[SirMasterKey]

Well since my last update.

Books

Nothing to report

Films
One flew over the Cuckoo's nest- A very good film in my opinion. I did hate Nurse Ratchid (sp).
Third Star- I wasn't too sure what to make off it to be honest, I didn't really enjoy it but it did have a very powerful ending.

TV
A few episodes of Big Bang Theory and not much else to report really.

Music
7135 plays now. 1092 artists.

Claude-Michel Schönberg highest by far over the last 7 days. Followed by Einaudi and a band called Worrytrain.

[skipp]

Hi everyone

Know I'm a little late to the game, but this looks like fun!

Will be tracking books, movies, tv, and videogames

I rarely listen to much music so leaving that out for now, might reconsider at a later date

I also listen to a lot of audiobooks when I'm studying, still trying to work out the best way to track them, not sure whether to track them as books on goodreads or not, anyone else listening to audiobooks and have any ideas?

(Original post by Phalanges)

Movies
Games
Books
And I'm still waiting for a confirmation email from FMTV but I'll update that when it's done

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by skipp)
I also listen to a lot of audiobooks when I'm studying, still trying to work out the best way to track them, not sure whether to track them as books on goodreads or not, anyone else listening to audiobooks and have any ideas?

If you search the book on Goodreads and search the different formats, there should be an audiobook version in the list If not, you could add one yourself. Ooor, you could kind of cheat and add it as a paperback

[skipp]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
If you search the book on Goodreads and search the different formats, there should be an audiobook version in the list If not, you could add one yourself. Ooor, you could kind of cheat and add it as a paperback

Awesome, they've thought of everything

Also thanks for the friend request

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by skipp)
Awesome, they've thought of everything

Also thanks for the friend request

They really have, I wish I'd found it before this year. Still, this TSR challenge was a pretty good way to get introduced to it, it's really fun! I'm not doing too well with my 2012 Reading Challenge at the moment though, I'm like 6 books behind I think. I've got a bit stuck reading a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn book, but I don't want to quit and read another one...Problem is, it has two books in one so even when I finish the Tom Sawyer half, I'll still technically be only half the way through the whole book

Anyway, enough complaining I haven't done an update on here yet, so I'm gonna wait 'til the half-year mark some time in June.

I sent you a friend request on iCheckMovies too

[Phalanges]

Been quite a while since I updated; exams sucked a lot of the interesting things out of my life so I didn't really have all that much to report. Here's what I have been getting though, before I hopefully pick it up a bit and do some better stuff.

Books
I've got through six books since last time. First of all Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq. I really love undercover/exposé books that discuss a world you'd never know like Hotel Babylon, and one allied to a career I would potentially consider sounded great. It's one of the rawest books I've ever read, you can feel the injustice and hatred flowing across the page. I really loved reading it - it was one of those books where you feel a really close connection to the author and afterwards felt better for reading it. It is essential reading for anyone considering a career in the military, I can't recommend it highly enough. Then on to a polar opposite with The One-Week Job Project: One Man, One Year, 52 Jobs. I wanted to like this. The idea is great and simple, and it should provide great material in a number of directions - witty memoir, career guide, travelogue, personal diary. It's none of those. What it is is a very poorly edited blog written by a terrible writer. There is a complete lack of consistency from job to job (some chapters start with a job profile, some don't, the categories if there is are different), and the writer can't make up his mind whether he wants to dispense practical advice about each job, tell you about his personal experiences working or just fawn over a girl he met. It's got no direction and is really boring. Reading it really angered me at such a wasted opportunity. I am pretty confident that I could have taken that year and turned it into such a better book. After that I was plunged into the throes of exams and didn't want to do anything requiring a lot of thought, so I started reading the Artemis Fowl books. I haven't read these since I was a child, and even then I only read the first four before I outgrew them. Going back has been a joy. The first one had me marvelling at the overall concept. It's just so clever and brilliant for older kids. So far I've read the first four. The first one is great, tightly plotted although a little devoid of emotional development. The second one is much better on that front, but the final act felt very rushed. By the third one I was less impressed - the idea was really getting tired, and the stakes seemed so small compared to previous books. The fourth one then really surprised me, and is probably my favourite of the series so far. It opened with one of my favourite plot mechanics and then improved from there with some great action and development. I've started to notice some habits of Eoin Colfer I dislike - it really bugs me how he will just describe the personality of someone before you meet them without just conveying that information through their actions - but overall I think the concept of the series is so solid that they're a lot of fun to read. I'm looking forward to finishing off the rest.

Films
Eight films since I last updated, but only three of those were for the first time. I rewatched Inception (which remains brilliant), Oldboy (which remains one of the finest expressions of art I've ever seen), Hot Fuzz (an awful lot of fun) and Wedding Crashers (has it's moments). I got hooked on an Alice in Wonderland kick during all of my library sessions, so I went back to the old Disney cartoon. It's pretty and vibrant, but there's nothing below the surface, it all feels so superficial, and I went away feeling a little disappointed. Then I saw Tim Burton's interpretation for the first time. I'm a big fan of setting different stories in the same universe as that which you are adapting as it allows you to be creative without alienating fans of the original, and I thought that it had some good ideas (in particular I really liked the real-world wedding scene with all the foreshadowing). Unfortunately it veered off towards the end into very generic fantasy, and I also really wasn't a fan of the art style. Wikipedia tells me there's a lot of adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, I think I'm going to have to explore a few more to see if there's any that nails what I love about it. I also saw the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a curious mix of exposé on the (previously clandestine) MPAA raters and serious discussion about the issues and hypocrisies of the entire rating system. It's edited together with relative inexperience, but the message remains interesting and the truths it uncovers keeps it engaging throughout. It's a film that really deserves a wider audience, and it's one of the few accessible criticisms of a process that affects almost every film. Finally, I went to the cinema (which I haven't been doing anywhere near as much as I'd like to recently) to see The Raid. In parts it's brilliant, in others it's boring. There's a far better film in there just fighting to get out if it wasn't so hamstrung by the story.

TV
Got into a brief period of addiction with the World Series of Poker. As far as sports presentation on television goes, the WSOP is as close to perfection as is possible to be. The commentators are both funny and well-informed and credit the audience with enough intelligence to not do the stupid act of simply repeating what just happened five times, and the visuals have had so many innovations and refinements over the years that it excels at making it interesting and visually appealing to watch. Almost all sports packages could learn a lot from them in terms of maximising the quality of their programming, in particular the godawful F1 presentations that make me want to stick needles in my ears. Then I started watching The Office USA because there's a lot of good quality episodes that at only twenty minutes long provided a perfect break from revision. I do really enjoy that show. I'm still watching the Apprentice, it's still crap. Four Rooms ended recently, which is a real shame - there's now a big hole in my weekly viewing with nothing similar of a high enough quality to even attempt to fill it.

Music
I'm now at 2588 plays. Over the exam period I listened to Rihanna an obscene amount - she's just perfect to put on easily and be guaranteed a good upbeat song.

(Original post by skipp)
Know I'm a little late to the game, but this looks like fun!

Added to the original post, welcome!

[Natalie21]

(Original post by Phalanges)
Books
I've got through six books since last time. First of all Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq. I really love undercover/exposé books that discuss a world you'd never know like Hotel Babylon, and one allied to a career I would potentially consider sounded great. It's one of the rawest books I've ever read, you can feel the injustice and hatred flowing across the page. I really loved reading it - it was one of those books where you feel a really close connection to the author and afterwards felt better for reading it. It is essential reading for anyone considering a career in the military, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Sounds like a great book!

[Phalanges]

(Original post by Natalie21)
Sounds like a great book!

It really is. I feel I'd be remiss to not mention the somewhat pessimistic nature of the book; it's not something to read if you want to be cheered up. If you're not reading about the author having to take a cocktail of pills just to try and sleep at night then you're finding out about the almost institutional levels of adultery and the sheer incompetence and generally evil nature of the command (in one truly diabolical move, a sergeant found out an inferior was about to complain about him and pre-emptively filed paperwork saying he suspected her of mental illness). It's a really depressing read, and a wonderful counter to the rampant US military propaganda. Really, I'm more than a little surprised anyone ever published the book.

[skipp]

(Original post by Phalanges)
Added to the original post, welcome!

Thanks

(Original post by Village Whisper)
They really have, I wish I'd found it before this year. Still, this TSR challenge was a pretty good way to get introduced to it, it's really fun! I'm not doing too well with my 2012 Reading Challenge at the moment though, I'm like 6 books behind I think. I've got a bit stuck reading a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn book, but I don't want to quit and read another one...Problem is, it has two books in one so even when I finish the Tom Sawyer half, I'll still technically be only half the way through the whole book

Anyway, enough complaining I haven't done an update on here yet, so I'm gonna wait 'til the half-year mark some time in June.

I sent you a friend request on iCheckMovies too

I first discovered goodreads when it was really new didn't find it particularly easy to use and abandoned it, but finding it way easier this time round, plus really enjoying adding thing's I've read in the past few months haven't had much time to read recently, and it's odd to see how different my reading habits are when compared to, for example, last summer

I never really enjoyed either Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, can't get more than a short way through either despite having tried on a few occasions, hopefully you'll get a bit more out of them than I did good luck with your list!

Working on one bit as a time as I'm meant to be revising icheckmovies next time a break methinks!

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by skipp)
I first discovered goodreads when it was really new didn't find it particularly easy to use and abandoned it, but finding it way easier this time round, plus really enjoying adding thing's I've read in the past few months haven't had much time to read recently, and it's odd to see how different my reading habits are when compared to, for example, last summer

I never really enjoyed either Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, can't get more than a short way through either despite having tried on a few occasions, hopefully you'll get a bit more out of them than I did good luck with your list!

Working on one bit as a time as I'm meant to be revising icheckmovies next time a break methinks!

Yeah, it's fun I like how it shows you what percentage of the way you are through the book, when the page numbers are right at least. Well, I have liked it for every other book apart from my current one!
I'm only on 28%, which isn't very encouraging. I thought it was just starting to get interesting, but now it's back to being a bit of a chore. I'm going on holiday for a week tomorrow though, so I might read some other books and then come back to it afterwards. Glad I'm not the only one who's less than thrilled by it, though

Ah, I'm glad I finished my revision last year, it's awful (I'm an art student haha). Reading's usually good for a bit of a break from it though Good luck with your revision, though!

[Natalie21]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
Yeah, it's fun I like how it shows you what percentage of the way you are through the book, when the page numbers are right at least.

Goodreads does this?

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Natalie21)
Goodreads does this?

Yes, if you select an edition that's specified the number of pages. On your homepage you can update your status, e.g. page 20 out of 300, and it will calculate the percentage for you

[Natalie21]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
Yes, if you select an edition that's specified the number of pages. On your homepage you can update your status, e.g. page 20 out of 300, and it will calculate the percentage for you

Ah okay awesome Even though tbh my Kindle does this for me... but still nice to know... thanks

[Phalanges]

(Original post by Village Whisper)
Yeah, it's fun I like how it shows you what percentage of the way you are through the book, when the page numbers are right at least. Well, I have liked it for every other book apart from my current one!

The books never seem to have accurate page numbers for me. I've gotten out of the habit of updating page-by-page on goodreads and just say when I'm done - I can use my Kindle to track my percentage!

[Village Whisper]

(Original post by Phalanges)
The books never seem to have accurate page numbers for me. I've gotten out of the habit of updating page-by-page on goodreads and just say when I'm done - I can use my Kindle to track my percentage!

Yeah, I've had the same problem a couple of times now. I spend forever looking for my edition though, so generally they're right if whoever created it added the number of pages. The book I'm reading at the moment is really frustrating though, because the page numbers are wrong but it won't let me create another edition since it apparently has the same ISBN number as mine. The one I had to choose has around 30 more pages though, so it's making my percentage even lower than it should be which isn't very encouraging!

Although I wouldn't want a Kindle, my mum and sister both have them and the percentage bit does look good. That's part of the reason why I keep updating page-by-page on Goodreads

[Welsh_insomniac]

I love Goodreads It seems so encouraging.

Books

I just finished my 13th book of the year - For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway. Loved it! But it took me so long to read. My postgrad work is getting in the way of my reading target. I should be on something like 25 books now. Ah well, there's always time to catch up Hopefully I'll make my target of 50 by the end of the year!

Films

I've watched 180 films so far this year I've been really getting into European cinema lately.

It's great seeing everyone getting into this. Almost half way through the year and everyone is staying strong

Bask in the culture, everyone!

[Natalie21]

(Original post by Phalanges)
It really is. I feel I'd be remiss to not mention the somewhat pessimistic nature of the book; it's not something to read if you want to be cheered up. If you're not reading about the author having to take a cocktail of pills just to try and sleep at night then you're finding out about the almost institutional levels of adultery and the sheer incompetence and generally evil nature of the command (in one truly diabolical move, a sergeant found out an inferior was about to complain about him and pre-emptively filed paperwork saying he suspected her of mental illness). It's a really depressing read, and a wonderful counter to the rampant US military propaganda. Really, I'm more than a little surprised anyone ever published the book.

I will definitely have to check it out... sounds very intriguing

[SirMasterKey]

Dead laptop means a couple of weeks of no more music added as my library computers don't like last.fm's playing a station. Mhey.

[Emmie3303]

I haven't updated for ages so this is going to be a long post . Here goes...

Music

I've been neglecting Last.FM so I'm only on 1083 plays. Since the last update I've been listening to AWOLNATION, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Mat Kearney, some classical music and all my normal stuff.

Books

I've read: Midwinterblood, Phantastes, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Forever, Pompeii: the Life of a Roman Town, I'm Not Scared, Snow Falling on Cedars, the Midwife of Venice, The World of the Druids, Emily Goes To Exeter, Prisoner of Azkaban, Death of Kings, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.

I'm currently reading: Monsters of Men, Marco Polo's Travels.

Midwinterblood was an interesting read. It was set in the same place but jumped around in time. I love Marcus Sedgwick and this is definitely one of my favourites of his. Phantastes was very hard to like. I just didn't care very much for the style and I expected more from supposedly the first ever fantasy novel. I suppose at the time it was published it would have been very, very unusual. I didn't particularly enjoy reading it though. I love Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was just as good as the earlier books. Forever is the final book in a trilogy. I loved the first book and the second was good but this one was a little disappointing. The ending wasn't very good in my opinion and it was a little boring in places. I really enjoyed reading Pompeii by Mary Beard. It was very accessible but also a good read for those with a strong background knowledge of Roman culture as it debunks a lot of common theories and tries not to make sensational assumptions based on tiny pieces of evidence. It's written in an amusing style.

I've read I'm Not Scared loads of times and it never gets boring. The imagery in this book is fantastic. It took me ages to get into Snow Falling on Cedars. The first 100 pages just seemed to be going nowhere but it got a lot better and towards the end I was thankful for the long introduction as without it the book wouldn't have had nearly the same impact. The Midwife of Venice was nothing special. It was a nice, entertaining read with some really good sections. The World of the Druids was quite good. It was your average basic introduction. It did repeat itself a little. I really enjoyed reading Emily Goes To Exeter as it was a really funny, light hearted story that didn't take itself seriously and just provided a couple of hours of fun and regency fluff. I've read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban countless times. It's my third favourite of the seven books after 6 and 4 (and my 2nd least favourite of the films). Death of Kings is the second in a fictional series dramatising the life of Julius Caesar. It was a great read and I'd highly recommend the series (by Conn Iggulden). King Arthur... was very simple (the stories are written for kids) but it was nice to read some of the less well known stories that form the legend.

Films

Since last time I've watched 22 films: How To Train Your Dragon, The Hunger Games, Water For Elephants, Stardust, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2, Star Trek, the History Boys, all 3 LOTR films, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, No Strings Attached, Housewife,49, War Horse, Vanity Fair, Stay Cool, The Road, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Pride & Prejudice, Snow White and the Huntsman and The Tree of Life.

I'll only write about the ones I've watched for the first time.

The Hunger Games was a good film but I haven't read the books so I wasn't overly excited by the whole thing. I liked the tone of the film. Water For Elephants was enjoyable too. It was serious and quite sad in places but it was still fun to watch and the characters were fairly well developed. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie surprised me. I don't normally watch older films (I probably should!) but I really enjoyed this. Maggie Smith was fantastic as always but the younger cast members really pulled it off too. No Strings Attached was your average Hollywood Rom Com. Entertaining but nothing special. There were some funny lines and some terrible lines. I watched Housewife, 49 because it's set in my town and I quite enjoyed it. I wasn't paying attention properly so I did miss little snippets of it . I really loved War Horse. I thought it had the right balance of danger and terror and then fluff and heart. The scene where the horses are running

Spoiler:

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towards the enemy lines and then the camera just pans onto a machine gun is heartbreaking. I don't think Spielberg could have captured the sense of futility and hopelessness any better than he did.

Vanity Fair was okay. I enjoyed James Purefoy's performance and many of the supporting actors were great too (Romola Garai, for instance). I felt a little bit underwhelmed at the end. after reading some reviews it seems that many people who have read the novel felt that the characterisation of Fanny was entirely wrong. I think I'm a couple of decades to young to be particularly impressed by Stay Cool. It was definitely aimed at American 30-40 somethings who had a terrible time at high school. Also I think Hilary Duff needs to find another occupation. The Road was stunning. The acting was fantastic and little glimmers of hope and happiness made it easier to handle the depressing atmosphere of the post-apocalyptic world. I enjoyed Pride & Prejudice and thought the cinematography was beautiful. However, I still think the 1995 TV series is far superior simply because of the time it gave to character development. Pride and Prejudice is most certainly a story about character traits and I think this film version spends more time on the spectacle and hopes that prior knowledge of other versions or the book will help the viewer fill in the gaps.

Snow White and the Huntsman was surprisingly very good. The cinematography was beautiful and there was certainly a very dark atmosphere to the film. Character development wasn't fantastic but even Kristen Stewart managed to be convincing in her role. She wasn't brilliant but she employed a few more facial expressions than she normally does! The Tree of Life was...interesting. For the first 30-40 minutes I was confused to say the least. There was one section that seemed very odd until I realised

Spoiler:

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that the aim was to show life from the very beginning. Suddenly the random space scenes and aquatic scenes, the geysers and volcanoes and some very random dinosaurs made perfect sense.

After that the film became more coherent. It was still very strange but I think I liked it. See it if you want to watch something completely unusual.

TV

I've now seen the first series of Touch in full. I've quite enjoyed it although I wouldn't say I was excited about new episodes. The finale was interesting.

Game of Thrones is finished ! I've really enjoyed series 2. The highlight for me was Blackwater. I'm really looking forward to series 3 and 4 since they will be based on the best book in the entire series and some pretty amazing things happen in Storm of Swords. Excited is an understatement!

I'm still watching Grimm and Once Upon A Time. They are both interesting takes on fairytales. One is dark while the other is pretty family orientated. (I'm guessing that fairytale reinvention is going to replace vampires and werewolves soon.)

I watched all of The Apprentice.

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I like Nick's idea and I wanted him to win. I'm glad Ricky won though as, witness the fitness aside, he was one of the best candidates and seems to have his business brain screwed on.

I'm still watching ER. I've watched most of series 1-3 and I'm watching 10-12 at the moment.

I've got two episodes of Alcatraz left to watch. I can't believe they cancelled it! It's a great concept and they've executed it well. I guess people aren't ready for another 6 years of mystery yet!

I started watching Awake and stopped when I heard it was cancelled as I wasn't overly impressed with it anyway. Jason Isaacs was great though.

A new show I've picked up on is Hit and Miss on Sky One. It's very serious and deals with some quite heavy issues and it's quite compelling.

I'm enjoying Silk at the moment. I loved the first series so I was really happy to see it return. I thought I'd miss the pupils from last year but so far there has been enough new stuff going on to make me forget they were even there.

I watched the latest series of Not Going Out too. The camping episode was almost as funny as the plate dropping episode!

I think that's it. Not very much really when you think about it....

[Phalanges]

(Original post by Emmie3303)
I've got two episodes of Alcatraz left to watch. I can't believe they cancelled it! It's a great concept and they've executed it well. I guess people aren't ready for another 6 years of mystery yet!

Just you wait until you see the season finale. When you realise that all the new information they introduce is never going to be explained, it will make you very angry. I don't think I've felt this annoyed at a lack of resolution due to cancellation since Dirty Sexy Money, although I was a lot more invested in that show - it still pisses me off that it just ground to a halt.