Entertainment in 2007

• The best recent film I saw in 2007: Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. What an excellent pair of films to juxtapose with each other. Honorable mention: Ratatouille.
  
• The best classic film I saw in 2007: Of the 100-125 classic films I've seen in the last five months, Twelve O'Clock High (1949) in particular happened to strike a chord with me. Honorable mention: most of the other classics I've been watching, by-in-large award-winning show-stoppers all.
  
• The worst film I saw in 2007: Easy Rider (1969). Great soundtrack; I should have watched it blindfolded. I didn't see many recent films this year and I've become pickier about the ones I do see. Of the hundreds of films produced every year, maybe 90% of them just aren't worth watching.
  
• Recent films I wanted to see in 2007 but will have to rent in 2008: Hot Fuzz, 3:10 to Yuma, Rescue Dawn, Juno, Live Free or Die Hard, I am Legend, Bee Movie.
• Films I had no intention of seeing in 2007 and may never bother with (and why): Hairspray (Travolta in drag), Sicko (Michael Moore is a drag), The Golden Compass (the anti-Narnia film).
• Best fiction book I read in 2007: State of Fear by Michael Crichton. Plot-wise it was ho-hum but the eye-opening journey of a global warming environmentalist was great.
  
• Best non-fiction book I read in 2007: Caro's Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro. This is a great study on body language and psychology but the most interesting tidbit was "Caro's Law of Loose Wiring," which basically says that some people make some decisions for no particular reason at all; they just do. That's quite a profound revelation if you stop and think about it.
• The best reading experience in 2007: reading the Chronicles of Narnia with my boys. We read the first six books, one chapter per night, in about three months. Then we took some time off and are working on the seventh book currently.
• Books I wanted to read in 2007 but will have to read in 2008: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. That and the growing stack of 25 or 30 books that have begun to tower over me while I've been watching those classic movies.
• Best live performance I saw in 2007: Oklahoma! at the New Theatre Restaurant. It was favorite rendition of Oklahoma! and was the highlight of our summer (entertainment-wise anyway). I've been humming "Everything's up to date in Kansas City" for months now.
  
• My best entertainment experience: Playing video games on the Wii with my boys. The learning curve has been steeper than I anticipated but it's still been great.