Possession: The Movie

 Disclaimer: I fully understand that movies aren't books and movies have to make money and I will try to limit any 'but the book was better' stuff.

While I did enjoy watching the movie as its own thing, I stand by my opinion that Gwynneth and Eckhart were badly cast, him more so than her. Part of why I think she was badly cast is probably my personal dislike for her, and that's not entirely fair, but I do think it would be better to have cast someone actually English. Even though Lena Headey was a great Blanche I think she could have also been a spot on Maude. I'm really glad that with the casting on Eckhart they made the character American although I think my ideal casting would have been Ben Chaplin. He's who I pictured when I was reading the book.

The Victorian half of the plot was done really well. Like I said I thought Blanche was well-cast and I think this was my introduction to Jennifer Ehle, who was fantastic as Christabel. I really need to get on top of watching the BBC Pride and Prejudice. Also I could basically just stare at Jeremy Northam in period costumes all day and be perfectly happy. He was perhaps a little better looking and warmer than I had pictured Ash being but I think that's an ok concession for the movie version to make; worth noting but not worth complaining about.

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My Year in Reading

Here is a little picture of the books I read this year and how I rated them on Goodreads:



For more specifics you can click here and see a more detailed list.

I ended the year by reading three absolutely amazing novels that are completely different from one another; Possession, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and A Storm of Swords. Possession was extremely literary but also accessible and human. I have the film on my DVR currently but Aaron Eckhart and Gwynneth Paltrow seem like pretty terrible casting choices for Roland and Maud so I'm not expecting it to live up to the book. I am excited to see Lena "Cersei Lannister" Headey as Blanche Glover though. And speaking of George R. R. Martin properties A Storm of Swords has been my favorite of the series so far. Even though by being on Tumblr I had some major plot points spoiled there were still so many other things that came at me from nowhere. It was exciting, I started to like characters I had hated and think twice about characters that I loved and it makes me really happy that such a popular novel does things like that.

I ended the year with my first Murakami and loved it. It's the kind of novel that would have made me feel so cool to read in High School or college but I feel now I can just really enjoy it on its own merits as a thoughtful and ambiguous experience. I feel like I didn't really read enough books that left a lot unexplained and this kind of made up for it. It managed to be exciting, existential, sad, wacky, and very real all at the same time. I listened to the version of Danny Boy from Straight to Hell, Like a Rolling Stone, Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again, and Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands on repeat through the last few chapters and it enhanced the experience.

I had challenged myself to read 50 books this year and managed to surpass that once I decided to branch out into YA territory and realized it was faster for me to read 3 books concurrently than reading one-at-a-time. I wasn't sure if I'd make it because I started the year with the long and dense 2666 and even though it seemed like a bad idea at the time it was a great way to start the year off.

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