Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

The best of 2020? 184 movies, 36 series and 28 plus books

Rasha-al-Raisi
Rasha-al-Raisi
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Two years back while taking Dad for his routine diabetes check, I met an interesting young Indian doctor. She had the patience of saints with Dad who turns into a grouch at those visits. To every question she asked, Dad had a funny answer: “Baba, does your head spin?” “Why? Do you think I’m drunk!”.


When he left for the blood test, I smiled apologetically and she didn’t seem bothered at all. We got then to talk about books and I discovered that the lady was a real bookworm who managed to finish hundreds of books each year.


She even took part in Good Reads yearly challenges where she read between 500 to 700 books. I found that really impressive and asked how was it even possible to finish such number of books on yearly bases.


She answered that she wasn’t really the social type and when she gets some free time at work, she’d read something. This got me to think about the number of books I finish every year and decided to keep a list of what I read. In 2019, I managed to finish 26 books which was quite disappointing as I thought that I read more. So, my goal in 2020 became to surpass that number. I even got encouraged by my cousin who decided to take the Good Read challenge and finish 30 books.


I thought that 30 was actually manageable if not low (I was sure that I’d be able to finish more than that!). To my utter disappointment, I only managed to finish 28.5 books (reading in progress!) which meant 2 more books than the previous year.


Interestingly enough, I found that the rate of finishing a book not only depended on the size of it, but also on the language that its written in. Arabic books took days to finish, English ones weeks and Spanish books up to a month! Another factor was how busy I got with my cats. When dealing with different illnesses and almost living at the veterinary clinic, I barely found time to read.


The most memorable books I read last year were the Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić (Thank You Serbian friends!) and The Tree of Knowledge by Pío Baroja. Both books are now on my list of favourite classics.


I’d also kept a list of movies and series I watched last year. Due to universal lockdown, it was the highest number of TV time I’d ever been exposed to in my whole life. Thanks to Netflix, I managed to watch 184 movies (the equivalent of watching half a movie every single day) and finish 36 series (48 if counting different parts of the same production).


The movies were mainly in English followed by other languages (Arabic, Hindi and Spanish). I had the pleasure of watching French comedies for the first time (I highly recommend The African Doctor. Really funny!).


Other than new movies, many of the movies I watched were things I haven’t seen in years or classics (e.g.: The God Father and Scarface). Most of the series I’d watched were crime ones. My top two recommendations would be BBC’s Retribution and Polish series The Crime.


As for documentaries, The Last Czar offers an interesting analysis of the Romanov’s tragical period. And If you’re into bizarre reality shows, then you should watch Tiger King.


This year, I’ll continue keeping a list of what I read and watch with three resolutions in mind: more books to finish, less movies to watch and more variety of series in other languages. Let’s see how it goes!


Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com


Rasha al Raisi


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