2018 Year-In-Review: Books I Read

My list of “read” books was an even 40, compared with 42 in 2017 and 38 in 2016. As previously, that list includes a couple of graphic novels (typically more “literary” ones, as the actual graphic novel count dwarfs the prose novel count significantly), so the real count is 36 prose titles, matching last year.

By type: 18 Kindle books, 13 other ebooks, 9 physical books.

The most common book type was sci-fi, with a whopping 14 of the books falling into that broad category. Combination funny and informative books (at varying levels of seriousness) are another nine of the titles, plus four self-help books. Five books fell into the classic or modern fantasy genre, three of which were Seanen MacGuire’s books. I read a number of books from two Humble Bundles, though I also started and culled four of those and five other books.

MacGuire tied Scalzi for most popular author; everyone else was a one-off. My queue for the coming year includes more by each of them, a Carey, a Gaiman, a LeGuin, and likely a bunch more one-offs.

Recommended standouts of the year included Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, Seanen MacGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway, Cat Valente’s Space Opera and Paul Melko’s Singularity’s Ring.

Incidentally, regarding graphic novels: You should definitely be reading Lumberjanes; we’ve been enjoying Giant Days; Princeless has a lot of potential; and Cardboard Kingdom is a really cute one-off.

2018 Year-In-Review: Video Games I Played

I officially logged 40 games this year, and two-thirds of those were PC titles. (Which, as typical, excludes a couple of games I didn’t finish but played several hours of; and anything I could finish in two hours or less.) 216 other games were tried, tested and/or culled; and I spent 5+ hours on five of those games.

This year, similar to last year, saw 14 RPGs (plus two roguelikes), 12 point-and-click/hidden-object puzzle games, and 6 other puzzle/casual games.

My replay of Stardew Valley over the summer was far and away the most time spent on a logged game, with 85 hours. The next-longest game was Dragon Quest Heroes, at 35 hours. The KEMCO rpgs Fairy Elements and Dragon Lapis both managed 20+ hours, but this was not a year for long games.

(I wrote my review of Fanatical Bundle #37 in January and Fanatical Bundle #54 in December; so that’s at least 18 bundles worth of games cleared off during the year, plus 8 finished Humble Bundles. Clearly that’s where I was spending my gaming time.)

I also played some uncountable number of hours of Cookie Jam, but finally got tired of it and switched over to Gems of War in the fall.

Jethrien and I played the main story of Lego Lord of the Rings together, though I haven’t officially listed that as “completed” because we seem intent on doing a few more sidequests. ARR was generally more interested in games on his tablet for actively playing, but he loved watching me play Gems of War and Dragon Quest Heroes. And he helped me a bit with hidden object games, but he likes the brightly-color fantasy ones better than the horror ones.

I correctly predicted that puzzle and rpg games would feature heavily in 2018; though I really didn’t get into the longer, more engaging ones. As I only have a few more big bundles to clear, I’m hoping to spend more time actually playing the “paid real money” collection of games; likely the ones that it’s more appropriate for ARR to watch with me.

By genre, the games that I would say, “This is genuinely good, you should try it if you like the genre,” are:
• RPG/Simulation: Stardew Valley (PC)
• Action RPG: Xanadu Next (PC)
• JRPG: Shadows of Adam (PC)
• Beat-Em-Up: Dragon Quest Heroes (PS4)
• Tower Defense: Kingdom Rush Frontiers (PC)
• Casual/Puzzle: Monument Valley (Android), SIMULACRA (PC), Layton’s Mystery Journey (3DS)

2018 Year-In-Review: TV I Watched

What did I watch in 2018? As with last year, a lot of Netflix. I recently got access to Hulu, so added a bunch of those exclusives to the queue.

Things that stood out included:

Cartoons: I watched three seasons of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, three seasons of Voltron: Legendary Defender, and all of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I also watched the first seasons of Ducktales (2017), She-Ra Princesses of Power and The Dragon Prince, all of which have a lot of potential.

Superheroes: I watched a season each of: DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Black Lightning, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and Marvel's Runaways.

Comedy: Another season each of Brooklyn 99 and The Good Place, and the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

I actually saw a number of movies in a theater that year: Black Panther, Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Wreck-It Ralph 2 and Into the Spider-Verse. That’s out of 18 movies total that I saw; which were mostly the rest of the geeky required set.

I culled off a bunch of drama TV shows that didn’t capture my interest. Most of the sci-fi I’d been following got cancelled and I have yet to find anything that interests me to replace it.

In terms of actual hours, I have no idea how 2018 compared to 2017, but it feels like I spent less time on “serious” media in favor of “entertainment”. I’ll see what 2019 brings, but I suspect I’ll continue watching the new seasons of everything listed above (as they drop on streaming services) and I’ll see what new things Hulu has to offer me.