At the beginning of twenty-twenty, I made a goal for myself to watch fifty (50) movies and read fifty (50) books. I guess it was something of a New Year's resolution. Well, 2020 is in the books, and though I fell short on the movies, watching only thirty-eight (38), I went over on books, reading a total of sixty-two (62). Presented, in the order in which they were read/watched, is what I watched and read last year.
BOOKS
For the purposes of this exercise, I counted anything that was or would have been, had it not been in ebook or audiobook format, "between two covers." (I counted two Beverly Cleary novels that I read aloud to my oldest son, but did not count the numerous picture books as that felt like cheating.) Most were novels, though a few short story collections and maybe even some nonfiction snuck in there. I only counted a book if I read it in its entireity.
1. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
2. Trajectory by Richard Russo
3. Hamburger America by George Motz
4. Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo
5. The Sportwsriter by Richard Ford
6. Norwood by Charles Portis
7. Wild at Heart by Barry Gifford
8. Fender Lizards by Joe R. Lansdale
9. The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
10. Running in the Dark by Scott Reaves
11. A Simple Plan by Scott B. Smith
12. Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
13. Washed in the Blood by Shelton Williams
14. Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman
15. True Grit by Charles Portis
16. Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
17. The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
18. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
19. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
20. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
21. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
22. The Last Taxi Driver by Lee Durkee
23. If it Bleeds by Stephen King
24. Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview by Sam Weller
25. The Brass Cupcake by John D. MacDonald
26. Dead Low Tide by John D. MacDonald
27. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
28. Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
29. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
30. Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block
31. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
32. End of the Tiger by John D. MacDonald
33. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
34. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
35. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
36. The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler
37. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
38. Burnt Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald
39. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
40. Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton
41. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
42. Gringos by Charles Portis
43. Post Office by Charles Bukowski
44. I Married a Communist by Philip Roth
45. Escape Velocity by Charles Portis
46. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
47. Broadcast Hysteria by A. Brad Schwartz
48. The Auctioneer by Joan Samson
49. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
50. Mohawk by Richard Russo
51. Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary
52. One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
53. Death of a Doxy by Rex Stout
54. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
55. Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
56. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
57. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
58. The Founder Effect edited by Robert E. Hampson and Sandra L. Medlock
59. The Last Seance by Agatha Christie
60. The Barracks Theif by Tobias Wolff
61. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
62. Agent of the Imperium by Marc Miller
Looking back over the list, I see that only three books were listened to as audiobooks (Broadcast Hysteria and the two Rex Stout Nero Wolff novels). There was a time when I "read" a great deal in audiobook format, as I had to commute to and from work or school, but now that that's no longer the case, I really only have time to listen to audiobooks when I'm on a long walk—and in fact, as our second son has gotten older and less willing to chill in the stroller while I walk, even that time has been cut drastically.
Another change in format is that the majority of the books above were read in ebook format. I didn't keep track of this, but best as I can remember, forty-two of the sixty-two books I read this year were read as ebooks. I'd like to change that this year, with the goal being to read at least half of the books in physical, paper format. We'll see. There's no doubt that, for me, the reading experience is much better with a paper book, but ebooks are extremely convenient.
Top authors this year are below, with number of titles next to his name:
Charles Portis: 6
John D. MacDonald: 4
Richard Russo: 3
Ray Bradbury: 2
James M. Cain: 2
Beverly Cleary: 2
Laura Lippman: 2
Flannery O'Connor: 2
Tom Robbins: 2
Rex Stout: 2
All other authors wrote only one book each on the list.
MOVIES
Feature length films that I watched from beginning to end.
1. Saludos Amigos
2. The Shallows
3. The Searchers
4. Serenity
5. Waitress
6. The Call of the Wild
7. The Sign of Zorro
8. The Vast of Night
9. The Valley of Gwangi
10. Harper
11. Knives Out
12. The Killing
13. The Grifters
14. Old Yeller
15. The Incredible Journey
16. It's a Wonderful Life
17. You Can't Take it with You
18. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
19. Dave
20. Platinum Blonde
21. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
22. It Happened One Night
23. Meet John Doe
24. His Girl Friday
25. The Jungle Book
26. The Front Page
27. Bringing up Baby
28. The Story of Perri
29. The Lighthouse
30. The Philadelpia Story
31. Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
32. Fun and Fancy Free
33. A Christmas Story
34. The Awful Truth
35. The Bishop's Wife
36. The Shop Around the Corner
37. It Happened on Fifth Avenue
38. Christmas in Connecticut
As you can see, a fair number of Disney films are on the list, which we watched as family movie nights. There would have been even more, except often I'd sneak off in the middle of one of them to do some chores around the house that needed to be done and so missed enough of the film that I didn't feel right counting. it.
Miranda and I went on a screwball comedy (or screwball comedy-adjacent) run, which was a lot of fun. As a result, there's more than a few Cary Grant movies on the list above. We also hit the highlights of Frank Capra's career, which helps account for the Jimmy Stewart quotient.
