The first 16 days of 2012 have been hit and miss. Some planned days that I thought were going to be amazing turned into exactly what I didn’t want to happen (okay, one particular day) and the rest have ranged from good to “meh.” But The Smell’s anniversary show was great so there’s that.
With that small update out of the way, I’m going to spend this current amount of free time reminiscing about 2011. So ha!
Favorite song of 2011: By Your Hand by Los Campesinos!
Favorite movie of 2011: Midnight in Paris
Favorite series of 2011: Doctor Who (Best thing I’ve started watching, like ever.)
Favorite novel of 2011: Miles To Go by Richard Paul Evans
Clever title, eh? Thanks goes out to A Tribe Called Quest for suddenly helping me out with blog posts. Earlier today when I was bored, I randomly started listening to old hip hop songs I used to nod to back in the music phase known as the “jazz-influenced-socially conscious-hip hop era” of my life (music taste circa 2005-2006). The song I’m referring to is the amazing Jazz (We Got), but the song that really made me miss my old hip hop days was Digable Planets’ Rebirth of the Slick (Cool Like Dat).
Siiiick. My gosh, that is just beyond cool. C’mon contemporary rappers, what happened do you guys? Why do you suck so much now? Honestly, I could go on and on about all those jazz-influenced groups I used to listen to. Guru’s Jazzmatazz albums, The Pharcyde, The Roots (their album Do You Want More?!!!??!) and of course the already mentioned and my favorite, A Tribe Called Quest. But that’s for another post and another time.
In my reading life, I’m taking a short break from finishing the Scott Pilgrim series with Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour and returning to the writings of Paulo Coelho. He wrote one of my favorite novels of all time, The Alchemist, which is an amazing book full of adventure/telling you the meaning of life/being inspirational/desert tales/helping you find your purpose/just being an awesome story. A few years ago, I picked up another novel of his, The Devil & Miss Prym. It was definitely not as hard-hitting as The Alchemist, but it was a good read nonetheless.
Well lately, I’ve started reading Coelho’s blog and suddenly found the urge to pick up one of his books again. This time, I’m going with Brida, another novel about self-discovery. So far the plot is as follows: an Irish girl, who is trying to figure out who she is, undertakes the teachings of a Mage in order to learn the secrets of magic. Magic! It is has to be good, right? Can’t go wrong with that. Here’s hoping it’s another great read from Coelho.
It is July 15th 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have graduated from college and have just met, spending the night in her bedroom talking until sunrise. That is how it begins. The rest of One Day, David Nicholls’ third novel, proceeds to take the reader through the next twenty years of Dex and Em’s life – each chapter being set on July 15th of the proceeding year. This great concept constantly left me itching for more with each chapter leaving a cliffhanger to be resolved in some form with the story skipping to one year later for Dexter and Emma.
They change so much through their 20s and 30s and in some chapters, a lot changes in just one year. Or as in others, nothing really changes at all. Funny how that happens in life, right? This book brought many feelings… at times it is hilarious, heartbreaking, nostalgic and warm. And it was definitely one of my best reads of the year so far and my favorite of all Nicholls’ novels. Read it… NOW.
