Year in Review
I've always wanted to do one of these, and always been too late by the time I saw one, so, without further ado...
Your main fandom of the year?
Merlin. Merlin, forever Merlin. (It's almost at the point where I'm willing to move Alias to my second favorite show ever, which is huge for me. I don't even know how to explain how much I love this show.)
Your favorite film watched this year?
I'm trying to even remember the movies I watched this year. In theaters, I think the only one was the last HP movie, which was pretty good, but I don't feel passionately about any of the HP movies. Ooh, I finally saw the new Jane Eyre movie, and thought it was fantastic. Maybe that?
Your favorite book read this year?
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. The combination of Gutenberg and my Kindle is fantastic, esp. for someone like me who has two main fiction loves: fantasy and classic women authors. Gutenberg manages to find me someone new to love every year, and this has been the year of von Arnim. I've read at least half a dozen of years, and still have about that many more to go on the site, and they are all so beautifully written, funny, and poignant, and clever beyond anything, but The Enchanted April is her best known work for a reason. There are very few books where I would say every word in them is perfect, but this is one. Read it!
Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons. I've pretty much had this song on repeat for a year. It's a combination of being a really amazing song, and the fact that I feel it's The Hunger Games trilogy condensed into three minutes, so anytime I reread those books, or thought about those books, or watched the trailer for the movie based on that book, out came the song, to be repeated.
Your favorite TV show of the year?
Um, Merlin, again. Duh. And with this weekend totally free, I'm planning an epic four-day whole series rewatch. Whee!
Your favorite LJ community of the year?
Well, I'm mostly a lurker on LJ, and always have been, but the places I've been lurking most are naturally onceandfutures and camelot_love. Though I've stopped reading discussion posts, because I cannot handle the negativity. Arthur/Gwen are the most epic couple that has ever epic-ced. No, that didn't make sense. I don't care.
Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
I thought it was going to be Once Upon a Time, but that actually turns out to be the answer to the next question. I don't know. I'm kind of tempted to say The Hunger Games. Though I read the books at Christmas last year, I'm sure it was after the New Year when I went looking for fanfic for the first time, and I've reread the series twice this year, and just keep falling deeper in love with it. So, yes, let's say The Hunger Games.
Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Once Upon a Time. Look, I don't consider myself a hard person to please. I really don't. Look at Merlin. Everyone else in that fandom is going on and on about how they screwed up one thing or another, and I'm all like, la-la-la, I can't hear you, this show is awesome. There's really only one thing I ask of my shows: don't kill my favorite characters. I've still not seen any episode of Angel season 5, except “You're Welcome.” Alias was lucky they only killed Jack and Irina in the last episode, so I can pretend they're not dead, or Rambaldi juice brought them back, because I would not have watched a single episode without Jack Bristow. LOST lost me early in season two when it killed Shannon, but apparently, OuaT needed to break that record or something, because after six episodes of loving it to ridiculous levels, they killed my pretty Irish sherriff, and now I will never watch it again.
Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Arthur Pendragon. Obvious reasons are obvious. For being unbelievably gorgeous and British. For being noble-hearted and angst-ridden and brave and chivalrous and messed-up and a simpleton and a struggling, imperfect, but always striving for the right, once and future king.
Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
Guinevere. For being not just wise and beautiful, but brave and loyal and true beyond belief. For being kickass, and redeeming the character from seven hundred years of infidelity and bad choices. For always loving Arthur, for always protecting and supporting her friends, for standing up to the council of Camelot, and facing off with Morgana, and just all around awesomeness. Long live the Queen!
Your biggest squee moment of the year?
I am going to sound like such a broken record, but whatever. Of course, it was the coronation in the Merlin finale. Oh, wait, that's not quite true. I have three ultimate squee moments, and in my head, they are all connected, so: Arthur being crowned king (Long Live the King!), Arthur pulling Excalibur from the Stone (Long Live the King!), and Guinevere being crowned queen (Long Live the Queen!). Three moments I have pretty much been waiting for since the show started but that were so much sweeter because of the long wait.
The most missed of your old fandoms?
That '70s Show. What makes me sad is that now, even if I catch one of my favorite episodes, like Cat Fight Club, or Jackie Bags Hyde, or anything from season 5, I still can't enjoy it, because I remember season 8 and become completely bitter. Screw you, Fez. I said, SCREW YOU.
The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
...I honestly have no idea. I've given up on television (at least American tv), because every show I like ends up either getting cancelled, or killing off my favorite characters, so I don't even watch previews or anything anymore, because of the inevitable fandom disappointment. I'm not sure what's big in the book world. I'm reading Song of Ice and Fire now, because my brother recced it, and it's good, but I don't feel passionately about it, the way I do for LotR and HP and Hunger Games. (Probably this is for the best, because of all the death, and my bad reactions to death.)
Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?
The Hunger Games movie. March 23, why aren't you here? And The Hobbit movie. December 2012, why aren't you here?!?
Also, because I've kept these lists for years, and have never posted one before:
Books Read in 2011
1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett*
3. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald*
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
5. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien*
6. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
7. The Dawn of a To-Morrow by Frances Hodgson Burnett
8. Le Mort d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
9. Louisiana by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
11. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
12. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm
13. Aesop’s Fables
14. The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Charles Perrault
15. The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
16. History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
17. The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett
18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte*
19. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien*
20. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
21. Silas Marner by George Eliot*
22. Romola by George Eliot
23. The Arabian Nights
24. A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett
25. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
26. Adam Bede by George Eliot
27. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling*
28. Emily Fox-Seton, Being the Making of a Marchioness and the Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
29. The Defense of Guenevere and Other Poems by William Morris
30. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
31. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell
32. Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
33. Adela Cathcart by George MacDonald
34. A Fair Barbarian by Frances Hodgson Burnett
35. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
36. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien*
37. Phantastes by George MacDonald
38. Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
39. Sleeping Fires by Gertrude Atherton
40. Love and Friendship by Jane Austen*
41. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
42. Racketty-Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett
43. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
44. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
45. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
46. Out of the Triangle by Mary E. Bamford
47. I, Thou, and the Other One by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
48. The Rover by Aphra Behn
49. The Dark Tower by Phyllis Bottome
50. The Rover, Part II by Aphra Behn
51. The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke
52. Middlemarch by George Eliot*
53. The Pastor’s Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
54. Alas! A Novel by Rhoda Broughton
55. His Grace of Osmonde by Frances Hodgson Burnett
56. My Antonia by Willa Cather
57. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
58. Phyllis by Maria Thompson Daviess
59. Life in the Iron-Mills; or, the Korl Woman by Rebecca Harding Davis
60. Consequences by E.M. Delafield
61. The Melting of Molly by Maria Thompson Daviess
62. Olivia in India by O. Douglas
63. Roast Beef, Medium by Edna Ferber
64. Brother Jacob by George Eliot
65. The Governess; or, Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding
66. The Land of the Blue Flower by Frances Hodgson Burnett
67. The Coquette, or The History of Eliza Wharton by Hannah Webster Foster
68. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
69. By the Light of the Soul by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
70. Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories by Frances Hodgson Burnett
71. Leonora by Maria Edgeworth
72. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
73. The Golden Bird by Maria Thompson Daviess
74. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
75. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot*
76. The Melting of Molly by Maria Thompson Daviess*
77. Phyllis by Maria Thompson Daviess*
78. The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
79. Robin by Frances Hodgson Burnett
80. Romance Island by Zona Gale
81. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim*
82. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
83. Life and Gabriella by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
84. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
85. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
86. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
87. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
88. Fanny, Herself by Edna Ferber
89. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien*
90. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
91. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
92. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
93. A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers*
94. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
95. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
96. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
97. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
98. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
99. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green
100. Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim
101. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim*
*=re-reads (I should note that while I do like rereads more than most people, some of the reasons you'll see a book read twice so close together, is that I read aloud to my mom several nights a week, and if I read a book I think she'll like, that's our next project. Also, I will not apologize for the amount of children's and young adult literature on this list. I still love to read the things I loved as a child; I hope I never outgrow that.)
Your main fandom of the year?
Merlin. Merlin, forever Merlin. (It's almost at the point where I'm willing to move Alias to my second favorite show ever, which is huge for me. I don't even know how to explain how much I love this show.)
Your favorite film watched this year?
I'm trying to even remember the movies I watched this year. In theaters, I think the only one was the last HP movie, which was pretty good, but I don't feel passionately about any of the HP movies. Ooh, I finally saw the new Jane Eyre movie, and thought it was fantastic. Maybe that?
Your favorite book read this year?
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. The combination of Gutenberg and my Kindle is fantastic, esp. for someone like me who has two main fiction loves: fantasy and classic women authors. Gutenberg manages to find me someone new to love every year, and this has been the year of von Arnim. I've read at least half a dozen of years, and still have about that many more to go on the site, and they are all so beautifully written, funny, and poignant, and clever beyond anything, but The Enchanted April is her best known work for a reason. There are very few books where I would say every word in them is perfect, but this is one. Read it!
Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons. I've pretty much had this song on repeat for a year. It's a combination of being a really amazing song, and the fact that I feel it's The Hunger Games trilogy condensed into three minutes, so anytime I reread those books, or thought about those books, or watched the trailer for the movie based on that book, out came the song, to be repeated.
Your favorite TV show of the year?
Um, Merlin, again. Duh. And with this weekend totally free, I'm planning an epic four-day whole series rewatch. Whee!
Your favorite LJ community of the year?
Well, I'm mostly a lurker on LJ, and always have been, but the places I've been lurking most are naturally onceandfutures and camelot_love. Though I've stopped reading discussion posts, because I cannot handle the negativity. Arthur/Gwen are the most epic couple that has ever epic-ced. No, that didn't make sense. I don't care.
Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
I thought it was going to be Once Upon a Time, but that actually turns out to be the answer to the next question. I don't know. I'm kind of tempted to say The Hunger Games. Though I read the books at Christmas last year, I'm sure it was after the New Year when I went looking for fanfic for the first time, and I've reread the series twice this year, and just keep falling deeper in love with it. So, yes, let's say The Hunger Games.
Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Once Upon a Time. Look, I don't consider myself a hard person to please. I really don't. Look at Merlin. Everyone else in that fandom is going on and on about how they screwed up one thing or another, and I'm all like, la-la-la, I can't hear you, this show is awesome. There's really only one thing I ask of my shows: don't kill my favorite characters. I've still not seen any episode of Angel season 5, except “You're Welcome.” Alias was lucky they only killed Jack and Irina in the last episode, so I can pretend they're not dead, or Rambaldi juice brought them back, because I would not have watched a single episode without Jack Bristow. LOST lost me early in season two when it killed Shannon, but apparently, OuaT needed to break that record or something, because after six episodes of loving it to ridiculous levels, they killed my pretty Irish sherriff, and now I will never watch it again.
Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Arthur Pendragon. Obvious reasons are obvious. For being unbelievably gorgeous and British. For being noble-hearted and angst-ridden and brave and chivalrous and messed-up and a simpleton and a struggling, imperfect, but always striving for the right, once and future king.
Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
Guinevere. For being not just wise and beautiful, but brave and loyal and true beyond belief. For being kickass, and redeeming the character from seven hundred years of infidelity and bad choices. For always loving Arthur, for always protecting and supporting her friends, for standing up to the council of Camelot, and facing off with Morgana, and just all around awesomeness. Long live the Queen!
Your biggest squee moment of the year?
I am going to sound like such a broken record, but whatever. Of course, it was the coronation in the Merlin finale. Oh, wait, that's not quite true. I have three ultimate squee moments, and in my head, they are all connected, so: Arthur being crowned king (Long Live the King!), Arthur pulling Excalibur from the Stone (Long Live the King!), and Guinevere being crowned queen (Long Live the Queen!). Three moments I have pretty much been waiting for since the show started but that were so much sweeter because of the long wait.
The most missed of your old fandoms?
That '70s Show. What makes me sad is that now, even if I catch one of my favorite episodes, like Cat Fight Club, or Jackie Bags Hyde, or anything from season 5, I still can't enjoy it, because I remember season 8 and become completely bitter. Screw you, Fez. I said, SCREW YOU.
The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
...I honestly have no idea. I've given up on television (at least American tv), because every show I like ends up either getting cancelled, or killing off my favorite characters, so I don't even watch previews or anything anymore, because of the inevitable fandom disappointment. I'm not sure what's big in the book world. I'm reading Song of Ice and Fire now, because my brother recced it, and it's good, but I don't feel passionately about it, the way I do for LotR and HP and Hunger Games. (Probably this is for the best, because of all the death, and my bad reactions to death.)
Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?
The Hunger Games movie. March 23, why aren't you here? And The Hobbit movie. December 2012, why aren't you here?!?
Also, because I've kept these lists for years, and have never posted one before:
Books Read in 2011
1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett*
3. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald*
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
5. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien*
6. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
7. The Dawn of a To-Morrow by Frances Hodgson Burnett
8. Le Mort d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
9. Louisiana by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
11. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
12. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm
13. Aesop’s Fables
14. The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Charles Perrault
15. The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
16. History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
17. The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett
18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte*
19. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien*
20. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
21. Silas Marner by George Eliot*
22. Romola by George Eliot
23. The Arabian Nights
24. A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett
25. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
26. Adam Bede by George Eliot
27. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling*
28. Emily Fox-Seton, Being the Making of a Marchioness and the Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
29. The Defense of Guenevere and Other Poems by William Morris
30. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
31. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell
32. Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
33. Adela Cathcart by George MacDonald
34. A Fair Barbarian by Frances Hodgson Burnett
35. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
36. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien*
37. Phantastes by George MacDonald
38. Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
39. Sleeping Fires by Gertrude Atherton
40. Love and Friendship by Jane Austen*
41. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
42. Racketty-Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett
43. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
44. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
45. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
46. Out of the Triangle by Mary E. Bamford
47. I, Thou, and the Other One by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
48. The Rover by Aphra Behn
49. The Dark Tower by Phyllis Bottome
50. The Rover, Part II by Aphra Behn
51. The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke
52. Middlemarch by George Eliot*
53. The Pastor’s Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
54. Alas! A Novel by Rhoda Broughton
55. His Grace of Osmonde by Frances Hodgson Burnett
56. My Antonia by Willa Cather
57. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
58. Phyllis by Maria Thompson Daviess
59. Life in the Iron-Mills; or, the Korl Woman by Rebecca Harding Davis
60. Consequences by E.M. Delafield
61. The Melting of Molly by Maria Thompson Daviess
62. Olivia in India by O. Douglas
63. Roast Beef, Medium by Edna Ferber
64. Brother Jacob by George Eliot
65. The Governess; or, Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding
66. The Land of the Blue Flower by Frances Hodgson Burnett
67. The Coquette, or The History of Eliza Wharton by Hannah Webster Foster
68. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
69. By the Light of the Soul by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
70. Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories by Frances Hodgson Burnett
71. Leonora by Maria Edgeworth
72. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
73. The Golden Bird by Maria Thompson Daviess
74. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
75. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot*
76. The Melting of Molly by Maria Thompson Daviess*
77. Phyllis by Maria Thompson Daviess*
78. The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
79. Robin by Frances Hodgson Burnett
80. Romance Island by Zona Gale
81. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim*
82. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
83. Life and Gabriella by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
84. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
85. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
86. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
87. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
88. Fanny, Herself by Edna Ferber
89. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien*
90. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
91. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
92. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
93. A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers*
94. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
95. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
96. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
97. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
98. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
99. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green
100. Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim
101. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim*
*=re-reads (I should note that while I do like rereads more than most people, some of the reasons you'll see a book read twice so close together, is that I read aloud to my mom several nights a week, and if I read a book I think she'll like, that's our next project. Also, I will not apologize for the amount of children's and young adult literature on this list. I still love to read the things I loved as a child; I hope I never outgrow that.)