Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!

Happy new year, everyone! Welcome to the Year of the Ox (well, almost, as the Chinese New Year isn't until January 26th this year). Or, if you're a Discworld fan, welcome to the Year of the Pensive Hare.

I'm sure I'll make a post later this weekend breaking down my professional and, to a lesser extent, personal year. As well as a set of goals for the new year and an update on the state of the Tales from the Wishing Well project.

For now, though, let's cover my consumption of media for 2008.

This year, I read 94 books! I know that's nothing impressive for many of you, but I haven't been able to read that many books in a year in years. My decrease in reading has been due to a combination of factors: less time to read and a slower reading pace. And being able to read that many books this year had a lot to do with only having one job in the first several months of the new year and then having no job over the summer.

Now that I'm in graduate school and finding a part-time job ASAP, I don't expect I'll be able to repeat this in 2009.

All that said, on to the books:

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I by Stephen King
Unfortunate English: The Gloomy Truth Behind the Words You Use by Bill Brohaugh
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, ed. by Ekaterina Sedia
Tithe by Holly Black
Dust by Elizabeth Bear
Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey
Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Red As Blood (or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer) by Tanith Lee
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
The Sandman, Volume I: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Volume II: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Volume III: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Volume IV: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Volume V: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Sandman, Volume VI: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Sandman, Volume VII: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Volume VIII: World's End by Neil Gaiman
Valiant by Holly Black
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by MCA Hogarth
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Duke in His Castle by Vera Nazarian
Creatures of the Night by Neil Gaiman
The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin (GN, adapted by Ben Avery)
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon (read in individual issues)
Fairy Tale Review: the Violet Issue, ed. by Kate Bernheimer
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman as adapted by Mike Carey (graphic novel, read in individual issues)
A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects by Catherynne M. Valente
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Fables, Volume 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham
Fables, Volume 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
Fables, Volume 3: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
Fables, Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham
Fables, Volume 5: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham
Fables, Volume 6: Homelands by Bill Willingham
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty
( Read the rest of this list behind the cut... )

The links in the text denote where I've had reviews published on Green Man Review. A review on Clockwork Phoenix edited by Mike Allen is forthcoming.

Additionally, I began taking in Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, and Locus. On the academic side, I also subscribed to Mythlore and Marvels & Tales. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to actually read them. I hope to remedy that soon.

This year, I also kept a careful list of all the films and television series I saw for the first time (or for the first time in a very, very long time). Sadly, this list exceeded the number of books I read-- but only by a few. That's nothing to sneeze at, I think.

The list of films:

Bladerunner (only seen once before and not the Final Cut)
Barry Lyndon (Saw about 1/3 of it in 2007)
Balls of Fury
The Messengers
Slither
No Country for Old Men
Swordfish
Autofocus
Music & Lyrics
3:10 To Yuma (2007)
Resident Evil: Extinction
Cloverfield
Man on Fire
The Godfather
Cruel Intentions
Training Day
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Darjeeling Limited
Brazil
Enchanted
( Read the rest of the list, including television series behind the cut... )