Happy New Year 2026
A new year is approaching, and it is time for my annual address
to... whoever find their way to this blog.
2025 was not a particularly great year. It used to be a
casual off-hand thing to say that the world is going crazy. In 2025 it felt as
if it is really happening. I find myself increasingly shutting down on
international affairs and while I know this ostrich mentality is not really
doing any good, I find a lot of comfort in watching movies from the eighties
and reading books from the nineteenth century.
I did slow down though on the movies. Only 45 reviews in
2025 of which 39 were List movies. That took me from 1985 to 1987, making this
the shortest step so far on this mission. Some of this was due to some very
long movies, but most of it was simply lack of time. I love the eighties and
the movies have generally been great. Should I mention a particular movie that
made an impression, it must be “Tampopo”, though watching “Shoah” with my wife
felt very important.
On my book blog I managed 9 books which is pretty good. This
took me from “Father Goriot”, 1835 to “Dead Souls”, 1842, a span of 7 years.
Those have been very interesting books written some of the most famous classic
authors. Maybe surprisingly, the best of them was “The Lion of Flanders” by a,
to me, completely unknown author (Hendrik Conscience). This year also included
the most difficult to find book-so-far, “Camera Obscura”, which I read in Google
translated Dutch.
Anyway, I just want to wish everybody a happy New Year. May
the Swartch be with you all (guess what movie is coming up...).
The 1980s are a great year for movies, and a huge decade on the list--it makes sense for this decade to be a series of smaller steps.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Happy New Year! Genuinely hoping that this one is better.
DeleteHappy New Year to you too, Steve. We can only hope 2026 will be a better year.
DeleteHendrik Conscience was the most popular Flemish (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) writer of the 19th century. He wrote 75 novels in diverse genres: historical novels, novels of manner, village stories. A list of the English translations of his work is on my website https://hendrikconscience.com/engelse-vertalingen/ . I can recommend: The iron tomb, The conscript, Blind Rosa, The noble gentleman, The amulet and Veva or the war of the peasants.
ReplyDeleteThank you for dropping by.
DeleteDid you read my review of the book? I was quite pleased with it and very happy to learn about an author I did not even know existed.
I will check you page and look for some of those titles.