My Movie-Watching Year in Review (2021 Edition)

While I managed to get back into the theaters for part of 2020, overall film watching still took a hit from normal. This was the year that we got much more into streaming, though we still maintain a healthy DVD/Blu-Ray collection. For 2021, I recorded in Letterboxd:

44 movies watched.

14 movies watched for the first time.

3 movies watched in a movie theater.

30 movies rewatched.

40 movies liked. ❤

24 movies (re)watched from the Marvel Cinematic Universe

So MCU flicks made up over half the movies watched, both rewatches and new releases.

Highest Ranking movies watched:

5.0 – Fellowship of the Ring

4.5 – Howl’s Moving Castle

4.5 – The Avengers

4.5 – Captain America: Winter Soldier

4.5 – The Death of Stalin

4.5 – Sneakers

4.5 – Black Panther

4.5 – Ant-Man and the Wasp

4.5 – Ice Station Zebra

Lowest Ranking:

3.0 – Iron Man 3

3.0 – Thunder Force

3.0 – Aquaman

3.0 – Conan the Barbarian

Month with the Most Movies Seen: April (8)

Months without Movies: February, August

Hoping I’ll see more movies like this in 2021.

#3sd-nerditude #3sd-personal #year-in-review

Originally posted at: https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2022/01/04/my-movie-watching-year-in-review-2021-edition.html

My Book-Reading Year in Review (2021 Edition)

The good news is, I keep track of the books I read at Goodreads.com.

The bad news is, I don’t always do a good job of it, though, especially when it comes to graphic novels, because those read so relatively quickly. So I know when Goodreads says I read 56 books this year, that’s arguably inaccurate.

Still, here’s my Annual Report from Goodreads.

The overall numbers are down from the past — I get into the non-fiction books below, but from a fiction standpoint, not being in the office, I didn’t as regularly take my lunchtime walk as I have previously. My bad.

Much of the year was spent re-reading / catching up on favorite book series. Two new (disappointing) installments were added to Cole & Bunch’s Sten series. I caught completely up with Gail Carriger’s various steampunk romances, as well as Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet space opera multi-series. I also caught up with the latest Charles Stross Laundry titles, and read some more Terry Pratchett (though not as much as he deserves).

From a new series standpoint, not much beyond discovering Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, an urban fantasy (even when in the countryside) about a family of Buffy the Vampire Slayers who are also conservationists and cryptozoologists. It’s pretty cheap fun, nice world building, and I’ll be plowing through many more of them in the New Year.

Goodreads (and my Kindle) rank things from 1-5 stars. Only three books earned that rating from me this year (with links to my reviews):

• Maria Dahvana Headley – Beowulf, A New Translation
• Gail Carriger – How to Marry a Werewolf
• J Michael Straczynski – Together We Will Go

(I didn’t review HtMaW beyond the rating — I think it just hit all the notes right for what it was.)

Most of what I read-read was fiction. Non-fiction works completed were few on the ground, largely because the COVID Pandemic continued to impact both my commuting to work and longer-range driving during which I usually listen to such things.

Anyway, for the record, there it all is.

#3sd-nerditude #3sd-personal #books #reading #year-in-review

Originally posted at: https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2022/01/02/my-book-reading-year-in-review-2021-edition.html