The Big Other Stuff in the 2010s Discussion Thread (Best of *Next* Decade currently being discussed)

Comic Books

Scott Pilgrim
I read these after the films and absolutely loved them - I've read the series many times over since. Very real characters, fun gags before we were all tired of geek culture being overused. Fun stuff.

Snotgirl
I've read volume one and half of volume two and I'm loving this so far. Great characters, powerful emotions, an interesting plot, and some genuinely funny gags, especially later on. When I read Scott Pilgrim, that felt laser focused at me but since then I've become a much more sociable and cool person, so now this one feels more me.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye
This was the big one for me. A very new take on the series, dealing with the actual characters and emotions of robts who have been at war with one another with literally millions of years. Drama, action, top sci fi ideas, exquisite writing, love, loss and a genuine pathos. WELL worth reading for anyone with even a tangential interest in transforming robots.

Novels

The Culture - Iain M Banks
By far and away my Sci-Fi series. It takes the socialist utopian dream of Star Trek and really runs with it, diving deep into every facet and really reminding me that there is a better way than the dumb world we live in. If you're only going to read one from this series, check out The Player of Games. A super interesting exploration of how a society is defined by the games they play.

Mistborn (and other cosmere stuff) - Brandon Sanderson
I was lead down this path by this very forum, and it was absolutely worth it. Maybe my favourite author now?

A Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
I still really like this series - the world, the mystery, the characters, the twists, the way everything happens as a result of human decisions - but I really doubt we're ever getting a proper conclusion, and from what I hear about the TV series' final season, I won't be getting my satisfaction there.

The Dark Tower - Stephen King
I only have one book left in the series, and so far I absolutely love it. I'd never read King before, but his mix of very human characters with deep, dark, magical mythology is sublime. Ever since I was a kid who loved War of the Worlds, the melancholy of human characters doing their best in a world already lost is one of my favourite stories. See also- Dark Souls.

Manga

Attack on Titan
I read up to around issue 100 before moving to Japan. I need to go back and finish this thang.

One Piece
Shen made me read it. It's alright.

Dragon Ball
I had read some before, but I stayed in a hostel in Kyoto which had the full set in English so I read it all day every day when I was supposed to be applying for jobs. It's good.

Non-Fiction

Fuck loads of Japanese History
I'm a huge nerd.

Fuck loads of History/ behind the scenes games stuff
Seriously. Huge fucking nerd.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - read this book about five times. I really like it. Feel like I may overate it a little bit because it was around the time I really got into reading and I was reading lot of post-modern/post-post-modern stuff. It wasn't like much I'd read before and seemed pretty clever. It uses a mix of writing styles, shifting person-view for some and even have a chapter made up of powerpoint-like slides, following the lives of a few people only tangentally related to each other. Really enjoyed the flow of her writing and have liked most of the novels she's written. Also really rate The Invisible Circus, The Keep and Look at Me by her.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray - another one I read near the start of the decade. Found it very funny though it is tragic and hopeful too. Same with An Evening of Long Goodbyes by the same author, which I read much later.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami. Have ended up reading a lot of his books - A Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance, Kafka on the Shore, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Norwegian Wood, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage and 1Q84 but would have to say WBC is my favourite even though I rate most of the others pretty highly as well. To be honest there are a lot of similarities between most of them and my memories of some of them have blended together a bit but I've had a blast reading them. I really like how he can describe things that seem mundane in a way that makes them seem interesting, sprinkled in with mysticism and surrealism.

River of Ink - Paul M. M. Cooper. Read this relatively recently. Set hundreds of years ago in the middle east about a guy who becomes a propagandist for a tyrant but is secretly making the material undermine him. Found it pretty hilarious - like most of the stuff I'm putting on this list I guess - but it's pretty emotional too as not quite everything goes to plan. Had been a since I read a really good book like this.

44 Scotland Street series - Alexander McCall Smith. The most slice-of-life series of books in this somewhat slice-of-life list. Such a charming set of stories about a group of ordinary but different set of people. Nothing too wild every happens but I get invested in all their little story arcs. Read about 5 or 6 of them and would have continued reading them if I had them, but have to say I sort of lost motivation to continue reading the story since it's not exactly going anywhere.

Song of Fire and Ice series - Such an entertaining high fantasy series. Not sure if I can speak for others but when I began reading it I was filled with so much envy because this was the kind of fiction I had always wanted to write. So direct and - compared to a lot of this  genre - simple with a sense of fun about it. Can't say the books are without their flaws - particularly later on - but the quality has been remarkably consistent considering how long its been going for and how long the books are.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick. I really like both Bladerunner films, and wanted to check this one out after I'd seen the first Bladerunner and found out this book inspired it. I was glad the film turned out to be a pretty lose adaption so the book felt so different and fresh. Also really liked Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (what a title though).

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes. I think I was given to read this as part of an English Language class and I'm glad because it's excellent. Written from the perspective of a mentally disabled man who's given a drug that makes him smarter so you can intimately see how it changes an how it affects his life. Don't know quite how famous this book is but I think there was a Simpsons episode based on it.

Fade - Robert Cormier. Main character finds out they have the ability to turn invisible. Pretty cool twist on it and the story takes an interesting turn. Can get a bit dark but there's still heart to the story. The Chocolate War by the same guy is also good and even bleaker.

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn. Not counting Sherlock Holmes this is one of the few crime books I've bothered reading and I enjoyed it greatly.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro. Also Remains of the Day by the same author, a book which a friend recommended and let me borrow.

Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger.

The Tiger's Wife - Téa Obreht.

Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Stand - Stephen King. I can't remember if I had read it this decade but I probably did. Think it was the extra long uncut version too, which is great because I really like my long sprawling stories, and it's a post-apocalypse one too.

Honourable mentions: The Hidden Child - Camilla Lackberg (at least I think that's what the book was called. Same series though I'm pretty sure), Emerald City - Jennifer Egan

Probably so many others. Unfortunately don't have most of my books anymore, otherwise I'd give their spines a gander and see what I forgot to mention, but this post is getting too big anyway.

Manga/comics

Dragon Ball - Akira Toriyama. Read up until the 'Z' portion of the story starts and surprisingly really liked it. Guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since it's a classic and got popular for a reason but there you go.

Spider-Man. Started with the Superior Spider-Man arc since I really liked Spider-Man and this story sounded interesting. It then got me curious to start reading from the very beginning and I think I got 60-70 chapters in. Kind of a drag to read in places but still fun and interesting seeing how a lot of villains originated and how they were originally. And also how different the character himself was - bit more self-interested back then.

Soul-Eater - Atsushi Ōkubo. Only started reading this from where the anime ended (at least where the real story ended) but thoroughly enjoyed it, and honestly wish I had just read the manga from the start instead. Some of the stuff I enjoyed most about the show like the art and imagery was way better here, or at least wasn't spoiled as much by goofiness.

Honourable mentions: Bleach (only read it post-anime: crap most of the time but did have long stretches of quality art and even story)

Balladeer wrote:

(A few of your favourites, people who'll have a lot to say on this one Athrun. )

Kriken wrote:

That.

I'll get around to these properly later, but that is a lot of books! Your enthusiasm is tremendous, and I will get around to looking at all of them (from Mas and Drunka too), but if you had to pick (say) five faves?

The film lists were very long, but very well since you did specify few. Especially hard to narrow down this one though.

A Visit from the Goon Squad
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Game of Thrones
Skippy Dies
Fade

Forgot I also read Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas, and Battle Royale, which are excellent but which probably wouldn't make my top 5.

I think I poked at them too, and then learned from my mistakes this time around! Regardless, I do appreciate your enthusiasm my fella. FaLiLV is a beat work, right? I read Naked Lunch which is also a drugged-out beat novel. It was... not great.

I also read Flowers for Algernon, which I thought was really sweet and tragic; Scott Pilgrim, possibly my only comics of the decade but they were really good and kind of ruined the film for me; and Never Let Me Go, right at the start of the decade so I barely remember it. I'd already read some others like Fellowship, Catcher, and Androids: of that subset, only The Player of Games would have made it if I read it this decade I think. That is a tremendous piece of sciffy.

Before we move on, I think Snotgirl, River of Ink, and Brandon Sanderson have caught my eye out of the ones suggested for potential future reads of mine.


However, the month's slipping away fast; and so although people should definitely post their other reads if they have them, it's time for me to ask another question. What's your favourite piece of music, song, rap, album, disc, or whatever of the decade? The definition here is as broad as you want it to be: if you listened to it and count it as music, whatever the size medium or genre, talk about it here. Try and keep it to pieces etc. premiered this decade if you can, but I'll take a new recording of a Beethoven sonata if you like!

For me... sigh. Let me tell you about Homestuck.

A VERY BRIEF primer on Homestuck, by way of Wandersong and Undertale:

So we get to Strife, unquestionably my most listened-to album by song count this decade. Simply, five rocking battle tunes based around HS' main characters, with some chill bits around the edges. Give the first two tracks a listen!

My favourite artist over the period is probably Lena Raine, mostly for Celeste's soundtrack but also for the build-up that is Singularity. Otherwise it's mostly been pre-decade stuff, more videogame music, or Homestuck. A lot of Homestuck.

What were your fave musics?

Balladeer wrote:

Andy... woof.  That is a lot!  Surely you don't quite get enough time to feel like you've properly made the most of each one?  Which was your favourite, or favourite few?

I’m not very good at having down time, so about 2 days in a city is enough for me to get a nice feel for the place, try out a bunch of local activities/food, see the landmarks, learn a few stories from history.

South Africa was a work trip and I ended up there for a month, so that was quite interesting, but in 2 weekends I’d pretty comfortably done most of the things I wanted to do in Cape Town.

I have a big soft spot for Vienna, that city was so beautiful and just had a nice vibe.

Kotor would probably be the other highlight, felt like a real window into the past, that was a very chill place, but I was able to get on board the relaxed spirit, particularly after how loud and busy Croatia was.


As for books I happened upon the Mistborn trilogy before it was cool so that gets my vote, otherwise I’ve just been reading through the Marvel stuff from the 60s, the DC new 52, Preacher, Watchmen and I’ll soon be reading The Boys.

Best music is obviously Taylor Swift, get out of this thread with your bloody Video Games balls man

Songs

Somebody that I used to know - Gotye: This song is/was so overplayed that I think a lot of people would dismiss it unfairly as overrated, but I still really like this track.
I Belong in your Arms - Chairlift: English but the Japanese version is good too (accidentally bought the latter version)
Heart - Plini
Forest Whitaker - Bad Books
We are Young - Fun
212 - Azealia Banks
Choices - Hoosiers
Heartbeat Song - The Futureheads

Honourable mention: Flamingo - Kero Kero Bonito (This and Gamer aren't exactly songs I'd describe as 'good' but I kinda like them), Pull the Pin - Combichrist (ditto)

Album

Contra - Vampire Weekend

I have a ton of stuff I like from 2007-2009 and earlier but had to dig a bit for this decade from lack of listening to stuff.

Videogame OSTs

Nier Automata
Drakengard 3
Undertale
Pokemons
Fire Emblems
OoT/MM 3D/WW HD
Persona 5

Not great at reviewing stuff let alone music but Nier Automata's soundtrack is just amazing, particularly during the set-piece moments which they compliment perfectly. Drakengard 3's with the same composer is similarly good with some great boss battle themes in particular.

TPHD while I'd say it still has great music, it's kind of telling that even though I've played it the most recently I still find the other Zelda OSTs more memorable. Do have to say it has a great Hyrule Field theme though, and the boss music and the way it shifts into the 'damage' phase was always satisfying to me.

My favourite (artist - album)s of the decade:

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Chuck Ragan - Till Midnight
Cory Branan - The No-Hit Wonder
Lucero - Women & Work
Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Sam Baker - Say Grace
Brian Fallon - Painkillers
Paul Weller - A Kind Revolution
Teenage Bottlerocket - Freak Out!
Dan Adriano in the Emergency Room - Hurricane Season

...that's off the top of my head. 

EDIT: Favourite song was probably this:



Favourite videogame soundtrack of the decade is Sonic Mania's, unquestionably.

I'm not big on music but would agree with Andy and guessing from the Nintendo Music thread Drunka as well, Taylor Swift has been pretty great.

Books - English Literature at university burnt out me out on reading for pleasure for a good spell there, so I've not enjoyed too many novels in the latter half of the decade. I really enjoyed the first part of the Wheel of Time series and Seconds by the author behind Scott Pilgrim was terrific as well.

For music...

Hm, I really enjoyed listening to Kate Boy over the past few years. I heard one of her tracks in Watch Dogs 2 and fell in love with the album afterwards. Nothing else springs to mind - I'm more into older tunes, really!

I've given up following a lot of musical things this decade. I definitely have abandoned any nu-wave punk trappings of my teenage years, devolved back to the synth-y stuff my parents were listening to in the 80s, and now, my favourite tunes this decade are more bloopy and bleepy. I've enjoyed both The Suburbs and Reflektor from Arcade Fire, HAIM's Days are Gone, and... I dunno what else really!

For the last few years, I ended up hearing a lot of the sort-of-comedy retro-synth-rock-noodlings of Hot Dad - if you do visit that YouTube link, definitely listen to his TV themes. Then he created a serious album, Light Sleeper - which was headed by a double A-side demo (or whatever you kids call it these days) of Out Here and Slow Burn - I must have listened to the latter 100 times: (er, jump to 28:50)

Crumpy Andy wrote:

I’m not very good at having down time...

I'd imagine that's probably an advantage?  Pack in as much as possible?  I'm too good at having downtime on holiday!  Vienna is a cool place (albeit I mostly remember it for the astronomical clock and my dad inadvertently teaching my kid sister the word 'bugger'), but a holiday to SA in which I did safari and other things is one of my fave holidays.  Might be worth another trip!

Anyway, I listened to those songs that Cappa and Jim linked to, and will do the same with any other videos or links.  They were good tunes: Jim's definitely has a touch of videogames to it, in a good way.  I don't recognise any of the others. Maybe the Gotye song?  Oh, and I may have heard of this 'Taylor Swift' person you speak of.  Shake It Off is catchy and that is the extent of my knowledge on that point.

Drunka's doing videogame soundtracks so I won't touch too heavily on that, but Undertale is a good shout.  However nobody else has mentioned Tropical Freeze and therefore I have to say that your videogame choices are all wrong.


Next question: only a few days for this one as the EoY rapidly approaches.  Who are the best famous and non-famous people you've met this decade?  For 'famous' obviously I'm referring to any celebrities you may have crossed paths with; did you get a good autograph, say hi to someone at a convention and they said hi back, or even have a meaningful moment on social media?  For non-famous, anyone else.  Current romantic partners are obvious ones, but have you met any particular friends or colleagues who still mean a lot to you?  Forumites don't count, natch.


Famous is hard for me this decade.  I don't think I've met anyone in person who I'd known about beforehand.  I'm going to cheat slightly and say it's probably that podcast Drunka and I did with Laura K. Buzz, where Drunka made me out to be even more starstruck than I actually was. That was fun though.

For non-famous, apart from The Lady, I met nupkin who is probably my best friend even though we're no longer dating, and when I broke up with her I got involved with NaNoWriMo and met a lot of firm friends there.  I also met two of my other best friends in the queue for a Welcome to Night Vale live performance, and we now do a book club together.

Who have your best meetings been with this decade?  Also: I could do with one more question suggestion.  Anything obvious I've missed out?

This one died on its bottom. Fine, I have one last question (unless there are any other suggestions).

What is the biggest thing you want to do next decade? Whether that's next month, or next year, or in ten year's time depending on how foresighted a person you are.

I want to marry my girlfriend and for us to move into an actual house (which will probably therefore have to be in the commuter belt outside London). That is all. What about you lot?

Mine is go on holiday, start simple like Germany then eventually go Japan and other places over the next decade. Just that costs money and I know I'll have hopefully a decent amount within the next 7 months that buying a place or at least move out, seems more logical though

I basically talked about who I've met already.

Hm... I think I'd like to pay off my student debt, for one.

Beyond that, I'd like to visit Japan for sure. I know that doesn't mesh with my first wish, but hey ho!

I too would like to visit Japan! GNamer Road Trip?

In seriousness, it's something I'd like to save for my honeymoon or a big ol' trip with my wife. Lots of wants demanding lots of money.

Balladeer wrote:

In seriousness, it's something I'd like to save for my honeymoon or a big ol' trip with my wife.  Lots of wants demanding lots of money.

Why not both? I suppose the only obstacle is would your wife agree to a honeymoon in Japan - a honeymoon does not equal a holiday, after all.

Also it would be a pretty stressful holiday as I understand, since the places we'd go would include some pretty full-on cities, harsh humidity, and being unable to read the language.

My only goal for the next decade is to get swole. Like, really jacked. Biceps, trips, forearms, pecs, shoulders, back, delts, quads . . . I wanna shred 'em. Ive been really getting into my gym these last couple of months and I want to smash it.

Also, i should probably get serious about speaking Japanese.

Oh and I should actually publish something.

Depends on where you went, I suppose. I know parts of Japan are meant to be more about seeing the nature and countryside, but then you've got the downside of the language barrier being harsher outside of the big cities and especially outside of Tokyo. Drunka will probably be able to say more about that though, natch!

There is zero stress, dont be daft. Even when theres a language barrier, as long as youre polite and you make the tiniest effort to say your Pleases and Thank Yous in Japanese, people are so keen to help you out. The cities ae big but theyre full of wonderful folks. The countryside is gorgeous and you dont have to speak to anyone there.

1) You underestimate my ability to create stress for myself;
2) I suppose that the politeness probably papers over a lot of the cracks. Maybe the language will be less of an issue than the culture: I'll be terrified of doing something that would be seen as impolite.

I am envious of your fondness for the gym, and even though I will never share that goal I respect it! I think I've torn a leg muscle and can't even do yoga at the moment without making it worse. The language and publishing goals, I can get right behind. Got anything ready to send to agents at the moment?

After the last decade, who gives a fuck

That's the sort of optimistic spirit we champion here on GNamer!

Er. Wait.