2017 Best-Ofs!

The Sixth Anniversary Best-Ofs, where your host, Hopper, bloviates, expounds, pronounces, and passive-aggressively entices you to experience what he experienced as the “Best Ofs” read, watched, listened to, and done in the year 2017.

Phew.

First, a note. I am a bibliophile. As such, I read a lot. A lot. My record of complete, cover-to-cover books read occurred in 2014, where I put away 60. This year I only made it through 45, due mainly to the length of the books I chose to read and in part to the fact that doing tax returns January through April put a kink in my reading life. No matter. I put away some great stuff. A good variety of stuff. More SF than usual. Some World War II and Civil War. Some baseball, some Zen, and some baseball Zen. A summer beginning with an examination of string physics and ending with an examination of the travesty known as Vatican II – a neat Science / Religion dichotomy.

Anyway, without any further ado, the 2017 Best-Ofs!

[Cue applause and swirling spotlights]

Best Read:

Fiction = Downward to the Earth (runners-up = Nightwings, Tom O’Bedlam)

Went through an immensely rewarding tour through of Robert Silverberg’s oeuvre (love how that word’s pronounced = OOV) from May to September, traversing a half-dozen novels (and a half-dozen more remain on deck). Downward to the Earth was the best, reviewed here, only edging out Nightwings and Tom O’Bedlam. Good, good stuff.

Nonfiction = Pickett’s Charge (runner-up = Seven Brief Lessons of Physics)

Pickett’s Charge is the best book I’ve read on the Civil War dedicated specifically to one battle. Excellent for the novice, excellent for the expert (I’m somewhere in between, I suppose). I recommend it, and reviewed it here.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is a short read touching on various topics in modern physics that was, in a bizarre way, surprisingly moving and respectable despite a lack of equations.

Worst Read:

Tie: The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle / The Haunted Mesa by Louis L’Amour

Don’t want to dwell too much on these misfires, ’cuz I like both these authors. But neither book clicked with me due to … boredom. I was overwhelmingly bored reading them, which is why I finished neither. Life is too short, and there are too many books to read! But I have read great works by both these writers. Just not these.

Best Movie:

It

Finally, a filmed version to do the book justice. It is the #3 greatest book I’ve ever experienced. Perhaps it might not rank so high if I read it now, but I read it at a very emotional time in my young life and it resonated deeply with me. I thought the 1990 miniseries to be completely miscast, badly written, polluted with embarrassing special effects and recommend it to no one. This version, focusing on the kids’ encounter with the It entity, moved up into the 80s from the 50s, while not perfect, is probably as best as it could have been, perfectly balancing the horror with a minimum of schlock (i.e., “spring-loaded cats”) and keeping It’s true nature tantalizingly hidden. Grade – A+

Worst Movie:

Dunno. I’m at the stage in my life where if I’m watching something that sucks, I won’t continue watching it just to say I watched it. That being said, the girls and I watched in entirety more than a few unremarkable turkey’s in bad horror / science fiction. Notably 2016’s Shin Godzilla, better known as Godzilla versus Japanese Board Room Executives. Other than that, can’t really think of any off the top of my head.

Best TV / Worst TV:

Not really a TV-watcher. (And we as a family are considering “cutting the chord”, as I pay $187 a month for phone-internet-cable, of which we never use the home phone – it’s solely a telemarketer landing site – and I watch only about ten of the 400 channels I pay for with any degree of regularity).

This being said, Impractical Jokers still brings me to tears. Watched a couple of hilarious old and new Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes this month.

But the most shocking development in my TV-watching this year has to be my family’s NFL boycott. Watched the first three games of the season. Then the mass kneeling protests began, and we said goodbye to the NFL. Only watched the game where the Giants benched Eli, and realized I liked my Sundays better without the loud bread and circuses of football. So, good riddance. I watched a dozen NHL games instead, and enjoy that much better.

Oh, and the $200 we would’ve spent on NFL gear for the girls were spent elsewhere this Christmas.

Best Song:

Supper’s Ready, 1972, by Genesis

Got into Peter Gabriel / Steve Hackett Genesis back in August, listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway CD late at night on the balcony of our villa overlooking Hilton Head Island sound. The first “side” of that double-CD is phenomenal. Blew me away. A couple of weeks ago I was late-night exploring some earlier recordings of the band and stumbled across this video. Floored me. Words can’t express how unprepared I was, especially for the ending. Goose bumps along the arms that didn’t recede until I went to bed. Watched the 23-minute Supper’s Ready three times, until nearly one in the morning.

Basically, if you’ve ever wondered what a musical journey through the Book of Revelation would sound like, click on the video with some headphones on.

Fads N Phases:

   Travel (Sanibel Island, Hilton Head Island twice) – three times more vacations in one year than I’m used to …

   Robert Silverberg – great SF voyages hearkening back to my youth …

   Physics Revisited – great cutting-edge science voyages hearkening back to my youth …

   SSPX and anti-V2 Reading – eye-opening, scary, yet oddly inspiring

   Electric Guitar – my fiftieth birthday gift! Play from over 250 riffs daily to annoy the family …

   The Lower-Yer-High-Blood-Pressure Regimen – dropped nine pounds in 21 days and feel a thousand percent better …

   Civil War Redux – most bizarre topic to interest me, yet interested in it I am …

And, like last year, the winner is … them all! Loved each and every one of these fads and phases, and encourage you to dip your toes in these waters, or explore something out of left field yourself!

Have an awesome and safe New Year’s Eve and a “get better” 2018!!!