Usually I share with you a picture of my house with the lights on but this year it looks the same as the past few years, so we’ll switch it up here. More details on this picture in the Notes section.

(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 52)

Hard to believe, but it’s the last Sunday of the year.

I used to end the year with a wrap-up post of what I read in the year, but this year was a really slow year for reading.

But I did read…and as you know, I watched a lot of movies and listened to a lot of albums.

So, as we put a bow on 2022 in the next week (and as I finish my year of albums and movies), here’s a little bit of what I enjoyed the most over the last twelve months.

Books

I won’t list out what I read this year because a lot of it was nothing special, to be honest. I will single out the two books I enjoyed most, though, and since this is a ‘Best of’ edition I’ll give them in yearbook superlative terms:

Most Inspiring and Best Book I Read in 2022 - A Swim In A Pond In The Rain by George Saunders

I had this book in 2021 but didn’t get around to digging into it until the very beginning of 2022, and nothing else the rest of the year came close to inspiring me as much as it did. I am biased, because I love everything George Saunders writes, but this book took us into writing process and it was like sitting in on one of his classes, and it was just really great. He has a new book out that I’m looking forward to kicking off 2023 with.

Most Fun Memoir - scrappy little nobody by Anna Kendrick

Sometimes I’ll wander through the library and grab whatever catches my eye and this book did that back in May, according to my notes. It was a quick read and Anna Kendrick is funny and the self-deprecating humor works in a way that isn’t annoyingly disguised ego. Just a fun read. (I’ll give an honorable mention to Samantha Bee’s memoir - i know i am, but what are you? [Funny that both of these memoirs’ titles were written in all lowercase. {Also I guess I should note I read a bunch of memoirs this year.}] This book was just consistently funny. Jokes everywhere.)

Music

Last week I told you about the movie numbers. It’s a good thing I don’t know how they number albums - 55,000 movies was overwhelming to me. I can’t imagine what the music categorizing system is like. Anyway, a couple of thoughts on what I listened to this year:

Making the time to listen to a bunch of music I had never listened to before was definitely worth the effort. I discovered new bands that I really like (HAIM, for example), and definitely caught up on certain things that I should have listened to long ago (Rolling Stones albums, some Bob Dylan, David Bowie).
I liked learning about some of the music and when and how it was made. It’ll stick with me that “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne was recorded completely on tour, featuring songs about being on the road. I don’t know that I would have learned that if I didn’t listen to the album and then read up on it. And I had always wondered why the songs from that album, when they were played on the radio, had that certain sound. That was the answer.
I distinctly remember listening to The Cars’ self-titled first album (it was February 1, for those of you keeping score at home), which had familiar songs that I’ve listened to throughout my life (fun fact: the album was released a month before I was born, so we share a life), and just thinking about when it was brand new. What a sound that must have been when people heard it for the first time. I spent a lot of time thinking this year about how a song we know and love at one point didn’t exist, and it’s hard to imagine that time without it in your life. I just thought The Cars’ music is so singular and has such a unique sound that it must have been really cool to listen to it for the first time when it came out.

Movies

I wasn’t sure how to break down the movies. I can’t categorize them in terms of which ones moved me to tears - that list would be too long. (I think I’m emotionally fragile these days. I don’t know. They’re not necessarily sad tears - and it’s not always in reaction to what’s meant to be tear-jerker movies, I don’t think, but I found them touching in one way or another.)

Anyway, here are some movies by the numbers and other thoughts:

I’ll start by telling you what kinds of movies I don’t enjoy: tense ones. I’m thinking in particular of the likes of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Town - there’s an underlying tension throughout almost the whole movie that I don’t like sitting with. I appreciate the filmmaking and the idea that someone was able to create that tense feeling in the viewer….but given the choice those are not my type of movie.
So on the positive side - what are my types of movies? I don’t know. There’s very little I didn’t enjoy. The romantic comedies were some of my favorites - there’s the ol’ reliables like You’ve Got Mail or Notting Hill…but Always Be My Maybe is a newer one that I liked very much. I was glad to be able to catch up on the superhero movies, like X-Men and Batman…and of course I’ve already told you about James Bond. I can’t pick a favorite movie or even a favorite genre. I do know that I’m glad I took the time to do this.

Looking back it’s interesting how slowly the year started off. I thought it would be interesting to see how many movies I watched by month:

By March I kind of found a movie-watching rhythm that picked up over the summer…and then I was able to keep a good pace going the rest of the year.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“London Calling” - The Clash
“So Tonight That I Might See” - Mazzy Star
“She’s So Unusual” - Cyndi Lauper
Love Actually
Any Given Sunday
X-Men: Apocalypse
Klaus
Elf

Elf on Christmas Eve was one of the few repeat movies I’ve watched this year. But…come on. It’s Elf. And it’s Christmas Eve.

The year’s not over yet! I’ll have final totals for you in next week’s Sunday Paper.

Notes

*For those of you wondering how I found the time to watch all of these movies and listen to all of these albums this year - first of all, I couldn’t have done it if I was still teaching, I’ll tell you that. (Well, maybe I could have done the album listening, because of the commute. That’s what made it easier to do the albums than the movies - you can listen to an album while mowing the lawn.)

But, with my lack of reading in 2022 as evidence, some other things had to go. I definitely didn’t write as much creatively (looking forward to getting back to that in 2023), and I didn’t read as much. But the majority of movies I didn’t watch straight through. Sometimes I’d start during my morning workout, other times during lunch, and then pick it up after I picked the girls up from school and the workday was already interrupted. (Sometimes I’d sit for a movie at lunch and not go back to work. Whoops.)

And the music was always tacked on to something else - driving somewhere, doing yard work, going for a run.

*Another thing that allowed me to watch more movies this year was the fact that I didn’t wait for Kathy. Which sounds crass, but it’s harder on me than for her, I think. I enjoy watching movies with her, but she’s a little indifferent. Towards the movies. Not me. (I think.) We had movies sitting on our TiVo for years before we got rid of it. Sideways and The King’s Speech are two that come to mind. (I still haven’t seen either.)

*I had forgotten how the winter can wreak havoc with my running schedule. Especially around the holidays. With Christmas this weekend, rain on Friday, and bitter cold Saturday (and an open Wednesday afternoon), I scooted my long run up to Wednesday for this week. It was a really good decision. Plus, it always feels like a big accomplishment when I get that long run out of the way. It felt especially so this week.

*Ugh, the Jets. Don’t even get me started. Playoff possibilities look bleak. It’s not impossible, though, depending on this weekend’s results. (Saturday’s were promising. They need more help on Sunday.) But they’re really blowing a promising season.

*That picture at the top of the post is Framingham’s City Hall, with the tree out front and two of the wooden soldiers on either side of the tree there. I took the picture on one of my runs last week. Those are two of the soldiers displayed all around town that I’m trying to run past in my December challenge. You can get more info on that at my Instagram page. Link below. (I should have taken a picture of the lights on the house Saturday to prove that they withstood the strong winds on Friday. I’m pretty proud of that.)

*Speaking of the social media links, as always, they are below if you want to keep tabs on me and especially my runs in this final week of 2022.

*Merry Christmas, if Christmas is your thing.