Top Five Books I Bought In 2008 And Plan To Finish In 2009

1. Primary Colors, by Anonymous
2. Johnny One-Eye, by Jerome Charyn
3. Cross Country, James Patterson
4. On Beauty, Zadie Smith
5. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo

I bought a lot of books in 2008, but didn’t finish or start as many as I would have liked. I suspect that 2009 will be a better year for my fiction reading.

Top Five Movies Seen in 2008:

1. Pineapple Express
   
2. The Dark Knight
   
3. Juno
4. The Bucket List
5. Cloverfield

Other movies I saw that were good, but don’t make the top 5: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Smart People, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Wall-E, Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. The movie Juno makes this list even thoughI saw it in 2007 because I saw it after I posted last year’s Top 5 list.

Top Four Movies I Will Wait To See on DVD

1. Zack and Miri
   
2. Quantum of Solace
3. Role Models
4. The Incredible Hulk

There weren’t many movies I really wanted to see in 2008, and there weren’t many that I had to choose from that I missed.

Top Three New Books To Read 2009

1. Juliet Naked, by Nick Hornby
2. 8th Confession, by James Patterson
3. Ape House, by Sara Gruen

Missing from this list is the next installment of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series — which has gotten worse and worse each installment. I will read the next one… but I can’t say I am looking forward to it. Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club Series has stayed strong and I look forward to that one. Of course, the book I am anxiously awaiting is Nick Hornby’s new novel, with the working title Juliet Naked, due out in the fall. Sara Gruen’s next novel is also highly anticipated. I loved her previous novel, Water For Elephants, and hope that Ape House will be just as good.

Top Five Movies I’m Planning To See In 2009:

1. Atlas Shrugged
2. Revolutionary Road
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
4. An Education
   
5. Terminator Salvation
   

Atlas Shrugged and Revolutionary Road were both on last year’s list (I read both novels). However, the release date Atlas Shrugged was pushed to 2009, and Revolutionary Road will only have a limited release before the New Year.

Top Five iPhone Apps:

1. Facebook App
2. Twittelator Pro
3. Amazon
4. Shazam
5. Ebay

Lots of good apps to choose from…. These would probably be the ones I use most frequently. It tis great to keep track of things on Facebook and Twitter, or to easily make purchases on Amazon and bids n eBay. Shazam has been a valuable tool for identifying songs on the radio I liked but didn’t know, or couldn’t remember at all.

If I have any more lists for the year, I’ll post them here as updates.

Top Five Books Read in 2007:

1. Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen [My Review]
2. Planet of the Apes, by Pierre Boulle [My Review]
3. Paycheck: Collected Short Stories Vol. 1, by Philip K. Dick [My Review]
4. Slam, by Nick Hornby [My Review]
5. Speaking With The Angel, by Nick Hornby (editor)

All that I can really say about these books you can see by clicking on them to read my respective reviews on them (with the exception of Speaking With The Angel, a collection of short stories by various writers, including Nick Hornby, who edited the anthology).

Top Five Movies Seen in 2007:

1. The Departed*
2. Knocked Up
3. I am Legend [My Review]
4. Live Free or Die Hard [My Review]
5. Transformers
6. Beowulf [My Review]

Most of these I never ended up writing a review for. There were quite a few movies that could have made the list, including The Simpsons Movie, which could have taken the #5 slot instead of Beowulf. Knocked Up was easily the funniest movie I saw in 2007. I did see Superbad, which did provide a lot of laughs, but was not nearly as good a movie as Knocked Up.

UPDATE: I forgot that I saw The Departed on DVD in March of this year (though it was released in theaters in 2006) and that has to be the best movie I saw in 2007. So Beowulf has to be bumped off the Top 5 and joins The Simpsons Movie in Honorable Mention.

Top Five Four Movies I’m Planning To See In 2008:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
2. The Dark Knight
3. Atlas Shrugged
4. Revolutionary Road
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
   

This list is subject to change when I see more previews for movies to be released in 2008. But of the movies I am aware of to be released in 2008, these ones I am sure to go to see while they are still in the theaters. I will admit that my desire to see Atlas Shrugged is more out of curiosity, as the book is over 1,000 pages and the movie couldn’t possibly capture all the important details that make the story as good as it is. Still, I’ll see it, knowing very well that Hollywood could only butcher it. I am similarly skeptical of the new Indiana Jones movie. To be totally honest, I don’t expect much of it, but since I’ve seen the other three Indiana Jones movies, I have to see the new one. I plan to see the movie Revolutionary Road because I read the book not too long ago.

1. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

I made the effort to read the book before seeing the movie and I’m glad I did. The book is superior (in the way novels usually are) and certainly allows for greater detail and character development, but I loved the movie just as much.

2. High Fidelity

I saw the movie before I ended up reading the book, and I have to say both are great. As far as movie adaptations are concerned, this one really maintains the original essence of the book, despite changing the setting from the London, England area to Chicago, Illinois.

3. The Maltese Falcon

Another one where I saw the movie before reading the book. The book is a great read with lots of detail and plenty of action that kept me interested through the whole story. Humphrey Bogart’s interpretation of Detective Sam Spade in the movie was also top notch.

4. The Godfather

It’s not often that a novel and a movie are both considered classics. Needless to say this list would not be complete without The Godfather.

5. Planet of the Apes

Having recently finished the novel I decided to include Planet of the Apes in this list. I was reluctant at first, since the original movie and the book are so different. However, since I can appreciate them both for different reasons, I’ve decided to include it. One novel/film that didn’t make the top five but deserves being mentioned is About A Boy, since I liked boh the novel and the film. It would have made the top ten though.

There were also some books/films I did not include because while I liked the book, I didn’t care for the movie, such as Kiss The Girls by James Patterson. There are plenty of movies I like but don’t have equal appreciation for the novels they were based on: The Shining or The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and several others.

There are plenty more novels/films where I’ve seen the movie but not read the book or vice versa, so there’s a good chance that this list could change in the future. In fact, as a result of putting this list together, I’ve added a few select books that were adapted to film to my wishlist.