies by the end of the month? Hoo boy. I can do this.
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Movies is something I've given up on for the rest of the year. It's the third Hobbit-movie but apart from that I'm guessing no new movies for me. And I used to be in top 10 movie watchers. If you can find time for 17 movies in a month like December I applaud you!
But don't give up. Just watch a movie every morning.
 
Books:

37. The Children Act
38. The Body
39. The Call of the Wild
40. Chess Story
41. A Christmas Carol
42. The Red Pony
43. The Chimes
44. Pobby and Dingan

Films

60. Dawn of the Planet of Apes
61. The Maze Runner
62. Guardians of the Galaxy
 
November update:

Another month of short blurbs due to OT at work, etc. It was an alright month for movies, but definitely a great month for books. I need to read 9 more books this month in order beat that challenge.

==============

I follow my own personal 4 star scale:

★★★★ = Timeless Masterpiece
★★★ = Buy
★★ = Rent/Borrow
★ = Unessential

=============

ridley182 - 41/50 Books | 207/50 Movies

Books:

Museum of the Weird ★
The Sun Also Rises &#9733;&#9733;&#9733; < Favorite Book of the Month
Ethan Frome &#9733;&#9733;
Notes From Underground &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Miss Lonelyhearts &#9733;&#9733;
The Day of the Locust &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
The Red Badge of Courage &#9733;&#9733;


Movies:

The Tale of Princess Kaguya &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Lady in Water &#9733;
Interstellar &#9733;&#9733;
Jaws &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Nightcrawler &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Rain Man &#9733;&#9733;
The Wrestler &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Big Hero 6 &#9733;&#9733;
Marathon Man &#9733;&#9733;
Dumb and Dumber To &#9733;&#9733;
Birdman &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
The Social Network &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Encino Man &#9733;
John Wick &#9733;&#9733;
Empire of the Sun &#9733;&#9733;
Requiem For A Dream &#9733;&#9733;
Come and See &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733; < Favorite Movie of the Month
Fantastic Mr. Fox &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Fear Dot Com &#9733;


=============

Favorite Book - November: The Sun Also Rises

I was not a big fan of the first half of this book, but the second half more than makes up for it (I love every single thing that happens once they get to Spain). Just a great Hemingway novel overall.


Favorite Movie - November: Come and See

This movie was a revelation for me. I had never even heard of it before until someone mentioned it in that Full Metal Jacket thread from a few days ago. This film is awesome and terrifying and deep and moving and trippy and heartbreaking all at the same damn time. It is quite the experience from beginning to end. Definitely one of the greatest war films of all time.
 
Tragicomedy said:
As we get further along in December, I need to gauge interest for the 2015 version of this thread, and whether or not someone else wants to take over OP duties. This is the third edition on GAF, and we've had three different organizers. A fresh perspective and new ideas can be a good thing, so if someone wants to run the show I'll kindly bow out.
Click to expand...

Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAKE!!!!
 
Ashes said:
Don't worry about it. If no one else does it, I'll go the old minimalist route. :p

Still, even if you launch it, we've had years, where other folks pick up the baton, should ops falter.
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Makes sense. I'll have no problem putting together the OP, but I can't 100% commit to maintaining monthly stats like I did this year.
Not that they were really needed in the long run, more of fun thing.

Just tracking top 20 book and movie lists is easy, as is tracking people who finish. The most time consuming (and worthless) part was keeping a master list in order of overall progress. If we just put together a master tracker in alphabetical order, it would cut the monthly update time by half.
 
2014 was an amazing year and this challenge was great.

Read so many books that have helped me improve vastly as a person.

Already excited for 2015. Didn't manage 50 books this year but I'm still proud of my progress.
 
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was as good as I'd hoped it would be. The movie did a great job adapting that novel, as I can imagine a much shittier job being done.
 
I won't hit my mark of 50 books, but I'll easily hit the mark of 40 books. Wouldn't have been possible without this thread. Good show, Tragic. Hope to participate next year.

Without any PC or console games to distract me next year, I may very well reach the goal too!
 
Ashes - Books 48/50 | Films 63/50 | Seasons 22/12 |


45. The Cricket on the Hearth.
46. Einstein's Dreams
47. The Battle of Life: A Love Story
48. Mieko and the Fifth Treasure – Eleanor Coerr
49.

Films

63. The Hobbit 3.

Seasons

20. The Legend of Korra book 4
21. The Fall s2
22. Akame ga Kill!
 
Enco said:
2014 was an amazing year and this challenge was great.

Read so many books that have helped me improve vastly as a person.

Already excited for 2015. Didn't manage 50 books this year but I'm still proud of my progress.
Click to expand...

Necrovex said:
I won't hit my mark of 50 books, but I'll easily hit the mark of 40 books. Wouldn't have been possible without this thread. Good show, Tragic. Hope to participate next year.
Click to expand...

Hell yeah! That's the spirit. The lesson here is if you are earnest in sticking with the challenge, you're likely to set a personal best and discover a lot of great new books and movies.

Ashes said:
Ashes - Books 44/50 | Films 62/50 | Seasons 19/12 |
Click to expand...

You're like clockwork. Late to the party, always finish with flair. You got this!
 
pffft, Ashes has this. No problem. That Christmas week is book galore week.

In other news, I'm reading J R by Gaddis right now. Hilarious novel.
 
15/50 books - 0/50 movies

Books:
1 - Pratchett, Terry: Snuff
2 - Lampedusa, Tomasi di: The Leopard
3 - Kahneman, Daniel: Thinking, Fast and Slow
4 - Wilde, Oscar: Complete Plays (in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde)
5 - Forsyth, Mark: The Etymologicon
6 - Camus, Albert: The Plague
7 - Wilde, Oscar: Complete Poems (in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde)
8 - Hayder, Mo: Tokyo
9 - Wilde, Oscar: Essays, Selected Joutnalism, Lectures and Letters (in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde)
10 - Díaz, Junot: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
11 - Pushkin, Alexander: The Collected Stories
12 - Sorensen, Herb: Inside the Mind of the Shopper - The Science of Retailing
13 - Eco, Umberto: The Prague Cemetary
14 - Niffenegger, Audrey: The Time-Traveler's Wife
15 - Kabicek, Skandfer, Agdestein: Krüger & Krogh - Brennpunkt Oslo no.1
----
16 - Burroughs, William S.: Naked Lunch (reading)
 
Reached the goal!

Maklershed - 52/50 books | 50/50 movies

Books
49. Wait Until Spring, Bandini
50. The Road to Los Angeles
51. Annihilation
52. Authority


Movies
48. A View to a Kill
49. Die Hard
50. Die Hard 2
 
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