Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A-Z Geek (T): Some Classics, Some Not so Classic

During the April A-Z Challenge, I’m posting six days a week, following the letters of the alphabet. I will share all the movies, books and games I watched, read and played--all the influences that turned me into the geeky person and writer I am today.

BOOKS
Truckers by Terry Pratchett (1989): A kid’s series, called The Bromeliad, that's so worth reading as an adult. Wonderful. Truly wonderful.

The Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb (2001-03): Once I got past the fact it was written in first person, a style I didn’t like at the time for fantasy novels, I thoroughly enjoyed this series. Consisting of Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool's Fate, this trilogy continues the life of FitzChivalry Farseer from The Farseer Trilogy (1995-97).

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005): Many people, in particular writers and editors, gave this book a hard time, but I was able to switch off my inner editor and thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. Sometimes it's not about the writing, it's about the story.

MOVIES
TRON (1982): The thought of getting sucked into your favourite computer game? Sheer genius (at the time). The stylizing of the imagery was challenging, but I loved it. I also love the new animated Disney version of TRON: Uprising which looks like it has combined 3D animation and vector graphics. Artistically beautiful and when I watch it, I want to pull out my art again.

TV
The Twilight Zone (1959-64): I have to say, the black and white reruns from the original series were truly the best.

Honourable mentions: The Terminator (1984); Terminator 2 (1991); Time Bandits (1981), yes another time travel story; The Thing (1982), this is a remake of a 1951 film and is far better than the newer 2011 remake of the remake; Titanic (1997); Thunderbirds (1965-66), because the reruns used to freak me out as a kid but my brother loved them. Who wouldn’t be freaked out by dancing puppets?

#AtoZChallenge

33 comments:

Rick said...

I'm really glad you mentioned Time Bandits. It's a true classic.

mooderino said...

The Thing would be my movie of the 80s. If you're going to do a remake, take a crappy 50s movie and do it like this.

mood
Moody Writing

Cynthia said...

I love watching some of the old episodes of The Twilight Zones. Some great storytelling here.

Miss Cole said...

Thunderbirds! So much love for that old show ^_^ ...and now I'm gonna have the theme tune stuck in my head all day. NEVER MIND! IT IS GOOD! :D

Every now and then I look at my computer and wonder if it's like TRON in there... Let's hope I don't have an evil MCP...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I really liked Tron Legacy as well. And T2 was my movie pick of the day.
Lee did time travel movies and I forgot about Time Bandits!

Anonymous said...

I have neither seen nor read the Twilight series, but do want to. I just avoided it because I didn't have enough bubblegum at the time to fit in.

Unknown said...

Can you believe it? I haven't seen any of these. I'm not quite sure why. I know my family when to see Tron but I think I chose to stay home and enjoy my alone time.

Cathrina Constantine said...

Very good T-words,and I've seen and read most of them. I'll have to pick up The Bromeliad, Truckers book. I enjoy reading children's books.

M.J. Fifield said...

I don't think I've ever read a 1st person fantasy series. I'm very intrigued by that.

DEZMOND said...

Twilight? Really, sweet sister? Really? :) I might have to disown you now, you know :)

Unknown said...

Time Bandits!! Had almost forgotten that one. :)

What did you think of the newest Tron movie? Enjoyed the movie, thought the soundtrack was fantastic!

Rachna Chhabria said...

Lynda, you have given me a lot of books to add to my TBR pile, except for the first book of the Twilight Series, I have not read any of the others.

Meradeth Houston said...

Tron! So a huge favorite in this household :) And who isn't freaked out by dancing puppets??

Julie Flanders said...

Haha I'm freaked out just reading the words dancing puppets. I kind of hate puppets and dolls in general.

I loved The Twilight Zone and Time Bandits.

cleemckenzie said...

I still replay some of The Twilight Zone episodes in my head. They were brilliant in the way they tapped into our deepest fears.

Suze said...

'The thought of getting sucked into your favourite computer game? Sheer genius (at the time).'

I agree!

Unknown said...

I don't know some of these, but most I do. What's not to love about "Twilight Zone?" "The Thing" is one of my favorite movies! I don't remember the first "Tron," but I really liked the recent one.
Fun post! :-)

T. Roger Thomas said...

Good list - I would have to promote the first two Terminators on my own list. Also, I might have the check out Truckers.

Mark said...

Tron rocks! I was so into the original as a kid:)

S.P. Bowers said...

I LOVE Terry Pratchett. One of my favorite authors. I also enjoyed Twilight and the Twilight Zone. Good picks for T.

Sherry Ellis said...

I wasn't able to switch off my inner editor when I read Twilight. It drove me crazy that people were saying it was better than Harry Potter. I felt there was no comparison!

Sheena-kay Graham said...

I loved Twilight, no matter what if your story's boring the book is dead in the water. Tron is legend, simple. Glad you liked the photo in my blog post today.

mshatch said...

Love you Tees :) Especially Time Bandits; what a fun movie that was! And I agree with your take on Twilight. I enjoyed it, too - twice!

Romance Book Haven said...

Very good T words today. Twilight was good!

Nas

Neurotic Workaholic said...

The Twilight Zone kind of scares me, especially that episode about that little boy who controlled a whole town, and then he grew up and his daughter turned out to be the same way.

Unknown said...

I want to watch Tron one day. I've seen Tron Legacy. And I think I read 'Diggers'. I haven't read Twilight though.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Ha! I didn't think anyone would remember it!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

You know there's an evil byte in there... watching you.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Ah yes, alone time. Super special.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Yeah, I deliberated whether or not I should make that admission... hehehe. You can't disown me! Not lil ole me!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Yep, I liked the new movie. I'm not sure it had the same magic as the first, but it certainly looked better.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Yeah, normally I can't switch the old editor off, but for some reason the story caught me up. Now that I know the story, I doubt I'll be able to read it again without my inner editor having a freak out.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

There were definitely some creepy episodes. They were so well told too, so that made them extra creepy!