Review.

29 Dec 2006

What a wet, windy 'puddle' of a season. It's been wet in many ways. Over November and December, I've turned into a binge-drinking monster. This has to end soon. I've offended countless people by doing it. Now my poor stomach is bloated (more than usual) by snacking on tins of Celebrations that never seem to end, and overall feeling quite rotten. The New Year's Resolutions are going to be a doddle.

There's radio silence on the mobile, but the return to work is drawing ever closer.
I've grown a full beard and am currently mentally hibernating, cocoon-style, trying to drown out the sound of the Jeremy Kyle on the TV by tapping on the keyboard extra-loud.

It's not all been bad though. Apart from a few professional achievements, I've discovered lots of cool things and places. Went to Tokyo for the first and second time and discovered a fascinating place about as far away from the common stereotype as it could possibly get. I'm not going to regurgitate my accounts of the second trip, but if you want to see them, scroll down a bit. Apologies for the grammar, I didn't get much sleep.

I also started reading loads again this year, and I've picked up some real gems. Perhaps the best read in recent times for me is a book called Cloud Atlas by a chap called David Mitchell. Can't remember what made me pick it up, but I believe I got it in the £3.77 range in Tesco. And what a gem it was. It's a collection of interconnected stories beginning in the recent past and finishing in the far future. It's basically a study in human nature throughout the ages. It can be little heavy at times, but give it a chance, it really is worth picking up. Next I tried out the new Nick Hornby novel, A Long Way Down, but it was the first book in about three years that I couldn't finish. I just couldn't get into it.

So, next up, when I went on holiday, I bought David Mitchell's first book, Ghostwritten, which was always going to be a risk, considering how much I enjoyed the first, and surprise! it wasn't quite as good. It felt like it was trying to be too clever. It also fell apart because the sun melted the glue binding the pages to the spine. Not a big loss. The third book of his that I started to read was Number9dream, about a boy from rural Japan who tries to make a life for himself in Tokyo. It starts off really well, but I lost it on a plane, along with my favourite Farnham bookmark, so now I'm going to have to wait until I can be bothered to spend another £7.99 just to read the end of it. It was good though...

More recently, I read the His Dark Materials series. I got the first book as a gift through work, but I later bought the second, and rented the third from the library. Without meaning to detract too much from my flow, my advice is to go and join your local library whenever you can. The people there are really nice, and there's lots of DVDs there now too. Which reminds me, I must take that back soon.

Anyway, I found the first book a bit of a slow starter, but it gets very cool as the story develops, especially the daemons. It's been described as an adult Harry Potter, although I've never read the Harry Potter books and only seen the first film. I can say that it gets quite heavy later on...There's a film next year, with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.

Right now I'm reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King, I'm about half way through, and have to say that I'm still waiting for it to get exciting. There was a waiting list of about seven people at the library, so I had to buy the hardback for £10, which is a shame. I'll let you know how I get on. I might have mentioned in a previous blog (apologies if I'm doubling up here), but Stephen King would have to be my favourite author, however, I'm disappointed by his last couple of books. The Cell started off really well, but slowed down to a crawl before an unsatisfactory end. I did borrow a audiobook called LT's Theory of Pets recently though, and thought that was a great way to spend a boring commute.

Anyway, that's me and books.

Films-wise, I've also watched lots of films, the most recent being Pirates of The Caribbean 2 on DVD this morning. The first film was shown on terrestrial telly the other night, so I thought I'd pick up the sequel. It's 'ok' but ends on a cliffhanger. That's one of my pet hates - ending a film without a resolution. I may be a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to stories, but really can't stand forking out for a DVD rental and getting no ending from it.

My favourite film this year has to be Pan's Labyrinth. I wasn't sure what to expect from a Spanish fantasy film with subtitles, but it's excellent. It follows the story of a young girl who has to go and stay with her evil stepfather. She is put to the test by a faun from the nearby forest who believes she is the reincarnation of the queen of the underworld. Against the backdrop of Spanish Civil War, this was an enchanting and very well made film. Other gem I saw a week or so ago was Munich, starring Eric 'The Hulk' Bana, and Daniel 'Steely-Eyed Bond' Craig. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it's a story about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics, where some Palestinian terrorists laid siege to the Olympic village and captured some members of the Israeli Olympic team. The film is about a mission to avenge the subsequent deaths of the athletes. Rachael thought it was rubbish and went to bed, but I persevered and found the moral message presented by the finale to be very gratifying.

Next year I'm looking forward to Bobby, about the time of the death of RFK, a subject I read up a lot on when I was younger, following the Oliver Stone movie about JFK, his older brother. The trailer for the new Will Smith film, The Pursuit of Happyness actually looks ok, but I really can't wait for the new Transformers movie in the summer. It had better be good, it's been a long time coming.Anyway, better go and rescue Rachael from the pulp on TV. Jeremy Kyle is still on somewhere on another channel, but now she's started watching the shopping channel, so it's time to finish up.Enjoy it, whatever you have planned.