Best of 2008

That's right, it's a New Year and some things did not change in 2008. I'm still a grad student. I'm still an unpublished writer. Hopefully one of those things changes in 2009. The first is far more likely (hopefully) than the second, but it is my New Year's resolution to finish my personal edit of the story so that I can send it out to my noble beta readers (I'm still accepting beta readers if anyone else is interested). Clearly I failed at NaFiRoyBIMSCom. But so far I've edited approximately 2/3rds of my story, so there is some hope. However, it also seems to have swelled to 216,825 words from the 214,023 upon originally finishing despite my valiant attempts to delete more than I add... Although, to be fair, some of these are simply notes to myself.

Anyway, now for the best of 2008:

Best Movie: (Spoilers Review, Non-Spoilers Review) Prince Caspian is hands down the best movie to come out this year. If the Chronicles of Narnia were actually as good as this movie, I might actually like them. I didn't like the first movie much more than the book but this movie is so much better than the book (and yes I forced myself to read the whole book and was unimpressed). But I LOVED this movie. Reepicheep and Edmund pwn. Unfortunately, C.S. Lewis does not pwn.


Best Fantasy Book: (Non-Spoiler Review) Neil Gaiman's the Graveyard Book deserves a place of honor for the best depiction of a vampire and werewolf that I have ever read.









Best Teen Book: I had to add a new category to honor John Green's newest book, Paper Towns. I haven't had the chance to review it yet, so I'll do a brief non-spoilers review here. I feel this was easily his most complex and elegantly written book. An Abundance of Katherines remains my favorite of John's books for it's ireppressible cheerfulness, but I think this one was the most meaningful. I was initially not happy with the end, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how well it fit with the meaning of the story. I feel this book effectively explored an important theme that his first book Looking for Alaska (also excellent), left untouched.


I also became a YouTuber in 2008 which has been a strange but fun experience, so I feel it's only right to give a favorite YouTube vid of 2008 which would have to be Hank's Numa Numa Dance. I've posted it before, but it's worth posting again. Incidentally, the favorite of my own videos is the response where I do my own Numa Numa Dance.





Best Most Nerdtastic Personal Experience:
















Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed my reflections for 2008. I'd love to hear yours and I wish you all a wonderful 2009!