Favorite Book: This was definitely the year of George R.R. Martin for me. I read books 2 through 5 of the "Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire" series (I read book 1 late last year). Hard to pick a favorite, because they're all awesome, but I'd say my top fave so far is book 3, "Storm of Swords."
Favorite TV Show (Drama): Season 1 of "Game of Thrones," hands down. It rocked my world. HBO is doing the fantasy genre proud.
Favorite TV Show (Sitcom): My wife and I got hooked on both "New Girl" and "Up All Night." I gotta call it a tie. Love 'em both.
Favorite Podcast: MATES, ie. Mike & Tom Eat Snacks. It's two of my favorite actor/comedians, Tom Cavanagh & Michael Ian Black, literally eating snacks and talking about them. But it's hilarious and they go on ridiculous tangents and I love it. Their official site was matescast.tumblr.com, but I think they recently switched over to nerdist.com/podcast/mike-and-tom-eat-snacks. Whatever. Just subscribe to 'em in iTunes.
Favorite Movie: I'm gonna cheat and NOT pick a top favorite. Nothing stands out to me as the best of the best. Over all, I'd consider it kind of a slow year for movies, but there were some flicks that I saw and enjoyed a lot. Sherlock Holmes 2 was great, smart and clever just like the first one. Kung Fu Panda 2 was really fun. The Help was a fantastic movie (love me some Emma Stone). Also really liked Crazy, Stupid, Love. Tree of Life was really interesting. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was great. Fright Night was awesome and proved that remakes don't always have to be crappy. I've always loved the original Fright Night, and I thought the new one was really well-done, fun, and made with respect to the fans. Hanna was a great movie. Limitless was a great movie. I did see all the superhero stuff, too (Cap, X-men, Thor, Green Lantern). Again, nothing A+, but I enjoyed 'em. They were all in the C+ to B+ range for me.
Favorite Music: OK, no top favorite here either. I downloaded a few songs off iTunes and bought maybe one or two CDs (I like Adele's "21" a lot, can't argue with that one). But over all, I just didn't listen to much music. I spend all my time listening to podcasts and talk radio... I did develop an appreciation for and a crush on Rihanna. And I'm looking forward to Lana Del Rey's CD in late January. Also, the Skyrim soundtrack = AWESOME.
Hey, speaking of which...
Favorite Game: I tell ya, I wasn't a videogame guy before Skyrim. I heard about it earlier in the year and saw the promos for it, and I was just drawn to it like a nerd-moth to a nerd-flame. I had to play it. I pretty much got an xbox 360 BECAUSE of this game. And I've loved every second of it. It gives you such an open world, so many options -- there's so much to explore and do and experience. And I love the look and feel of it. Man, if you're a fantasy geek (or an old school D&D fanboy like I am), you owe it to yourself to play this thing. It's epic.
