Shhhh … hear
that? … listen … it’s getting louder … Yes! … I can hear it now! The noise, the
cheering, here it comes … louder … Louder … LOUDER … LOUDER!!! It’s here! It’s
here! Tens and tens and tens of people worldwide – all right, ten people
worldwide … Cheering! Roaring!! Celebrating!!! It’s here! It’s here!!
IT’S
HERE!!!
THE 2025
HOPPER BEST-OFS!
Yes, my
annual tradition of the best and worst of all the literature, movies, TV,
phases, and experiences Hopper has undergone in the past twelve months. All for
your edification. Books and films to experience and enjoy – and those to avoid
at all costs.
Now,
without further ado, here they are –
Best
Book:
Fiction / Re-reads – Moby Dick (1851)
by Herman Melville, Conquerors from the Darkness (1965) by Robert
Silverberg, Space Skimmer (1972) by David Gerrold
Fiction / First-time – The Spy Who Came
in From the Cold (1963) by John Le Carré
Notable Mention – The Seventh Scroll
(1995) by Wilbur Smith. [This was an insane read and deserves its own
blog post … perhaps in early January … trust me on this.]
Worst
Book:
Stephen King’s It (1986) reread was slightly
disappointing
Bucket
Lists:
As mentioned above, I read through Moby Dick for the third time – I dunno, it just gets better and better every time I read it. Also put away Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and The Confessions of St. Augustine.
Best
Film:
Horror/Science Fiction/Action – Frankenstein (2025) directed by Guillermo del Toro. What cinematography! What props! Plus an intelligent, human ending to tug at heartstrings.
Comedy
(alleged) – Friendship (2024). Truly and delightfully bizarre … but don’t
watch with the wife.
So many runner-ups – A Man Called Ove
(2015 – the Swedish version, not the Tom Hanks remake), Good Boy (2025
horror flick with a dog as the main character), The Dark Divide (2020,
midlife crisis meets bigfoot), Nobody (2021, old man John Wick), Being
There (1979), Abigail (2024), House (1977 campy Japanese
horror flick seen with Patch)
Most
Disappointing Film:
The Woman in the Yard (2025, where you watch
a premise get wasted after a promising 20 minutes)
Best TV:
Worst
TV:
The Lazarus Project – everything I
hate in modern writing, and I mean everything. Identity politics, wokeism,
vulgarity. Wife made me sit through first episode; you couldn’t pay me
enough to sit through another one.
Personal
Accomplishments:
Losing 18 pounds the first five months of the year (but, unfortunately, gaining 10 pounds back at the time of writing).
Shaking the dust off my electric
guitar and shaving the rust off my fingers with something like 30 hours of serious
practice.
Assembling my daughter’s college bunkbed
with her roommate’s dad, plus assembling two bookcases and an ergonomic chair
on my own.
Six trips to the confessional.
Grew my record collection by 19 to 63 total.
Met not one but two Little One boyfriends
(and behaved myself the whole time).
Phases:
Sugar-Free January 1st to May 20th
UFO literature revisited (read 8 books in
November and December)
The Lindbergh baby kidnapping case – deep
dive for one week middle of October
Return to SF pulp paperbacks (read 9, gave
up on the 10th – Asimov’s Foundation)
Diary of St Faustina six-month reading journey
Hell House LLC quadrilogy watched with Patch
for Movie Nights in September and October
Favorite Phase:
No, don’t make me choose!
Best
Podcast / YouTube channel:
Andrew Wilson debates. Discovered him in
August and probably have watched twenty hours of him debating feminists,
communists, transvestites, islamists, you name it, mostly in 1v1 debates but also Andrew
versus a whole panel of opposition. He’s a little crude and rough around the
edges, doesn’t bar any holds, and may be an acquired taste, but it’s a fun way
to get the adrenaline flowing when your job involves generating reports and
spreadsheets and more reports and more spreadsheets.
Song of
the Year:
Most anything from The Essential Frank
Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. I find it relaxing on the nerves,
especially after all them YouTube debates.
Workout
Tally:
37 weightlifting sessions
68 miles walked
Not nearly as well, physical-health-wise, as
2024, where I lifted 46 times and walked 20 miles more. I am a few pounds
heavier, but what’s more concerning is a worsening lack of flexibility. For
2026 I would love to get in 100 workouts next year – with deep stretching
before and after – plus around 150 miles walked. I recognize that this is
highly optimistic.
Reading
Tally:
43 books / 18 fiction, 25 non-fiction (if
you count 5 UFO books as “non-fiction”)
Re-read the four Gospels, the Acts of the
Apostles, Genesis, and Revelation
Abandoned 8 books anywhere from 30 pages to
431 pages in
Re-read 8 books, not counting the Bible
books above, mostly science fiction from my youth
Proudest
Moments:
Seeing Little One posing in her first class
teacher picture after six months of student teaching. Also watching her grow
independent with her own car, an off-campus apartment (with her two bffs), and
a serious relationship.
Patch with her first retail job managing a
woman’s clothing boutique, getting her permit and taking her out driving a
dozen times on the way to getting that driver’s license, and being accepted
into all four colleges she applied to.
2025 was a
decent year. Had better, had worse. I enjoyed most of it, albeit with a hint of
sadness as the little ones are now young adults and are starting to forge their
way through life, more and more independent of their parents. Next year Patch
will be leaving us for college for extended periods of time (she’ll be way out
of state) and that will bring new challenges. And there may be a new pet in the
near future. We’ll see.
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