AT LAST

The Hobbit cast all gathered together in one fine video Q and A!

[link]

I am so excited right now, I don't even know what to do. Other than watch the video again

What makes me the happiest? . . . The revelation that there's going to be Dwarves singing in the film. That makes me almost ridiculously happy, hahaha.

Also the fourteen guys seem really brilliant together, so . . . basically I can't wait for 2012. Even more.

I made a promise to my friends while the Hobbit was still in limbo a couple years ago that if and when it finally was released I would go to the cinema dressed as the Lonely Mountain. I guess I have to start planning my costume now

(Reposted from my dA page, which explains the little emoticons, haha)

A long overdue 'Farewell to 2010' post

So the final book count of 2010 is . . . 62! Yep, I managed to read 62 new books this year, a final tally I'm quite pleased with, although I had hoped to read 10 a month. Life, and lack of library access, sometimes gets in the way of lofty ambitions. You'll find reviews for most of these books scattered throughout my blog posts of the last year, if you wish. I'll include a full list of titles below.

Also worthy of notice are the films I watched for the first time this year! I may be a bookwyrm at heart, but I also love film, and so although I don't review the movies I watch really on this blog I still think they deserve a shout-out in this post. I'm counting not just films that came out last year, but any movie I watched for the first time in 2010. I watched 24 films this year. And here are my favorite three live-action films, followed by my favorite three animated films that I discovered in 2010:

Live Action
1. Lawrence of Arabia- A glorious epic, thought-provoking, emotionally devastating, and brilliantly filmed.
2. Inception- One of my most anticipated movies of the year, and it surpassed my expectations. I love films that make you think and that make me emotional, and this was both.
3. Sunshine- It's flawed, sure. But it's also one of my favorite movies now. The climax of this film gives me chills, and there are a few scenes that are absolutely some of the most beautiful and heartwrenching moments I've seen in any film.
Runner Up: (Tie) Memento, (500) Days of Summer

Animated
1. Toy Story 3-I really can't place this film above the other two, but it did provoke more philosophizing from me than any other film. I think on the whole that it stabbed my heart more than won a place in it--affected me profoundly but I'm not keen to watch it again and again, that'd be too painful XD
2. How To Train Your Dragon-I expected this film to be lame, and by the time it got to the 'Hiccup drawing Toothless' scene I was practically in tears because I was so happy and completely taken aback. I really truly love this movie, and would say without hesitation that it's one of my favorite films, period. Gorgeously animated, completely endearing characters, a bittersweet ending that shocked me and was basically the perfect icing on the cake--This is a winner.
3. Tangled-This is the film that probably is closest to my heart, though. The animation is stunningly beautiful, the story basically exactly the sort of thing I love best--self sacrifice, humor, drama, a cute romance, great characters, Alan Menken music, fantastic songs, lotsa teary-eye moments, magic, 'twoo wuv'--I could go on and on, but I have already in the past, so basically I'll just make it clear that my three favorite animated films are basically tied for number one this year for different reasons. Yeah, I can do that!
Runner Up: The Secret of Kells-A less-well-known film, but the hand-drawn animation is stunning and the story is excellent. Add to that an enormous dose of Celtic goodness and you have a winner! I really recommend you track this one down and give it a watch.

And below is a full list of my 10 favorite reads of 2010. I'm not even going to try to crown one of them king, though. Note that some are Books of the Month, and some aren't. Since I'm just grouping my reading into one year instead of separate months for this final reckoning, there are a few times where I read multiple books in one month that I liked better than another book that got the BotM title due to lesser reading material during its month. I'd recommend reading all of the below:

The Mark of the Horse Lord
The Shield Ring
Neverwhere
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Fahrenheit 451
All Creatures Great and Small
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Caves of Steel
Prospero's Children
The American Revolution

So there you have it, my favorite films and books of 2010! Now here's to a brilliant 2011, hm? I know I'm super late on posting my newest reviews--or, indeed, anything this year!--so I'll be fixing that over the course of the next few days. My reading is off to a good start though, thanks to some Christmas money and a few trips to the local library. Book reviews for January will be posted soon.

As to film, I'm mostly excited about The Hobbit which of course isn't even being released this year! But there's plenty of movies I really want to see this year, too, most of them frivolous sorts: Captain America, Thor, Cowboys and Aliens, Sherlock Holmes 2 . . . We'll see how many I actually go watch.

Righto, I hope your 2011 is treating you kindly so far, and I look forward to continuing my blogging once more!

Book Reviews for November

Not much reading done this month, as I was busy with Oireachtas. I still got some reading in though, mostly fantasy books. I've been in a 'light reading' sort of mood. Here we go then:

The Naming, by Alison Croggon
This is a very entertaining book. It reads as though Croggon subconsciously absorbed all her favorite fantasy novels and then regurgitated them into one plotline unknowingly. This should irritate me, but instead it amuses me a lot. The characters are fun at least, even though there's actual dialogue and events clearly ripped from other, far superior works: I recognized The Lord of the Rings and The Tombs of Atuan easily, and then shades of others. Another thing to giggle at is how very often characters seem to drink alcohol. Anyway, despite all the story's very evident faults, I enjoyed it and want to read the rest of the series now. Hopefully Croggon emphasizes her own originality more later on?

1602, by Neil Gaiman
A graphic novel reimagining of Marvel superheroes as men and women living in . . . 1602 AD. The premise alone makes me happy, and the writing is superb. I'd probably enjoy it more if I knew more about all the superheroes featured, but even as I am it's great. The art's pretty good. Overall it's fun but not going onto my favorite books list.

The Pirate's Son, by Geraldine McCaughrean
I can't even remember much about this book, which shows you how poorly written it was. Not worth your time.

The Time Machine, by HG Wells
This is the first Wells book I've ever read, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's pretty short, which surprised me . . . Wells' explanation of how the time machine works was brilliant in its simplicity, I really liked that. Also his portrayal of the future was very thought-provoking and entertaining. I liked the ending too. If you like science fiction I'd recommend this.

Book of the Month:

Prospero's Children, by Jan Siegel

This is an excellent fantasy novel. Siegel is an author who understands the power of words; the novel reads like poetry. The characters are strongly and fully developed and the storyline is fully engrossing and unfolds beautifully. The pacing is perfect, there's nail-biting tension and intense emotion. It also has a distinctly British flavor, which I love. There's mysterious characters, a dark old gothic mansion, time travel, and more. The story did let me down severely towards the end, but the main plot remained sound, so overall it was definitely one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Highly recommended.

'Tangled' Art!

I did the line-art with my quill and ink, and then colored it digitally. This piece I did before I even saw the movie, heh.

This one I drew after I saw the movie . . . He's showing off his not-super-strengthed hand, I guess? xD

Also after the movie, obviously.
Cupcakes and dancing and bookstores and fiddle music and . . . basically one of my favorite parts.
I did this with quill and ink as well, I like parchment doodling! And then I colored it with colored pencils. I never really used colored pencils before, so I don't think it turned out as well as it should have, but I wanted a sort of soft and fun pencil look, so I'm happy with it overall. It's colorful anyway :D

I'll try to do another artwork post soon; I've got plenty of not Tangled-related stuff lying around. I even did my first ever watercolor painting today! Which turned out . . . pretty good considering I know zilch about technique and so basically learned as I went along, hahahahaha.

The Dinosaurs Are Coming Back!

I just found out that the British television show 'Primeval' will be returning on New Year's Day! I am so ridiculously excited about this, because series 3 ended long ago and on a cliffhanger, the show was canceled for a little while, and then was resurrected, and basically it's been a long time of waiting for more of it. It's not the best show out there, but it is one of the ones I'm most fond of, because--uh, it's got humor, geekery, and dinosaurs! As I've mentioned in a past post, dinosaurs rampaging through the modern world was a frequent nightmare of mine when I was a kid, so I adore watching it on television now, hehehehe.

I'm of course worried about the new characters and whether they'll be as good as all the other ones have been so far, but I'm so excited I don't even really care. Becker, Connor, Lester, and Abby will be back, so it should be good :D

And did I mention the dinosaurs?