My five fives of 2010

I hope you have all had a relaxing break. Mine was enjoyable, albeit brief. In amidst the eating and film viewing, I caught up on a substantial portion of my reading (alas, not as substantial as I’d like but I have to get to the middle before I can get to the end).

My reading has inspired me to outline several potential posts. As it stands, I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to write them but as a stopgap, and following on from last year’s post, here are my top fives of 2010.

Top 5 Films

(Released in UK cinemas in 2010, which I have seen. Links point to IMDB)

1. Inception
2. Toy Story 3
3. Un Prophete
4. Buried
5. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Note: I’m yet to see Chatroom, but I’m not expecting that to enter the list

Top 5 Albums

(Released in the UK in 2010, which I have heard. Links point to Spotify where available)

1. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
2. Body Talk by Robyn
3. High Violet by The National
4. Odd Blood by Yeasayer
5. Treats by Sleigh Bells

Top 5 Gigs

(That I attended in 2010)

1. Joanna Newsom @ Royal Festival Hall
2. Arcade Fire @ The O2
3. Pavement @ Brixton Academy
4. Rodrigo y Gabriela @ Latitude Festival
5. Broken Social Scene @ The Forum

Top 5 Books

(That I read in 2010 – as with last year I’m struggling to even get a top five. Links point to Amazon)

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon – also in my top 5 all-time reads
2. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon – my review here
3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
4. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Top 5 iPhone games

(My reading list hasn’t substantially altered over the past year, so with apologies to those new blogs I’ve enjoyed this year, I’ve decided to change the topic to one that has taken up more of a substantial part of my time. I decided against doing apps as a whole as social networks or information based apps provide a very different function. Links point to iTunes store)

• Angry Birds – Goes without saying. I’ve spent a lot of time playing this over the past year. I even have 3 stars on each level in the 11 stages
• Game Dev Story – a charming port from an old Japanese RPG game, where you run a small studio developing games for different, evolving consoles over a 20 year period. Likenesses to any real-life consoles or people are purely coincidental.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – do I pay £30 for the Nintendo DS version, or a tenth of that for a near identical version on my phone? No choice
• Streets of Rage – reliving my Megadrive youth. I’m waiting for Streets of Rage 2, which was far superior
• The Sims 3 – I’ve now been fully sucked into the Sims universe, not only completing every goal on this but also purchasing the Ambitions follow-up, as well as the PC version

If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, I thank you for your attention. If you are new, welcome and I hope you find something of interest. I wish you all have a wonderful 2011.

sk