Hello ladies and gentlemen,
Another decade has passed and it is time to round up all the leftover energy to spring forward and continue our search for self-actualization! Similar to my post last year, I bring you all a slightly more extensive look at how my 2019 went and what I expect to achieve in 2020 in terms of creative consumption.
Here’s what my reading and movie-watching were like in 2019:
When it comes to books, I’ve read 214 books! This was another success since I knew that my late rekindling for manga in 2018 will lead to an explosion in my reading habits. You can click on the picture below to check out my Goodreads Year in Books for 2019.
When it comes to movies, I’ve watched 101 movies over the course of 365 days and I couldn’t be happier with this achievement since one of my goals was to greatly cut down on TV series to watch more movies—prior to 2019, I seem to have been caught in a trap where I’d try and watch all the exciting shows that kept on popping up without making time for the amazing movies that were coming out. You can click on the pictures below to be redirected to my Letterboxd page.
And so, the following post is a bit lengthy but I hope you’ll have some fun discovering things with me as you follow me on my journey! Here’s how it’s split:
1. Worse of 2019
2. Best of 2019
3. Resolutions of 2019
4. Resolutions of 2020
5. Thank you
There’s a couple of things to be noted though. Not everything that is listed was released in 2019. They aren’t necessarily things consumed for the first time either, as some might be rereads and rewatches!
Most pictures can be clicked to be redirected to my reviews, open a new link where you can learn more on them or see the full-scale picture!
Feel free to share your thoughts on absolutely anything and everything! I’m always happy to share my excitement with everyone!
In all honesty, every time I look at these books, I feel like they could’ve all been dropped to 2 stars. I think my biggest surprise was The Colour of Magic as I was hoping that Pratchett and I would click instantly together.
Not surprising at all to see Frank Miller pop up twice here. He has definitely lost it. It was also unfortunate to see Tom King release a weak volume of Batman but soon his run will come to an end that should mark a fun beginning for Batman in the hands of James Tynion IV!
I think Death Note was the worse of the bunch with the amount of frustration it generated in me. Otherwise, the year 2019 was marked with my revisit of the whole Alien and Predator franchise, which seems to have only gone downhill since the first classic movies!
What can I say? Classics were bound to win my heart in 2019 but I’m really happy to be able to have Crowfall and The Gutter Prayer on here! The former also featured a quote by yours truly in it and it is one of my greatest life achievements ever—check out my review to find out more about that!
The only one that was released in 2019 was Batman: Detective Comics #1000 and it was a fantastic anthology to celebrate such an important moment over at DC Comics.
The year 2019 also saw me complete the classic Akira run and I can say that the fourth volume really was the best of the series. I also checked out some fantastic volumes of other series, including Naruto and Bleach being nostalgic rereads. Check out all these series if you haven’t already!
The only five movies out of 101 that managed to get 5 stars from me. I’ll gladly recommend them all to anyone who’s looking to indulge some fantastic movies!
Probably the toughest category since… I barely watched enough TV series to conclude that these were the best of the best. Then again, they were all pretty good in their own ways!
Anyone who has been following me from the beginning knows that I’ve successfully read all five of these (one per month) and am super happy that I can tell the world that I have read these!
I almost completed this one since I’m still currently reading Spider-Man. Then again, both Justice League and Hawkeye required me to read more than one volume, so I’m going to go ahead and say that this was still a success in my books!
It was actually a lot of fun to have these lists of required reading/movies. It felt like achievements that I progressively completed throughout the year. It’s even more satisfying when they are usually things that I have been meaning to check out my entire life!
Here’s what I’m going to test out this year. 12 books that I must get through before the end of 2020. The idea is to try and check out one per month. What will probably be an issue, however, is that a lot of these are series and… if I keep this rhythm up, I won’t complete some of these before another decade passes by! Then again, if I’m strategic enough, I’ll try to squeeze in more of each series per year before drowning in misery upon realizing, once again, that there are too many books and too little time!
Some of these are also series but I think reading through these stories will be a lot easier for me to squeeze into my schedule than actual 1000-page books!
As you might have realized, all of these are pretty much unanimous and critically-acclaimed classics. Many of these were also greatly praised by my fellow blogging buddies too!
Besides Westworld Season 3 and Better Call Saul Season 5, both coming out in 2020, I definitely want to complete The Mandalorian Season 1, Dark Season 2 and the Chernobyl HBO mini-series for 2020. There’s at least a dozen other series I want to check out as well but I know these take up way too much time that I’ll probably need for other things in life!
I wanted to take a moment here to thank every single one of you who has taken time out of your lives to check out my posts and interact with me over the course of 2019. If there’s one thing that keeps me going on my blog it’s you guys. Even though we might not know each other in real life, I have grown to appreciate a lot of you guys. Every comment left leaves a significant impact on me as I not only learn more on you guys but also appreciate my own thoughts that I share with everyone. A lot of you guys have also impacted me through your reading and your own thoughts on various books. You can only imagine how my reading modulates to your own and that is why I wanted to thank you all for sharing your passion for everything with everyone in this blogging universe.
I have also noticed that many have fallen off the blogging train over the year, that new faces surged out of the blue and that comrades from many years have stayed in touch with me and continued to maintain their blogs. No matter what your situation is and if you’re reading this, know that I will always remember anything you’ve said or shared with me and that I hope that you will always privilege your own health and well-being over that of your blog. No one should see blogging as a chore or a job, it should remain a healthy hobby.
All that being said, I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that this year will see you achieve great things while reading all the great books in the world!
Till next time,
Roars and Echoes 
Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year to you too, James! Thanks for dropping by! 😀
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Happy New Year! I hope you have a great 2020!
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Thank you so much, Kristi! I hope 2020 will prove to be the best year yet for you too! 😀 😀
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Thank you so much!
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Happy New Year! I kinda hope you get to The Fellowship of the Ring sooner rather than later, and I hope you love it. The Lord of the Rings is my favorite of all time, and I always enjoy seeing others fall in love with it, too.
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Happy New Year to you too, Kim! I too want to get around to completing the trilogy sooner rather than later. The Hobbit was such an amazing read that I can only imagine the epicness of the whole LotR trilogy! 😀
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Looks like you have lots of fun material on the horizon and have set yourself up to avoid disappointment.
I am a big Hitchcock fan, but I do not care for a lot of the early stuff and the later stuff.
I loved ‘FMJ’, ‘Raging Bull’, and ‘The Thing’, but the old original ‘The Thing’ still rocks.
Happy Trails!
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I discovered Hitchcock thanks to my girlfriend who has seen far too many! I definitely plan on expanding my watchlist this year with more of his stuff.
I look forward to checking those out as well. I plan on watching the 1982 version of The Thing. Was the newer one even worth checking out? 😮
Happy New Year to you, Icky. I’m really glad that we continued our interactions throughout 2019 and hope the best for you in your goals and dreams, good sir! 😀
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I am unfamiliar with the 2010 movie, but the 1982 movie with Kurt Russell is fantastic. Also still a good movie is the 1951 original, ‘The Thing From Another World’. It is certainly a dated film in many respects, but it still holds it’s own against the remakes. You can’t beat the original, in almost anything!
Keep the sunny side up, good buddy!
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Happy New Year!
There’s so much to comment on this post, so I’ll keep it simple. SANDERSON!! I’m looking forward to your review of Mistborn!
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Happy New Year to you too, Nadine! Hahahah the mandatory Sanderson comment! 😛 I definitely hope I can get around to more than one Sanderson per year though. Especially when all of his books ALWAYS sound so good. 😀
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And the fourth Stormlight book is coming out this year!
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Even with a bunch of manga, I’m still super impressed. Over 200 books and 100 movies, plus your job and all the attendant schooling going with that.
I like your idea for reading one of your tbr a month.Welcome to the whole “more books than I can read” side of the book divide 😀
Bone was a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy it.
UP was a tough movie. I almost cried at the beginning and then it was good. I haven’t watched it again because I am still not sure if I could deal with the beginning. Totoro is cute, cute, cute.
I trust you’ll have a good 2020!
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I do impress myself with those numbers, although I still wish I could read way more novels per year. I always end up around 40-50 of those per year (almost one per week). Oh well, for the time being, 40-50 is still a perfect balance with everything else I do.
Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to cut down on new releases as much as I can but it’s not always easy when there are some really exciting new releases or sequels coming out every year.
Ohhh! You actually read Bone! So glad to know that I won’t be alone in that quest.
Hahahahah I can’t imagine how you reacted to both UP and Totoro. I’ve always heard about their emotional greatness and look forward to discovering it myself.
I do hope you’ll also have a great year, good sir. Maybe a revisit of graphic novels? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😉
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Well, to answer your last question, I’m going to try to work in in a little bit of manga each month. Not sure about GN’s though…
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Happy New Year, Lashaan! Wow you had an amazing year. I can only dream of reading that many books. Good luck on your goals, and I’m super excited to see what you do this year😁
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Happy New Year to you too, Tammy! Well, they aren’t full-fledged novels though! But yes, I’m glad to reach such numbers on a yearly basis now. Reading is a huge part of our lives after all, right? 😀
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Happy New Year Lashaan!
I really like your wrap and am looking forward to what you plan to read next year because I’d really like to know what you think of Eye of the World, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lightening Thief and every thing else. I really enjoy reading your reviews.
I really want to see the Boys as well. Am toying with getting Amazon Prime just for it…and also for the Wheel of Time series when it drops.
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Happy New Year to you too, Z! I am myself super excited to share my thoughts on those classics with y’all. It’s about time I strike them off my bucket list hahah I appreciate the kind words regarding my reviews though. Yours are also super interesting; always love the honesty in your own reviews. I think it’ll be worth picking up Prime for Boys, WoT and also the dreaded LotR series! 😉
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Lol at “dreaded” although it’s the perfect word for how everyone feels about it. I’m kinda hoping they surprise us and the series works/is good.
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Hello Lashaan! I really enjoyed Name of the Wind so I hope that you’ll like this book too 🙂
It’s been great meeting you on the blogosphere! When I started my blog 2.5 years ago, Bookidote was one of the first blogs that I followed. Here’s to many great blogging years to come! Wishing you a happy 2020!
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Hi Sophie! I do remember your review of the Name of the Wind actually hahaha I actually think it was the first time I saw a review for on the blogosphere too! 😀 And yes, I also remember how Bookidote was the first blog you followed back then! It does warm my heart to know that. 😀 Thanks for dropping by though. I hope 2020 will be a fantastic year for you too, Sophie! 😀
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Oh wow that’s cool that you still remember my review from way back haha. I feel honoured 🙂 It’s amazing how time flies and I am glad that we both stuck around 🙂 Here’s to another year of blogging!
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Wow, lots here. I’m a late follower but I’ve been enjoying reading the blog. Can’t wait to see your thoughts on some of the books and movies you have queue’d up, there are some favortites of mine in there, as well as a number I’d also like to read one of these days.
Happy New Year to you, and I wish you all the best, and much success at getting to all this amazing creative consumption!
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Thanks, Todd! I’m definitely glad to have met you and enjoy our exchanges! I look forward to hearing more from you and seeing what photography you’ve got in store for us as well. Happy New Year to you and have a fantastic year of reading, watching, and photographing! 😀
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Happy New Year!
“Spirited Away” was a great one.
I watched about half of “The Irishman,” but was unable to get into it.
My unofficial resolution is to watch fewer TV shows this year, too.
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Happy New Year to you too, Goldie! I hope the year proves to have many fantastic surprises in store for you. 😉
Spirited Away was a beautiful animated gem. I look forward to more of the Ghibli movies all the time!
Ahhh, that is unfortunate but it indeed a very different movie from everyday stuff too.
Yep. I can imagine you’d share my view on TV series. They can consume so much of our time when they could easily be substituted by 10 very good movies! Or loads of more reading! 😀
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Happy new year! And what an awesome 2019 😀 I sometimes look back at my disappointing reads too and wonder if I wasn’t too generous and maybe the real rating might be a star or so less. But sounds like even your most disappointing reads were at least 3 stars so that’s definitely a win!
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Happy New Year to you too, Mogsy! 😀 Yep, I think I know how to avoid most of the books that I know wouldn’t reach 3 stars but even the 3 stars can be tricky and make me wonder if they weren’t actually bad in reality hahah
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Oh, no, sorry to see you didn’t get along with Pratchett. The only of his novels I’ve read is Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) which I loved. So I have high hopes for Pratchett’s other books. Glad to see And Then There Were None on the list. I read it as a child and it literally shook my world. I think that was the beginning of my love of crime fiction.
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I haven’t given up on Pratchett yet though. I’m going to keep on trying some of his books, including Good Omens since Neil Gaiman has always proved to be good with me. 😀 So cool to hear about And Then There Were None. So far, both that and Murder on the Orient Express were incredible mystery novels for me. I definitely want to read more Christie as well! 😀
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Great post and best of luck for reading goals!
I agree with almost all your books you want to read in 2020 – I myself have either read them, or they are on my list for this year too!
I’m gutted you didn’t get on with Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. The first couple aren’t as good as the rest, so if you want a better feel of his writing and are willing to try again I’d recommend anything from Equal Rites onwards. I particularly enjoy the Witches stories 😊
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I do hope that you’ll get around to reading those that you haven’t as well then! 😀 I feel like it’s my duty as a SFF reader to have at least read those listen here hahaha
Ohh, I’ve actually been recommended those Witches stories too. I’m definitely making a note on your recommendation there. I do hope that one of his books will impress me though. I haven’t given up just yet on his stuff though! 😀
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Happy New Year, Lashaan! I hope that 2020 brings a lot of great moments for you! Sounds like you had a great 2019 books and movies wise, I hope that you manage to read even better books and watch better movies this year. I managed to read 55 books last year, most of which I really enjoyed so I’m pretty pleased. I have had a few of Agatha Christie’s books on my TBR list for some time now and you’ve reminded me that I should really get started with them!
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Happy New Year to you too, Darina! Thank you so much!! 😀 I hope 2020 will bring you loads of joy and great books as well. I’m glad to hear that you’re ready to tackle those Christie books. If you enjoy some of her bests, you’re likely to enjoy a lot of her works, I believe! 😀 If I stick only to novels, out of the 200+ I’ve read, I’ve probably reached around 40-50 as well though hahah 😀
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Happy New Year, Lashaan!!! 🎉 🎆
The idea of listing viewed movies never crossed my mind, but now that you make me think of it it’s a great one: after all, a movie is still a story – only in visual form, so I might try to keep score, not so much of all the movies I will watch, but at least of those that have left some mark on my imagination…
Here’s to a great year of books and movies and…. whatever 😉
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Happy New Year to you too, Maddalena! I hope 2020 will have you reading the best of the best SFF books and that you find as much peace and joy throughout the year! 😀
Oh yes, I love Letterboxd for featuring them like that too. If you aren’t already a member, the site is pretty much the Goodreads of movies and I loved tracking my movies on there for the past year!
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Happy New year Lashaan! And I really should read Ed MacDonald as I bought the first book in that series last year at YALC after having read your review! I also agree on The Joker! Now GOT he? You are in for a loooong read LOL
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Happy New Year to you too, Sophie! YES! You should definitely check out the first book as soon as possible. I’d be curious to see how much of that world will impress you! And yep… It’s going to be a super long read and wait for the GoT series! 😛
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Happy new year! All the best with your goals.
I love Norwegian Wood, hope you do too 🙂
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Happy New Year to you too! I read and really enjoyed Kafka on the Shore and look forward to discovering Norwegian Wood next. I wonder what he has in store for me! 😀
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What a fabulous post! Happy New Year, Lashaan 🎉 and happy reading 📚
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Thanks, Scarlett! Happy New Year to you too! With plenty of reading, running, and traveling! 😀
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Happy New year, dear Lashaan 🥳 I can’t tell how much I enjoyed being with you this year and seeing you reading and watching so so many things! 🥰 I think it means you clearly are the best? I’m looking forward to reading all your reviews and hearing your thoughts on the wonderful books and movies that you’re going to read in 2020! 😍 Lots of love 😘
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Happy New Year to you too, my love! ❤ I can assure you that I loved every tiny little second with you, every book read together, and every movie I watched with you (even the weird ones)! 😛 😛 Let's make 2020 even better. 😉 Here's to all the great things we plan on doing!!! ❤ ❤ MWAH ❤ ❤
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❤️
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Yessssss. Walking Dead is wild!! Pretty gory so be aware. but it was so good.
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I’ve watched the TV series up to the last season where I had to give up as I found it truly lackluster. I hope the comics will be reinvigorating though! 😀
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I’m only on the second bind up but i really like it!
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Happy New Year Lashaan! You did really well, I admit I’d never hit 200+ books without manga. 😉 Terry Pratchett and I never did get along. I just never felt his narrative. I’m jealous you got into My Hero Academia. I’m not sure if I’d like it or not but it’s so big I wanted to check it out. I loved Spirited Away, it’s a favorite of mine. The little details he’d put in his animation, wow! I’ve always wanted to read Murakami and I’ve looked at Norwegian Wood several times but it’s intimidating. I enjoyed the Walking Dead show more than the comics. But it’s pretty good. I want to read the Amulet series too! I have a young friend who loves them, his mom even broke down and bought him and his brother the set because he loves the, so much. 🤣 I can’t believe you haven’t seen Goonies?!
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Happy New Year to you too, Dani! Same. I had a feeling that I’d reach 200+ thanks to the inclusion of manga hahah I’m glad to hear we share that opinion for Pratchett, for now at least. Especially when he’s such a big name in the game. I hope you give My Hero Academia a try. It’s loads of fun. 😉 And yes to Spirited Away! I love the details, the animation, the music, and the fooooood! 😛 😛 I tried Kafka on the Shore by Murakami and enjoyed it a lot. I do wonder what you’d think of his mystical realism. It’s quite peculiar. 😮 Ohhh, that’s interesting, I look forward to comparing the show to the comics now. I’ve watched the show up to the last season where I gave up thinking that the show really lost its direction. Ohhhhh, that’s adorable hahahah I look forward to finding out what Amulet is all about. And yes…. I never watched Goonies and I just NEED to fix that ASAP! 😛 😛
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Congrats on your achievements! Over 200 with a goal of 75 is fantastic!!!⭐🎊🎆 Thanks for the list of some great books that I can now put on my TBR list!❤📚
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Thank you so much, Dani! Glad to contribute to your TBR! 😉 Happy reading! 😀 😀
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You’re welcome!⭐❤ Yay!
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Awesome list Lashaan, very interested in your want to read/watch lists – you’re in for a treat with Gotham Central, I read it all sometime ago and I only wish they adapted that into a series instead of Gotham!
As for the films, wow I can’t believe you’ve never seen Full Metal Jacket or the Thing (I plan to eventually review that with the perhaps little known 1950s version…yep that exists!).
Isn’t Apocalypse Now great? I bought the special 40th anniversary 4k blu-ray set containing three different cuts of the film (I still need to watch the Final Cut). And Ferris Bueller’s Day Off…a personal fave of mine!
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Thanks, dude! I actually thought the TV series was going to adapt the comics and that’s when I tried collecting the books in time for the show but then found out that there’s barely any similarities between both. 😦
I too am shocked that I still haven’t checked out FMJ when I’ve watched 90% of Kubrick’s movies! 😮 As for The Thing… I won’t lie that it was never on my watch list till last year. I heard about that rare 1950s one but someone will have to convince me that it’s worth checking out hahah
Oh man, that’s such a sweet edition! I adored the insanity of Apocalypse Now, even more after I found out how hectic the production of the movie was. 😮 Now I’m curious about the final cut (or any extended cut, if it exists, since the one I saw was still pretty long). 😮
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I think you’ll enjoy the 1982 John Carpenter version of the Thing Lashaan. I doubt you would be receptive to the 1950s version but I do have quite a large appreciation for those old sci-fi B-movies (some are actually quite good) and plan to eventually cover some.
The Final Cut of Apocalypse Now is 3 hours long so maybe that’ the version you’ve seen…or maybe the ‘Redux’ cut which is nearly 4 hours!
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And Then there were none is my absolute favorite Agatha Christie mystery ever. I read Persepolis this year and it ended up on my top five books, especially considering how things are shaping up now. Happy New Year.
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So glad to hear about And then There Were None! I need to check out another Christie this year too.
Ohhhhh, I’m so happy to hear that about Persepolis! It has been on my list forever. I look forward to trying it out.
Happy New Year to you too, Gayathri! 😀
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