(Mon, Jan 09, 2012)
I wasn't going to write one of these this year (too busy playing Skyrim) but had a flood of requests and complaints (ok one of each), so anyway here, this will be as terse and desultory as possible:
Books! Books mostly sucked in 2011. I read mostly fiction books this year, mostly genre novels and stories; a few non-fiction books, a lot of comic books, and even a non-fiction book about comic books (Supergods by Grant Morrison which is actually a stealth autobiography: Morrison knew that very few people would want to read his autobio so he pretended it was about Superman and Batman then wrote mostly about himself. Gee, thanks.) I read Richard Kadrey's "Sandman Slim" novels about a wizard detective fresh out of Hell; Larry Correia's novels about an institutionalized gang of monster hunters; Suzanne Collins' novels about a society that forces its children to fight to the death; and, possibly the least plausible of them all, Michael Connelly's novels about a lawyer who works mainly from his car. I read four or five of the Jack Vance novels I had not read before (sadly leaving just two).
Favorite Book of 2011: Ready Player One by Ernie Cline.
Most Surprising Book of 2011: Reamde. I think Stephenson is probably writing a gothic romance about a school for teen vampires next.
Most Disappointing Book of 2011: There were several high profile fantasy novels published this year that were disappointing. I try not to read much fantasy (and end up reading a fair amount of it anyway), but I do read Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, and George RR Martin. Each published a book in 2011 and I found each one disappointing. If you want to know why, too bad.
Movies! Movies mostly sucked in 2011. There were a bunch of superhero movies that were formulaic and dull: Green Hornet was crap, Green Lantern was crap, Thor was crap, X-Men: First Class was slightly better than crap, and I haven't see any of the other ones yet because there are too many superhero movies. I saw maybe two comedies: Horrible Bosses was pretty good. Hangover 2 was pretty bad. Are we done? Oh, The Adjustment Bureau sucked too. Phtheeew!
TV! TV mostly sucked in 2011. I didn't watch as much of it this year as I used to; I spent more couch time staring into the hand-held screens of my Kindle and IPad than into the considerably larger screen just beyond them, and the big screen usually showed me sports, CNBC, or one of those strange little reality shows that have been breeding on the History, Discovery, and A&E Channels (most of them are sort of a cross between Antiques Roadshow and Jersey Shore). I kind of lost interest in most TV shows: I still have episode backlogs of Breaking Bad, Dexter, Bored to Death, Sons of Anarchy, Chuck, Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, even Curb Your Enthusiasm. I managed to watch Fringe but I didn't like it as much as last year; I missed the alternate universe plots and the alternate Olivia (who is somehow ten times sexier than the dull normal one). I probably would have enjoyed Game of Thrones more if I had not known what was going to happen all the time. Doctor Who was a disaster as expected. I liked Rubicon and Suits. I hated Terra Nova.
Music! Music entirely sucked this year.
Games! 2011 had Skyrim in it! I didn't play any other games but I will soon try to squeeze in Portal 2. I wonder if I can smith my own weapons in Portal 2....
Books! Books mostly sucked in 2011. I read mostly fiction books this year, mostly genre novels and stories; a few non-fiction books, a lot of comic books, and even a non-fiction book about comic books (Supergods by Grant Morrison which is actually a stealth autobiography: Morrison knew that very few people would want to read his autobio so he pretended it was about Superman and Batman then wrote mostly about himself. Gee, thanks.) I read Richard Kadrey's "Sandman Slim" novels about a wizard detective fresh out of Hell; Larry Correia's novels about an institutionalized gang of monster hunters; Suzanne Collins' novels about a society that forces its children to fight to the death; and, possibly the least plausible of them all, Michael Connelly's novels about a lawyer who works mainly from his car. I read four or five of the Jack Vance novels I had not read before (sadly leaving just two).
Favorite Book of 2011: Ready Player One by Ernie Cline.
Most Surprising Book of 2011: Reamde. I think Stephenson is probably writing a gothic romance about a school for teen vampires next.
Most Disappointing Book of 2011: There were several high profile fantasy novels published this year that were disappointing. I try not to read much fantasy (and end up reading a fair amount of it anyway), but I do read Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, and George RR Martin. Each published a book in 2011 and I found each one disappointing. If you want to know why, too bad.
Movies! Movies mostly sucked in 2011. There were a bunch of superhero movies that were formulaic and dull: Green Hornet was crap, Green Lantern was crap, Thor was crap, X-Men: First Class was slightly better than crap, and I haven't see any of the other ones yet because there are too many superhero movies. I saw maybe two comedies: Horrible Bosses was pretty good. Hangover 2 was pretty bad. Are we done? Oh, The Adjustment Bureau sucked too. Phtheeew!
TV! TV mostly sucked in 2011. I didn't watch as much of it this year as I used to; I spent more couch time staring into the hand-held screens of my Kindle and IPad than into the considerably larger screen just beyond them, and the big screen usually showed me sports, CNBC, or one of those strange little reality shows that have been breeding on the History, Discovery, and A&E Channels (most of them are sort of a cross between Antiques Roadshow and Jersey Shore). I kind of lost interest in most TV shows: I still have episode backlogs of Breaking Bad, Dexter, Bored to Death, Sons of Anarchy, Chuck, Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, even Curb Your Enthusiasm. I managed to watch Fringe but I didn't like it as much as last year; I missed the alternate universe plots and the alternate Olivia (who is somehow ten times sexier than the dull normal one). I probably would have enjoyed Game of Thrones more if I had not known what was going to happen all the time. Doctor Who was a disaster as expected. I liked Rubicon and Suits. I hated Terra Nova.
Music! Music entirely sucked this year.
Games! 2011 had Skyrim in it! I didn't play any other games but I will soon try to squeeze in Portal 2. I wonder if I can smith my own weapons in Portal 2....