Rueben's Ramblings

In celebration of the past year in the worlds of television, movies, music and books, the year-end articles that I will be posting over the course of the next week or so will highlight the best (and in some instances the worst) that each of these entertainment genres had to offer those of us who partake in the enjoyment each medium provides.

But, much like each year, I want to take a few extra moments to look back – selfish though it may be – on some of my personal goals for the year. It was my hope to again read 20 books this year, and I actually surpassed that goal by reading 21 books. Okay, so it’s not that much over my goal, but at least I met my goal this year. I finally got the chance to start the much-buzzed-about book series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare – which is being made into a film franchise set to start next year – and while I know a number of people who didn’t like the books at all, I found them fun to read and I plan to read the rest of the book series as soon as possible.

I also read a handful of Jane Austen-inspired books by authors like Heather Lynn Rigaud, Karen Doornebos and Victoria Connelly – what a delight those were!! – as well as some pleasant Christian-based books by Lisa Wingate and Delia Parr that reminded me of my days growing up in Southeastern Pennsylvania, attending church with my family. Lastly, I enjoyed reading some of the young adult novels by Lauren Kate, Sophie Jordan, Ally Condle, Catherine Fisher, Andrea Cremer and Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (several of which are being made into box office movies that will hit theatres next year).

Once again this year like many other years past I have had the great opportunity to attend a lot of exciting TV-related events, including the annual Paley Fest in March, Comic Con in July and the Paley Preview Parties in September. As part of my press ‘duties’ I also attended Wonder Con in March, NBC Universal’s Press Day in April, the Fall Season Preview at the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences in August as well as a number of Paley Center events honoring shows like Justified, Missing, In Plain Sight, Person of Interest, Teen Wolf, Awkward, Eureka and the online series Husbands. In addition, I had the chance to see an advanced screening of the box office film Mirror Mirror and advanced screenings of the TV shows Smash and The Newsroom. To cap it all off I attended the reunion concert of The Monkees at the Greek Theatre last month.

With all that said, tomorrow I will take a look at the best and worst in television with much more to come throughout the rest of this year.

NOTE: I apologize in advance for any omissions, spelling errors or oversights I may have made, but I don’t apologize for any of the choices I made.