Movie of the week – Starred Up

An excellent British film even though i found the ending too sentimenal,
especially when compared to how raw the rest of the movie was.

 

Summer books (2)

Yeap, the blogger Tiffany was spot on when she said that the best time to read long and slow books is in the summer.

I managed to finish The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power (928 pages) in less than two months (July 2 to August 25). This compares to the 8+ months i spent on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Considering that i also read A Bracelet of Willow and Copper this was a great decision.

Summer now belongs to the long books! or is it the other way around?! :-S

I should also mention that The Prize is an absolutely brilliant book which i highly recommend.

The plan now was to read an Officer and a Spy next but i ended up starting The Power of Habit. I had given it as a gift to a friend a month ago and i wanted to be able to talk about it. I’m around 10% in though and it’s not exactly the book i thought it would be. It”s basically just stories or “anecdotes” so far. Similar to what you would find in a newspaper or magazine article which is disappointing. I expected something along the lines of Thinking Fast and Slow but it does not seem to be that kind of book. Anyway, it’s short and easy to read so i will keep at it.

 

Documentary of the week – The Invisible War

It’s a documentary that deserves to be watched for its subject matter, even though i found its execution wanting.

 

Top 10 Movies of 2013

It’s a belated Top 10 list but i wanted to watch as many releases as possible before making it. There are some movies (Rush, All Is Lost, La Grande Bellezza) i wish i had watched in a movie theatre which is surprising since i don’t enjoy going to cinemas. I believe that i lost something by watching them on a tv instead of the big screen.

Also, although i did settle on only 1 winner, any of my top 3 could have been My Movie of the Year 2013.

Anyway, without further ado, my Top 10 Movies of 2013.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

RUNNERS’ UP

MOVIE OF THE YEAR 2013

 

Movie of the week – Like Father, Like Son

I’ve not been in the mood for movies lately and have only been watching mediocre TV shows. I decided to ignore, or rather overcome, my mood and change things up.

I’m glad i did because this one was wonderful.

 

(Unplayed) Board games

These are currently the games I’ve yet to play in the order of preference how much i want to play them. Of course some are a lot easier to introduce than others so it’s likelier that i will first play No.10 Palast than say Risk: Legacy or CO2.

The plan is to reduce these unplayed games down to 10 or so by the end of the year.

1. Risk Legacy

2. Kaigan

3. Dawn of the Zeds

4. Kemet

5. Panic on Wall Street

6. CO2

7. 1989: Dawn of Freedom

8. The Climbers

9. Palast Gefluster

10. Sekigahara

11. Bruxelles: 1893

12. Madeira

13. The Great Zimbabwe

14. Navegador

15. Lancaster

16. Three Little Pigs

17. Wildcatters

18. Incan Gold

19. Wizard

20. Mow

21. 6 Nimmt!

22. Coloretto

 

Board games (storage and clear out)

As mentioned several times already, in 2014 I went through a crazy buying spree of board games. Although the number of my plays has also increased i still can’t keep up.

I had been meaning to have some wall shelves installed for some time now and the recent spree only made it more urgent. This is now currently my main setup for board games storage.

The plan was to get rid of the small bookcase but it does not look like it’s happening soon as I don’t want to over load the wall shelves.

 

My most recent purchase is the expansion to Eldritch Horror, which i have already played 6 times (5 base game plus 1 with the expansion) so i consider that as a “sensible” purchase. Also i’m still waiting for delivery of 4 Kickstarter games later this year (below).

KICKSTARTER GAMES

Coup Reformation, Septikon: Uranium Wars, Two Rooms and a Boom, Steam Donkey.

I definitely need to put a stop to more acquisitions possibly for at least the remaining of the year. However, If i say that i won’t buy anything i don’t think it will be realistic. Nemo’s War (2nd Edition) is a game i already have in mind but i think it’s not coming out in 2014 anyway.

So i’d say i can buy just 1 more game this year and i will also try and clear out a few games.

At this point in time i have around 20 or so games I haven’t played. I’d like to play at least half of the un-played games i already own.

GAMES TO SELL OR GIVE AWAY

These are the games which either i have already made up mind i want to get rid of or i’m thinking about it.

• Risk (sell/give away)
  I had sold this to a friend a year ago but he returned it to me to give it away as he was not going to play it after all. Unless anyone else wants to keep it i think i will donate it to the Workshop where we hold our Cyprus Board gamers meetings.
• Madeira (sell)
  I got 2 copies of this game in the last EU Maths Trade so i need to get rid of one.
• Bohnanza (sell)
  I bought this last year, opened it but never played it. I should never have bought it in the first place since it’s not a game i want to try or play.
• Bears (sell)
  A cute little game but i got bored with it.
• Zombie Dice + Expansion (sell)
  Same as with Bears.
• Puerto Rico (sell)
  This is a good game but i rarely have fun playing it. It’s very strange because it ticks almost all the boxes for what i consider to be a good game. Good decisions, interactive and plays within a reasonable amount of time. However, apart from the fact that i don’t like as much as i would like almost everyone else in my group owns a copy so i can afford not to have it in my collection.
• Chinatown (Undecided)
  I have only played this once and I want to play this more and decide. I don’t have any other game similar to this but it seems to be a a difficult game to get to the table.
• Splendor (Undecided)
  This is a game that has already seen a lot of plays considering how recently i bought it. It’s very easy to teach, quick to play and has wonderful components. Yet, it has not clicked with me for some reason. Maybe it’s the engine building aspect which is one of my least favourite aspects in games. Also a friend of mine owns a copy so once again, it’s not a game i feel i need to have in the collection.