Rueben's Ramblings

For about the past 8 years (give or take) I have been compiling a year-end round-up of all things entertainment, focusing on the worlds of television, movies, music and books; and in a year where scandals including those surrounding Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan, Lance Armstrong, Manti Te’o, Julianne Hough, Paula Deen and Amanda Bynes [among others] have been all over the headlines, it will be nice to focus on many of the good things that happened throughout 2013.

Before I start digging into the good things that happened this year in those four areas of the entertainment world, I want to take a short amount of time to focus on some of the goals for which I set for myself. Yeah, I’m being a little selfish for a quick moment.

Each year, it is my hope to read at least 20 books and most years I have been able to reach that goal; but this year I was little under that amount. But I have a very good reason for not reaching my goal. I was given a wonderful thank you gift by a friend of a friend for helping out with a much needed hotel room for Comic Con 2013. That gift was the beautiful leather-bound “Firefly: A Celebration” (which you can find here) that took me nearly three months to read (a little at a time every night).

In addition, I read quite a lot of sci-fi-based, young adult novels by Catherine Fisher, Cassandra Clare, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Maggie Stiefvater, Ally Condle, Veronica Roth, Sophie Jordan, Kiera Cass and Suzanne Collins. I also read a delightful novel called “While We Were Watching Downton Abbey” by Wendy Wax that focused on the wonderful international mini-series that took the world by storm back in 2010. I also continued with my Austen-esque yearly reading with books by Victoria Connelly and Shannon Hale.

And, as usual, I had the opportunity to attend numerous TV-related events, including PaleyFest, WonderCon and Comic-Con [much like I have done for many years now] as well as a handful of events at the Paley Center such as panels for Suits, Pretty Little Liars, China Beach’s 25th Anniversary and Castle. In addition, I visited the Warner Bros. Exhibit at the Paley Center, took a trip to Long Beach to visit the Princess Diana Exhibit on the Queen Mary and, for the 4th year in a year, went to the Pomona Fairgrounds for their annual Harvest Festival. Lastly, I took a trip back to Pittsburgh (my former hometown area) for the first time in five years, visiting family and friends.

But enough about all of that, tomorrow I will start rolling out my year-end round-up starting with the best (and worst) in television with much more as 2013 comes to an end.

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.