My Lists at Present

I know I just said that the face of the blog has changed, but as far as I'm concerned, my own personal goal of finishing every item I own is alive and well. A year ago I listed all of my books, movies, and DVDs, and I'm back one year later to do the same and see how far (or not so far) I've come in the past year. I'll make this stat-heavy and word-light, but here it goes.

MOVIES
I've split "DVDs" into "Movies" and "Television" but the two remain closely related. Anyway, a year ago when I shared my unfinished list, I had 31 movies to get through. Astoundingly, I watched 30 of those 31 films over the course of the past year. I do, however, also have 10 new movies I haven't seen yet. Never mind the dozens that I purchased and viewed in the past year; they contribute nothing to the overall progress I've made and can be virtually ignored in this discussion. So my movie backlog is just 35% as large as it was one year ago. That's good news. Even better news is that 91% of my current backlog consists of new movies. In other words, I may be buying new movies, but I'm watching the old ones too.

Yet to Watch (2nd year on the list):
Saving Private Ryan

Yet to Watch (1st year on the list):
Alien Resurrection
Downfall
Goodfellas
Lawrence of Arabia
Raging Bull
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Rocky V
Slap Shot

TELEVISION
One year ago I owned 11 unwatched DVD box sets of TV shows. I currently own five. That puts me at 45% of my original TV backlog, or halfway there, in other words. The bad news is that all five of these unwatched seasons are remnants from last year's backlog!

Yet to Watch (2nd year on the list):
The Wire: Season 1
The Wire: Season 2
The Wire: Season 3
The Wire: Season 4
The Wire: Season 5

VIDEO GAMES
This category has always been the bane of my logging goal. I had 77 unbeaten games a year ago. Currently, I have 66. That's a net progress of 11 games (roughly one per month). Of those 77 games, just 27 remain unbeaten. This means I've purchased 39 new games that I have yet to beat. That's three a month! Bad. But the fact that 59% of my total backlog consists of games that were not on the list a year ago? That's not so bad. In fact, that's good. If I could only stop buying new games, I'd be in pretty good shape.

Yet to Beat (2nd year on the list):
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Banjo-Tooie
Fable II
Fallout 3
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XII
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Kingdom Hearts
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Pikmin
Pokémon Silver
Red Steel
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
Super Mario Sunshine
Wario Land II
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Yet to Beat (1st year on the list):
Bully
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Counter-Strike
Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Devil May Cry
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Flicky
God of War
God of War II
Ico
Infamous
Kingdom Hearts
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
LittleBigPlanet
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Okami
Onimusha: Warlords
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Psychonauts
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Ristar
Shadow of the Colossus
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
StarCraft
StarCraft: Brood War
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Too Human
Twisted Metal: Head-On
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Valkyria Chronicles
Viewtiful Joe 2
Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble
WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne

BOOKS
Here's an interesting situation. A year ago when I posted my unfinished book list, I had 29 books on the list. But later on, I discovered more unread books of mine in the basement or under my bed, for example, and added them to my bookshelf and thus my backlog. But the thing is, they weren't new purchases - they were always on my backlog, after all. I just erroneously neglected them in last August's post. So while I currently have 42 unfinished books, I don't think it should say too much that the list is now 145% as large as it once was; instead, if it's taken into consideration that a number of the "new" additions are kids' books and classics, I've actually made good progress. Nonetheless, my lists are, "technically," as follows:

Yet to Read (2nd year on the list):
Johnny Tremain (Forbes, Esther)
Princess Bride, The (Goldman, William)
Fabric of the Cosmos (Greene, Brian)
Closing Time (Heller, Joseph)
How the Mind Works (Pinker, Steven)
Subtle Knife, The (Pullman, Philip)
Amber Spyglass, The (Pullman, Philip)
Killer Angels, The (Shaara, Michael)

Yet to Read (1st year on the list):
Five People You Meet in Heaven, The (Albom, Mitch)
For One More Day (Albom, Mitch)
Secret Garden, The (Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Hunger Games, The (Collins, Suzanne)
Catching Fire (Collins, Suzanne)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad, Joseph)
Last of the Mohicans, The (Cooper, James Fenimore)
Red Badge of Courage, The (Crane, Stephen)
Selfish Gene, The (Dawkins, Richard)
Oliver Twist (Dickens, Charles)
Man in the Iron Mask, The (Dumas, Alexandre)
New Ambidextrous Universe, The (Gardner, Martin)
Tipping Point, The (Gladwell, Malcolm)
Blink (Gladwell, Malcolm)
Dark Frigate, The (Hawes, Charles Boardman)
Picture This (Heller, Joseph)
Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man (Heller, Joseph)
Turn of the Screw, The (James, Henry)
Captains Courageous (Kipling, Rudyard)
Road, The (McCarthy, Cormac)
Angela’s Ashes (McCourt, Frank)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O’Brien, Robert C.)
Omnivore’s Dilemma, The (Pollan, Michael)
Wild Animus (Shapero, Rick)
Frankenstein (Shelley, Mary)
Treasure Island (Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Dracula (Stoker, Bram)
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift, Jonathan)
Ben-Hur (Wallace, Lew)
Invisible Man, The (Wells, H.G.)
War of the Worlds, The (Wells, H.G.)
Little House on the Prairie (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)
Swiss Family Robinson, The (Wyss, J.D.)

And that should do it. I'm open to recommendations and advice or encouragement regarding what to watch, play, or read next. Just remember that I will be getting around to all of these at some point. And with that, let's kick off Year 2. Here we go!