Showing posts with label 2010 inputs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010 inputs. Show all posts

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2010 Inputs (and favorites)

I'm a numbers guy, so I keep track of how many books and plays and movies I take in each year.

Here are my totals for 2010:

Books read:  31 

Paper TownsLast year I read 51 books.  My wife, Tracy, reads about twice as many as I do.  This year was super busy for me, so my reading time was greatly curtailed.  I read quite a few that I liked a lot, but my favorites were:

Paper Towns by John Green 

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

City of Thieves: A NovelCity of Thieves by David Benioff

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan


 

Plays read:  23

Favorites included:  A Live Dress by Martha Kaufman, Shelter by Miranda Craigwell, and The Private Lives of Eskimos by Ken Urban.

This is a very small number, I know, but more than I read last year.  I'm a slacker.  I hope to read one a week this year.


Plays and readings watched:  43

This is more than I saw last year, and about all that my schedule and budget can accommodate.  (I spent more than $400 on theatre tickets this year.  I was lucky to get quite a few free tickets and that I have a StageSource membership.) 

My favorites were Gatz by the Elevator Repair Service at the ART, Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly at the Huntington, and The Aliens by Annie Baker from Company One, and Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck at the Gamm Theatre.


Movies watched:  56

Most these were via Netflix, but we get out to the movie theatre more now than when the kids were little.  My favorites this year included:  Winter's Bone, I Am Love, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (not really a movie), and The Messenger.  Probably my favorite film/video of the year was Season 1 of Friday Night Lights, which totally captured my attention (we're on season 3 now).  For the past few years, I've really felt that long-form dramatic television has reached new heights and offers some of the best dramatic writing appearing in any form right now. 


I'm looking forward to reading and seeing a lot more new work in 2011.