okay. final update.
Empty - 60/50 Books | 79/50 Movies
1. never let me go by kazuo ishiguro
2. the left hand of darkness by ursula k. le guin
3+4. middlesex by jeffrey eugidenes (533 pages)
5. nothing to envy: real lives in north korea by barbara demick
6. a life too short: the tragedy of robert enke by ronald reng
7. sputnik sweetheart by haruki murakami
8. good omens by terry pratchett & neil gaiman
9. pale blue dot by carl sagan
10 + 11. a feast for crows by george r. r martin (684 pages)
12. lolita by vladimir nabokov
13. eating animals by jonathon safron foer
14. neverwhere by neil gaiman
15. the complete maus by art spiegelman
16. night falls fast by kay redfield jamison
17. what i talk about when i talk about running by haruki murakami
18. scorsese by ebert
19. a tree grows in brooklyn by betty smith
20. breakfast of champions by kurt vonnegut
21. the orphan masters son by adam johnson
22. cold spring harbour by richard yates
23. outliers by malcom gladwell
24. slaugherhose v by kurt vonnegut
25 + 26. the art of fielding by chad harbuch (515 pages)
27. the easter parade by richard yates
28. where angels fear to tread by e.m forster
29. pnin by vladamir nabokov
30. the real life of sebastian knight by vladamir nabokov
31. thirst for love by yukio mishima
32. nine stories by j.d salinger
33. the spy who came in from the cold by john le carre
34. johnson's life of london by boris johnson
35+36. white teeth by zadie smith (542 pages)
37. the hobbit by j.r.r tolkein
38. consider the lobster by david foster wallace
39. sandman vol.1: preludes and nocturnes by neil gaiman
40. franny and zooey by j.d salinger
41. midnight days by neil gaiman
42. unknown man #89 by elmore leonard
43. the quiet american by graham greene
44. when we were orphans by kazuo ishiguro
45. a good school by richard yates
46. confessions of a mask by yukio mishima
47. brighton rock by graham greene
48. fun home by alison bechdel
49. how fiction works by james wood
50. cat's cradle by kurt vonnegut
51. the sun also rises by ernest hemmingway
52. a gun for sale by graham greene
53. levels of life by julian barnes
54. seize the day by saul bellow
55. code of the woosters by p.g wodhouse
56. billy lynn's long half-time walk by ben fountain
57. nocturnes: five stories of music and nightfall by kazuo ishiguro
58. armageddon in retrospect by kurt vonnegut
59. lucky jim by kingsley amis
60. the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugidenes
Films -
1. the bicycle thief
2. brokeback mountain
3. the thin blue line
4. mission: impossible
5. life of pi 3d
6. the girl who leapt through time
7. les miserables
8. mean streets
9. ocean waves
10. kill bill vol. 1 & 2
11. jiro dreams of sushi
12. mission: impossible 2
13. a separation
14. tangled
15. queen of versailles
16. django unchained
17. searching for sugarman
18. cache (hidden)
19. prometheus
20. the lives of others
21. wreck it ralph
22. amour
23. argo
24. paris, texas
25. to the wonder
26. wings
27. the passion of joan of arc
28. cloud atlas
29. sunrise a song of two humans
30. the general
31. safety last
32. nosferatu
33. the triplets of bellville
34. grizzly man
35. pitch perfect
36. the terminator
37. election
38. mishima a life in four chapters
39. three colours red
40. iron man 3
41. flesh and the devil
42. fish tank
43. paris is burning
44. monsters university
45. groundhog day
46. la strada
47. passport to pimlico
48. synecdoche, new york
49. alan partidge: alpha papa
50. 21 jump street
51. blue jasmine
52. the bling ring
53. before midnight
54. stop making sense
55. 50/50
56. hoop dreams
57. anina
58. like father like son
59. the blair witch project
60. captain phillips
61. gravity
62. barry lyndon
63. nebraska
64. sleeping beauty
65. pinocchio
66. dumbo
67. snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937)
68. the hobbit: the desolation of smaug
69. fantasia (1940)
70. bambi
71. cinderella
72. fast times at ridgemont high
73. frozen
74. alice in wonderland
75. peter pan
76. the lady and the tramp
77. one hundred and one dalmatians (1961)
78. the sword in the stone
79. the jungle book
year in review
these were my favourite books i read this year for the first time
pnin by vladamir nabokov
nine stories by j.d salinger
the quiet american by graham greene
the easter parade by richard yates
code of the woosters by p.g wodehouse
i wrote summaries in the top 5 of the year thread for all those books and rambled on a bit so i'll just post a link here if you're interested
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=94850101&postcount=17
these were my favourite films (i found this quite hard to choose as i watched a bunch of great films
the thin blue line - very powerful film about a miscarriage of justice. the film makes a persuasive case that the wrong person was jailed for a murder in 1976, so much so that the film got the man relesed. that's impressive enough but the film itself is amazing without the context and political result, morris' stylistic use of reconstructions and glass' soundtrack and the repetitions of the strings and the one scene in there creates a nightmarish feeling around the crime.
the story is captivating throughout and the way the film systematically details the failures of justice and unchecked power of the state makes a real statement. i think on a fundamental level this film is really about the death penalty, it's always looming in the background and the story begs the question of how we can give over the ultimate price of death to such a flawed system of justice.
before midnight - i've loved all the before... films but this might even be the best. hawke and delpy are incredible and the film really lays it all bare, showing how people who love eachother the most are capable of hurting eachother the most and know every single button to press. i felt a real sense of fear here that everything would fall apart, but it's really about how at that point in life real love isn't just roses, but something that both hurts and unites. the greek backdrop and little side stories were nice too.
the general - this is a silent film about a train following another train and it's one of the most entertaining and exciting action films i've seen. modern blockbuster directors have near infinite tools at disposal, yet the amount of creativity and execution of the action set pieces within these limits in the general shames them. keaton is incredibly charming as the lead and it's just relentless good fun.
mishima: a life in four chapters - a very unusual bio-pic about a very unusual person. yukiko mishima is a gay japanese leading novelist, this film prompted me to read some of his books which are very good, who becomes a leading boybuilder and then leads a failed fascist putsch in which he commits hara-kiri. this film doesn't tell his life linearly but instead uses reconstructions of four of his books to illuminate on the aspects of his life. each reconstruction is realized as a play with utterly incredible set design and a mesmerising soundtrack by philip glass. the effect is a slightly beguiling but transfixing look at a very odd person and the relationship between life and art.
sleeping beauty - i watched a lot of disney films this month for the first time but sleeping beauty was my favourite. ostensibly a standard princess story, it's really about the conflict between the fairy godmothers and maleficent, two disinterested but very powerful forces who suddenly become active in the world and cause lots of havoc. the animation is so impressive with some truly gorgeous backgrounds, the music borrowing from tchaikovsky is superb, the story moves at a good tick and maleficent is great fun to watch. the climax with the dragon is especially good.
woop woop. now onto 2014.