Monday, December 29, 2014

My 2015 Pop Culture Resolutions

Hello beautiful people! It’s that time of year where we’re all making New Year’s Resolutions that we say we’re going to keep, but instead should just resolve to stop making stupid New Year’s Resolutions and simply live well throughout the year.

Last year I resolved to not buy a single book. That lasted until the end of February, and I posted about my experience here. So I won’t be making any other batshit crazy resolutions this year.

Aside from the usual — continue to eat well, become more active, blah blah blah — I have one major resolution I intend to try out in 2015: I want to finally check out the pop culture offerings people have been telling me to read/watch for years.



I have ordered season one of Babylon 5, and intend to watch the entire series in 2015. (It helps that I signed up a B5 book this year and therefore need to watch the series in order to properly edit that book...) The first time someone told me I need to watch that show was at a Toronto Trek convention in 2003, I think it was. The show had ended five years earlier and someone was telling me it was perfectly crafted television, that Straczynski had fashioned out all five years before starting on the first season, and that if I was a Buffy fan I’d probably love it. I told him I’d absolutely check it out. That was almost 12 years ago. So let’s change that.

As I mentioned on Facebook earlier today, I am going to finally crack Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and based on advice of two of my friends, I shall begin with Carpe Jugulum and then continue with this handy dandy chart:



I want to reread the Sandman series. I last read it 15 years ago, and I’ve forgotten large swaths of it. Perhaps this should be an annual thing.

I need to finally read that second Game of Thrones book. Seriously, it’s been two years since I read the first one!

Following with the previous Terry Pratchett thing (and Neil Gaiman, for that matter), I need to read Good Omens. No, I haven’t read it. Yes, I know about the radio serial and that it’ll be available for only one month. So I need to read it fast in order to listen to it, and I hope to be able to do so in January.

I’m going to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I bought it as soon as it came out in 2004, for goodness’ sake, but that was the same year my daughter was born, and obviously I got a little busy for that ginormous book. But then the BBC started putting together a miniseries that will soon be airing on PBS, and I don’t want to watch it before reading it.

I need to read American Gods. (Yes, my friend who told me where to start on Discworld just fell over dead of a heart attack when he read that line.) I’ve started it 100 times, and something always comes up that pulls me away from it around page 75.

Man, this is turning into a very Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett–heavy list, isn’t it?

I want to watch Twin Peaks. I watched it back in the day, but not religiously, and missed several episodes, but what I did see I adored. I have both seasons and need to sit down and just binge watch the entire thing.

There are so many other things I need to catch up on that I’ve been intending to do for a very long time, but that’s a pretty strong list already, and if I keep it to a handful of things I might actually achieve this in 2015.

Along with the healthy eating and being more active blah blah blah.

What are your pop culture (or otherwise) resolutions?


7 comments:

Bree at Clarity Defined said...

In 2014, I resolved to not buy lunch at work and bring my own. It lasted until September, so I called it a success (but oh the immediate and strong downfall since September to my waist and bank account).

In 2015, my pop culture resolution should probably be to get "up" on pop culture and finally see what Orange is the New Black and Walking Dead (I know!) are all about. :)

Anonymous said...

I had never read a Neil Gaiman book, and I just received 3 for Christmas! I blew through Stardust...loved it...and just started American Gods. I need to read more this year and watch less TV.

EsDee

Batcabbage said...

My pop culture resolution this year is to read all of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I've read most of the first one and it's brilliant. The only reason I didn't finish it is because the first book of James Ellroy's new LA Quartet came out and I had to drop everything and read that instead.

I think my face did an involuntary double take when I read you hadn't read American Gods, Nik. You will love it. It's his best novel. And the last time I re-read Good Omens I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. Sheer brilliance.

Fred said...

When I watched Babylon 5, I found the first season stilted in its writing, but the series grew on me in the second season. Looking back on it, it does owe a lot to those Westerns where the sheriff has to keep a wild town in order. It also considers the theme of trans-humanance--aliens seem to be versions of our biologically future. Notable with B5 is an anthropological sense of alien cultures as complex systems, not just defined by weirdness of the alien and a few gadgets, like in a lot of sci-fi.

I tried reading Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange, but flagged some hundred or so pages in. While it is wonderful in parts, it's narrative and style runs counter to modern sensibilities. Will try again this year.

My pop resolutions is to get through the second season of Dr. Who with William Hartnell. A friend is trying to convince me to just ditch the early doctors and begin with the 9th doctor after the hiatus in production.

As for reading, there is so much: Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet is high on my list of rereads.

Beth said...

I resolve to join you in watching B5. I was a devoted fan when it was first on the air, and have watched all the DVDs, but when I started my own re-watch a few year ago, it sputtered after episode three--too many distractions. This year: fewer distractions!

areader said...

This is a fantastic resolution! I'm going to try to read through more of the books I've already purchased - including Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and American Gods - and knit through more of my yarn stash - which should be easier considering all I bought in late 2014. I also just added Twin Peaks to my Netflix queue.

Nikki Stafford said...

areader: Interestingly, I've also resolved to learn how to knit this year! :)