Things I Liked in 2011: A Summary
31 Dec 11
The second annual year-end post, sadly with only four other posts sandwiched between this and the 2010 edition.
Movie: Midnight in Paris was excellent, and inspired me to read more of and about Hemingway. Who doesn't love Owen Wilson?
Documentary: I don't think I watched any documentaries, so I'm going to put Moneyball here because I liked it a lot, and it was loosely based on truth.
Book - Non-Fiction: In the Plex by Steven Levy - I loved this book as an ongoing Google fan and lover of all things Silicon Valley. Great writing style, lots of interesting anecdotes and a much better pseudo-biographical attempt of a company and its founders than Issaacson's book on Steve Jobs. I was entertained by that book, then I listened to this podcast, and nearly all the criticisms made perfect sense to me and drastically lowered my opinion of the book. Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney was a close second.
Book - Fiction: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre - Obviously this book didn't come out this year, and I actually read it before I had heard about the movie after reading The Spy That Came in From the Cold. I immediately read the rest of the series and started seeking out other realistic spy thrillers, but with little luck.
Song: No standouts in iTunes' 'Most Played' playlist, but I will give the nod to Exile Vilify by The National, since it's not on an album and it's high on the list.
Album: Bon Iver by Bon Iver - would have been the Social Network soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, however that was released in 2010. Close runner-ups are Torches by Foster the People and El Camino by the Black Keys.
Blog: Nothing new to my list worth noting. XKCD, Danger Room, SvN, Marginal Revolution, and Kottke are still favorites among others.
Place Visited: Rome!
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