Because I Forgot To Stick This In T'Other Post..

[sophieisgod]

In reading/viewing order, because if I have to try and rank them my brain will boil in my head and I'll die.

Books
I'm so pissed off I only made it to 90 - if I hadn't been on a film module this term... *brandishes fists* *repents, because Visionary Film was sexy win*


Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck
This is how you do a mortal/immortal love story, bitches.


Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
Graham Greene is my guilty Catholic literary boyfriend, and this novel says so much about why love and faith are messy and illogical and damaging and necessary.


Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty
ALL TEENAGE GIRLS. I'm serious.


Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise
Sharp, heartbreaking, detailed, important; a reminder of what was lost.


Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now
Rosoff has this amazing gift for writing with an adolescent voice; I read all three of her novels in swift succession, and this is my favourite. A fucked-up narrator, careless youths, a dystopian country in chaos, and cousins in love.


Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road
You know what's fun? When the American Dream loses its shine.


David Levithan & Rachel Cohn, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK AND THESE CHARACTERS AND THIS NIGHT.


Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
I think this is one of the best uses of narrative voice I've ever read; when you finally get a glimpse of the humanity and feeling, it's too late, and it's painful beyond words.


Cormac McCarthy, The Road
God, another heart-ripper-outer. I don't have kids, but the father-son relationship in this blows my mind with the love. Also, post-apocalytic-type things are AWESOME. It's just a fact.


Dodie Smith, I Capture The Castle
Precocious, adolescent female narrators with literary ambitions are my kryptonite (see also: Briony Tallis).


Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
I cannot believe I only read this for the first time this year! Basically, I am more like Catherine than is healthy, but I'm alright with that.


Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
Gothic, sexy, mysterious riff on Jane Eyre


David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
I am a complete whore for clever structure, and this was delicious


Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life
Forthright and engaging, it left me with a picture of a sharper Austen than I knew before, and I loved it (see also: Miss Austen Regrets)


Glen Duncan, I, Lucifer
TOO MUCH FUN, FOR SERIOUS. Whips along at a filthy rate, detouring into religion and history and politics and pop culture and damn, that's a charming, infuriating devil.

Films
(This is the part where I wish for the bajillionth time that I had picspam skillz)

Everything Is Illuminated
I adore the book, Alex being one of my favourite characters ever, and I was charmed by this adaptation, which did a great job of streamlining the narrative and also had Elijah Wood's giant eyes. Look, graphics!

Eastern Promises
Russian!Viggo! Naked knife fights! Sexual tension!

Once
See this if you like music. Or have a heart.

There Will Be Blood
holymilkshakes

The Darjeeling Limited
Ohh, Wes Anderson. Also, the noses in this film are magnificent.

Son Of Rambow
Skill on toast! Also, it is sunny and touching and beautiful and there is a flying dog!

In Bruges
Possibly my very favourite thing I saw this year. Hilarious, black as pitch, violent, excellent, Irish accents, Clémence Poésy... Midgets!
"I know I shouldn't.... but I will."

Penelope
Ohh, you know.

Charlie Bartlett
Robert Downey Jr. Kat Dennings. A crazy private school boy. Messed-up kids. Also, this:

Wanted
Don't you want to see Morgan Freeman saying "Kill this motherfucker"? Also, James McAboy has lots of freckles.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
An awesome meta-neo-noir. With RDJ. And Val Kilmer as a gay detective. I LOVE THAT I AM WRITING AN ESSAY ABOUT THIS. Also, picspam!

Brideshead Revisited
It's definitely got significant flaws, but it makes it on here just for Ben Whishaw's performance, my God.

Summertime
David Lean. Katharine Hepburn. Venice. This makes me ache.

St Trinian's
Dirty sexy genius. Also, Colin Firth in a wet shirt. Also also:


Mean Streets
It was a toss-up between this and David Lynch's Lost Highway for Favourite Film I Studied This Term, but come on. It's Scorsese, with young!hot!Harvey Keitel and young!hot!Robert DeNiro. AND CATHOLIC GUILT.

Comments

[bbbewitched.livejournal.com]

You read 90 books?! That is pretty much my dream. I am such a slow reader :( unless I skim read it and then I don't understand it properly. I'm basically a reading fail. Some of those books look really good, I shall definitely look into them!
If you liked Rebecca as you said you do, there's a sort of sequel spin-off type one called The Other Rebecca written by Maureen Freely. I haven't read it, but she's a tutor on my course, so I fully intend to soon.

[acciobatman.livejournal.com]

God so many books that I have not read. I'd read most of the second half, from 'I capture the castle' onwards, but the contemporary novels were new to me. Might take them as recomendations then!

Great movie choices too though.

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't write yourself off yet! You still have 13 days to read a couple new books! (Also, how much do I love that our book lists vaguely resemble each other? Answer: a lot.)

[falseeeyelashes.livejournal.com]

Ohh, Wes Anderson. Also, the noses in this film are magnificent.

OMG SO TRUE. I love that movie with a crazy passion, haha. And I also love the odd assortment of noses too, heh.

And Suite Francaise? Definitely one of my favorite books I read this year. So, so good!

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

I now want to read just about all of these books, THANK YOU. Or, well, seriously, thank you. I'm free! I have time to read! It's epic and extraordinary! And I totally want to get my hands on a bunch of these right now. I'm particularly intrigued by The Vintner's Luck. (Also, LIBBA BRAY FOR LIFE.) I also so need to read Rebecca someday. And I really want to read The Remains of The Day because we did Never Let Me Go, also by Ishiguro, in my contemporary lit class, and I'm STILL not over how much I loved that one.

I had this dream of reading 100 books this year, and only made it to 71. (So far! I could still do it! I could ... still ... bleh.) So you done pretty darn good, my friend!

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

YAY BOOKS! Seriously, The Vintner's Luck. IT HAS AN EPIC LOVE STORY INVOLVING A GAY ANGEL.

I feel kind of bad, because Never Left Me Go didn't hit me nearly as hard as I was expecting it to. I think I'll have to give it another go, because I really did adore TRotD and Ishiguro's style; it might just have been one of those things where I wasn't in the right mood or something.

SEBASTIAAAAN.

[lovestories.livejournal.com]

This year has been all kinds of TERRIBLE for my reading wise (...HOW IS IT THAT I NEVER HAVE ANY TIME ANYMORE? HOW?) but this list makes me want to sprint to the bookstore and just start pulling books off the shelves. ♥

Edit: ALSO, LIBBA BRAY! Man, I remember when (a million years ago) I started this impromptu casting thing for AGaTB because of my ALL-CONSUMING OBSESSION.

OH GOD, I HAVE TO GO TRACK DOWN THAT LIST NOW.

[erture.livejournal.com]

In Bruges was amazing. I need to see that again. If you ever get the chance to see any plays by the writer of In Bruges, do it. Dark twisted Irish humor is love.

Also I have much love for A Great and Terrible Beauty. YA fantasy featuring kickass female characters is a major weakness of mine.

[tirwen-star03.livejournal.com]

*takes notes* These all look so excellent! I've only read two of them, and since I'm trying to put together a proper to-read list for 2009, this is handy. :D ♥

[marketchippie.livejournal.com]

NICK & NORAH/Vintner's Luck ♥

Also, damn, I, Lucifer looks like fun...

[saint-renegade.livejournal.com]

OMG I LOVED I, LUCIFER SO FUCKING MUCH. I've read it like five times.

ASK EVE, THAT MINX.

[clytemnestra215.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome. Now I have some ideas for new books to check out from the library!

I'll be posting my list and assessment of books read this year, but not for another couple weeks (I want it to be a full list).

Also, had to use this icon since it refers to the same song :P albeit a much more Cat Stevens version!

[alkhoon.livejournal.com]

David Mitchell has a book??? I have to get that. (Oops. Lol. A different David Mitchell)

The Darjeeling Limited! I didn't expect to like this film but I really really loved it. The subtle comedy was Gold.

Penelope! I saw it again the other day and it never fails to amuse me and JAMES MCAVOY is adorable with his american accent. <33. Oh yes, I can't forget Simon Woods. I loved the way he portrayed his character. An Endless source of lolz.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang!! EPIC EPIC AND EPIC. :D Fantastic script.

St Trinian's. ♥

[templa-otmena.livejournal.com]

Saw this and thought of you :D xXx