locker_monster's Year in Review

[locker_monster]

Actually, not much to report, but it's like that every year. ;-)

- Finished reading 54 books this year. That's down from last year, but meh, that's all right. The last book I finished was Broken Time Blues. It's a collection of short stories all set during the Depression but with a fantasy or sci fi twist. It was kind of bizarre. There were some good stories, though, like the one where Picasso is a magician and he creates Frankenstein-eqsue monsters from dead bodies and dying soldiers. Honestly. Against my better judgement I also read Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I don't see what all the hype was about. It's just Pride and Prejudice, but with zombies slapped on. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it's still the same basic plot. I also read the first two books in a series about a demon slayer that just made me sad. It wants to be Buffy, but it fails horribly. The main character is so annoying and the romance with her tall and brooding love interest is so boring. I plan to start Illium, by Dan Simmons, in the new year. It's an absolute brick of a book, but thankfully I will have some time to kill while on vacation.

- Wrote 10 fanfics this year. Thank you who_at_50 and dw_50ficathon for hosting such wonderful ficathons. Actually, that number might be 11, I wrote a drabble for a flash fiction comment-a-thon over at who_at_50 but I never posted it here, so I'm not sure if that counts.

- Had a great time in London for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. It was just fun overall celebrating a huge milestone. Here's to the next 50 years.

- Met some great Whoivans at the comic book expo this year. I plan to meet up with them again in April. Here's hoping the expo gets more awesome guests like this year. However, nothing can top meeting Nathan Fillion (he complimented my Kaylee costume twice!). My life is complete now having met him. ;-) Actually, if they somehow got Joss Whedon to show up, then my life would be complete, but I really don't see that happening. But more Firefly guests, please. Four more actors and I'll have a complete set of autographs.

- I suppose I also learned how to sew this year. I'm not ready to make anything super elaborate, but I can spool the thing and kind of sew in straight lines. I just need more practice. Need to make more things from scratch, but obviously small things.

In non New Year's related stuff, Sherlock is back tomorrow!!! But back to work on Thursday. :-( It's going to be dead, though. Plenty of people will still be on vacation.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

54 books this year

You just HAD to one-up me, didn't you? ;)

Congrats, though! Great total.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was pretty disappointing, yeah. My reaction was the same as I'm sure it would have been for the original Pride and Prejudice: Needs more zombies. But seriously, I don't like how they stuck to the plot so slavishly that they made all the girls ninja warriors on the side, because otherwise they'd have to actually REACT to the zombie apocalypse, instead of just continuing the plot and then, every few pages, kill some zombies. I would have much preferred if it started exactly like Pride and Prejudice, everybody being who they were, and then spun out of control as an actual zombie apocalypse altered things, sort of like a "What if"... maybe condense some aspects or change them (like, say, have many of the two main characters forced to share a fortified building and try to avoid each other while under the same roof) to keep echoes of the original plot, but not be exactly the same.

In the end, it's a book that was cooler to show people you were reading than it was to actually read (and even that was mostly just cool when it JUST came out).

Ilium is a pretty dense book, although I enjoyed it for the most part... be warned that it is part one of a two book series and it's really not the kind of book that's complete by itself.

And Happy New Year!