My 2014 in books, music and dramatic arts

It's the last day of 2014! My first thought when looking back on this year was "Well... it could have been better." Then, I scrolled through all of my blog posts of the year and realized just how many absolutely wonderful things I've discovered regarding all of my interests that I've been blogging about. I've read books that will stay with me for the rest of my life, found loads of new music to keep up with, seen some truly astonishing films, and even had a couple of enlightening theatre experiences. So, the following post is a re-cap of my past year's experiences around my usual blogging subjects, as well as a celebration of my favorite forms of art. As for blogging plans for 2015... Oh yes, I've got those. Such as reviewing all the things listed below that I haven't blogged about yet.


Top 5 Best Books I read in 2014 (excluding the ones I re-read)

1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
3. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
4. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
5. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Top 5 Singers and Bands I found in 2014

1. The Script
2. Sara Bareilles
3. Ellie Goulding
4. Linda Eder
5. Jessie J.

(But the best album of the year for me was, without a doubt, Colm Wilkinson's Broadway and Beyond when it finally became available on Spotify.)

Top 5 Films I saw in 2014

1. August: Osage County
2. The Quartet
3. Murder on the Orient Express (TV film in the ITV Poirot series)
4. Julie & Julia
5. Disney's The Princess and the Frog

Top 5 Personalities I discovered in 2014 and will totally internet-stalk forevermore

1. Benedict Cumberbatch – I can't believe it's been less than a year since I first saw him on Sherlock, I already feel like I've been a fangirl forever!
2. Steven Moffat
3. Nick Dear
4. Neil Gaiman – I seriously recommend following him on Facebook, his feed makes the most interesting content on my Facebook wall nowadays!
5. Meryl Streep – of course I had seen her doing great film roles before and I have always appreciated her, but this year I sort of realized the full extent of her phenomenal awesomeness for the first time. I saw her do three completely different yet equally brilliant roles in August: Osage County, Julie & Julia and The Iron Lady, and decided I have to see more of her!

A Long List of Other Important Discoveries in 2014

• I found Sherlock, for goodness' sake! The third series aired in Finland in March, and swept me off so completely that it feels like I've loved it forever. It's got me obsessing over aforementioned Benedict Cumberbatch and Steven Moffat, and is the main reason why I'm reading through the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories now. What a ride it has been.
• Through Sherlock I also discovered Doctor Who, and even though I don't adore it quite as completely and unconditionally, it's still been very important in being the first sci-fi thing I have ever enjoyed, and explaining to me why people might find that genre so fulfilling.
• I've continued my infatuation with the Victorian era, but I also developed a sudden interest in the Napoleonic Wars and now I have to read more books and see more films in that setting.
• I've always been a faithful Potterhead, but this year I re-discovered my love for the wizarding world on a whole new level. 
• I feel like I started re-appreciating the fantasy genre in general. I used to read loads of boulder-sized epic fantasy books when I was younger, then I got a bit bored because there seemed to be such strong conventions around that genre, and every fantasy writer I read was basically aspiring to be Tolkien. However, now I'm getting the hang of some very different sub-genres of fantasy and I'm really excited to find out more about them!
• I'm not a very visually-minded person so it's usually quite hard for me to appreciate dance as an art form in the way I love literature and theatre. But there's one exception – ballet. I love watching ballet and I've watched it this year (thanks to Youtube) more than ever before. I've also spent entire days just listening to ballet music. 
• I don't get to go to the theatre nearly as often as I'd like (because there usually isn't much going around here that interests me enough to pay for the not-so-cheap tickets) but I saw two wonderful plays this year: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at a local theatre, and a live screening of National Theatre's Frankenstein.  

New Years Blogging Resolutions for 2015! I'm going to...

• watch more Meryl Streep films
• finish reading all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and participate in Hamlette's Birthday Blog Party for Sherlock Holmes
• stalk the internet for everything related to Sherlock and The Hollow Crown
• start reviewing films and board games on the blog!
• start reading Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey-Maturin" books which are a series of naval adventures set in the Napoleonic Wars. The bromance between Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin is lovely and deep according to every review I've read, so I have high hopes.
• read all of Shakespeare's plays in the order they're presented in my Wordsworth Library edition. As I have 32 plays to read (having finished Henry VI and Richard III already) and I don't want to make this a full-time project, it will probably take me a couple of years to get through. Looks like Titus Andronicus is up next... Eww.

Before 2014 is gone for good, I want to say Thank You to each and every reader who has visited this year – I adore every single comment you have left me, and jump for joy each time I see someone new here. Special Thanks go to all my fellow bloggers whom I follow because they share my interests and give me an endless supply of new things to try out. Let's keep adding great stuff to the Blogiverse in 2015, right?

Happy New Year! See you in 2015 :)

Situation update!

Hi everyone! You might have noticed that this blog has been rather sleepy lately, and that's NOT because I don't feel like blogging - quite the opposite. Unfortunately, my trusty laptop completely busted some weeks ago and I'm such a whiner that I can't use my parents' computer instead. It seems that my inspiration for blogging has a lot to do with the fact that I can haul my laptop wherever I choose (usually my bed, the couch or the University cafe) and the idea of sitting down at a fixed spot to write is really off-putting! Even the Blogger Dashboard looks wrong on the other computer even though it's basically identical! Now, Dear Laptop has been to the iDoctor and it looks like the fixing will cost so much it might be wiser to replace it altogether. So I don't need to wonder what I want for Christmas anymore!

Now, while I'm laptop-less and not liking the idea of letting the blog just sleep, I'm going to give you a sneak preview on what I've been planning... (Because I've been using up all my usual blogging time to blog planning time!) So here's what to  expect when I can blog properly again!

- a review on Shakespeare's Richard III and some very happy thoughts about the cast for the new Hollow Crown series

- the superb ITV Hercule Poirot TV films, from the ninth series onwards (because they're the good ones)

- my favourite current playwrights and screenwriters 

- a bunch of The Hound of the Baskervilles screen adaptations in one post 

- A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four and The Adventures and Memoirs O Sherlock Holmes

- I love tag question challenges and thought, why not make my own tag? I won't tell you what the tag is about just yet because I'm evil... I think you'll find out in January. I'm quite proud of it, to be honest, and can't wait to challenge a couple of you blogger friends!

I wrote this post on my phone and it insists on using Finnish spell-check everywhere, so if there are weird, Finnish words anywhere that's why. I did check this one before publishing and that was a wise thing to do - the spell-check had honestly suggested liekinheitinnorsu at one point! What...? So, happy pre-Christmas to everyone and beware of flame-throwing elephants... Because at least my phone seems to think such monsters exist.

Christmas Carol Count-down!

So we are FINALLY done with November – joy joy joy!!! I did a bit of Christmas blogging last year, which made it quite apparent how fond I am of this particular, approaching holiday. Normally, the first thing I do in the name of Christmas love is buy myself an advent calendar, and right up until this year there was an absolutely lovely one with illustrations by Rudolf Koivu, who will get his own blog post soon. However, now they've stopped making it for some inexplicable reason! And once you've grown used to having a Rudolf Koivu advent calendar, you can't really see the point of getting any other calendar. So I won't have an advent calendar on my wall this Christmas season, but I came up with something else.

I'm going to count down the days till Christmas Day by posting my 24 favourite Christmas tunes! Christmas carols and other holiday songs are one of my absolute favourite things about this holiday, so of course I want to spread the love on my blog. The title of the post says Christmas Carol Count-down, but I guess some of the songs I'm going to share won't be traditional carols, strictly speaking. I'm going to edit the songs into this same post each day until December the 24th (because that's where a Finnish/Nordic advent calendar ends, we don't celebrate the actual Christmas Day that much which is weird) and in case somebody missed my Christmas posts last year, let's link them in before we get to caroling:

A Christmas Tag, do this on your own blog by all means, what's more fun than Christmas and tags?

What Christmas means to me, my musings on why exactly this holiday is still so important to me

In defence of Finnish Christmas treats, because Sweden dared suggest that Finns eat swastika-shaped pastries at Yuletide.

Now then, let the count-down begin!

Day 4 – Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt

I couldn't help thinking about what my Christmas wish list might possibly contain. I don't care so much about all the luxuries that Eartha Kitt sings about here, though. This is a funny, ironic jewel among Christmas songs, which tend to be either solemn or boisterously merry.

Day 3 – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland

I haven't seen the film Meet Me in St. Louis where Judy Garland originally sang this song, but I definitely mean to. I've always agreed with this song in the fact that Christmas is the time to be close to your loved ones and have merry thoughts. That, combined with Judy Garland's flawless voice, makes this one of the warmest Christmas tunes in the world.

Day 2 – The Little Drummer Boy by Stevie Wonder

Even if I don't celebrate Christmas for Christian reasons, there are many carols with a Christian message that I absolutely adore. The Little Drummer Boy has been one of my favourites since I was very small, and I think the wonderful Stevie Wonder does the best version of it. The background instruments are perfect and Stevie Wonder sounds beautiful. Enjoy.

Day 1 – White Christmas by Bing Crosby

This is an undying classic for a reason. Many other artists have of course covered this song on their Christmas album, but in my opinion, nobody captures it quite like Mr Crosby. I'm completely in love with his voice and my Christmas celebrations are never complete without this one.