Thursday, January 29, 2015

My 2014 Books and Movies

The list of 29 books I read last year are on LibraryThing. I also started an account on Goodreads, where I hope to keep the lists in sync.

I read a lot of good books in 2014. Some highlights include Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson), CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (George Saunders), Trapped Under the Sea (Neil Swidey) and Collision Low Crossers (Nicholas Dawidoff).

The book that really affected me this year was Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea (Steven Callahan). This is a survival story, but Callahan really elevates his tale of struggle by uniting his survival to the mysterious and sometimes benevolent creatures of the vast sea. His story of resilience, despite the frightening and perilous conditions, was very inspiring.

The list of 12 movies that I watched last year are on IMDb. As a family, we got to see big titles like "Divergent", "The Maze Runner", and "The Penguins of Madagascar". The big bucket-list worthy movie that I saw was "Gone with the Wind". I also saw "Life of Pi", which features a fictional survival story of a boy lost at sea. (Steven Callahan was a consultant for this movie.) My favorite movie from 2014 was "Taken". Liam Neeson is dynamite in this incredible action movie!