30. Los Asesinos del Emperador.

30. Los Asesinos del Emperador. Santiago Posteguillo. 1185 paginas. Febrero 2012.

Bienvenidos al mundo de Marco Ulpio Trajano. Esta es una de las novelas históricas mas fieles a la historia. Es excelente para aprender y entretenida a la vez. La novela sigue varios personajes, alrededor del asesinato del emperador Domiciano, y los eventos que precedieron a un gran cambio en las políticas de Roma. El ascenso de un emperador no ciudadano romano sino, nacido en una provincia de Hispania. Es uno de los libros que me hizo recordar la gran importancia de Roma para la formación del mundo actual y como por pequeños eventos de la antigüedad sucedieron los eventos que condujeron el mundo.

Los personajes son muy bien elaborados. Llama la atención que los capítulos de Trajano no son el centro de la historia, sino los relacionados con el emperador en Roma.

"Nunca sabes cuanto duele perder algo que quieres hasta que llega el momento..."

" En este mundo hay que aprender a observar primero y hacer las preguntas adecuadas después. Quien yerra en cualquiera de estos dos puntos esta condenado al sufrimiento propio...

"

29. El Regreso del Joven Príncipe.

29. El Regreso del Joven Príncipe. A.G. Roemmers. 124 paginas. Enero 2012.

Trata de ser como el principito, pero no lo es. Es extraño y es imposible no comparar pero el desarrollo del libro es extraño, si bien tiene varios aspectos que he pensado varias veces y que son importantes recordar, pero a veces suenan muy sentimentales o muy forzados en la conversación entre el príncipe y el autor.

Los temas interesantes recorren entre otros: El vivir en el pasado y en el futuro en vez de en el presente, dilemas entre el ser y tener, la orientación de los medios y los fines, la felicidad y el amor, la actitud de felicidad frente a la vida, el dar y el recibir.

27. Inheritance.

27. Inheritance. Christopher Paolini. 860 pages. October 2011.

Paolini decreased the interest of the history with every book. This one is the proof that the story got bigger than what he imagined and he could not deal with a good development and end for it.

Most of the books is useless, everything resolves in a few chapters and in a stupid way. Galbatorix was so powerful that he was virtually impossible to defeat.

"Was a broad but shallow education superior to one that was narrow but deep?"

"It is easy to be calm when there is nothing to worry about. The true test of your self control, however, is whether you can remain calm in a trying situation."

"Change itself is never good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful."

39. X-Men: First Class. September 2011. Matthew Vaughn.

39. X-Men: First Class. September 2011. Matthew Vaughn.

It was good to see the origin of the old mutants, and the beginning of the friendship between Magneto and Professor X, when they were called Eric and Charles. The movie is not very good and it relies a lot on the special effects more than in the story itself.

38. Bodyguard. September 2011. Siddique.

38. Bodyguard. September 2011. Siddique.

Not as good as the other indian movie I saw. This one was more representative of Bollywood as it had more dancing and more festivities.

The movie is bad, but is interesting to see movies from another culture.

26. A Dance with Dragons.

26. A Dance with Dragons. George R. R. Martin. 1009 pages. September 2011.

Finally a book that changed things and speeded up the situations. This is the second book after "A game of thrones", that it is well paced and almost all chapters have something interesting. The end is excellent and the author doesn't care about killing important characters for the story (that was shown with all the Stark family and Robert). I discovered what is the problem that makes this books so different from TLoTR and others like that, is that it tries to cover so much points fo view that the reader forgets the importance of some things, there are still things that happen in the second book that hasn't come specially relevant to the story but they must be.

The book is good just wait for the remaining two.

37. Aarakshan (Reservation). August 2011. Prakash Jha.

37. Aarakshan (Reservation). August 2011. Prakash Jha.

A cultural experiment that went very well. It is not real Bollywood but is still the first complete indian movie I watch. It was excellent because it touched many aspects I have think about and have some relation to the situation in Colombia. The movie is full of contrasts and mixing of culture, chastes, social classes and differences in education. They show an education based on chastes. The movie has good music and the dancing "just for fun" are funny. That system based on chastes and scores is a really hard system in the way that they see education as the only end, but many people fails and are considered losers. The main aspect of the movie is that the race for education is unequal and that people from low and high chastes start at different levels and for this reason are in disadvantage, and for this they have a "reservation" of spots for higher education. My conclusion stays in that if they have the same opportunities and the same base the reservation has to be abolished. Another problem is the opposite, when the reservation becomes to big and the high classes start to be at disadvantage. The problem is between elitism and equity vs charity and effort. In some way is the same thing in Colombia with the public and the private universities.

36. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. July 2011. David Yates.

36. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. July 2011. David Yates.

It all ends. Probably one of the best movies of the year, probably the best HP movie. I liked it for many reasons:

1) It is the epic conclusion to a story with which I grew up and is exciting to see it represented in "real life". Sentimentally is good to see the end of the story and look backwards to all the series.

2) It was my first movie on IMAX, and the experience is excellent, is the best possible image, surrounded with the clearer sound you can get in the biggest screen I have ever been.

3) The movie itself is fast paced and exciting, the left all the good stuff for the end, with all the battles and the tension moments.

4) The movie is very well done, it has some problems comparing with the books (but is the movie and it always will happen), but for the people who hasn't read the books is perfectly understandable.

5) They spent all the money they needed to get excellent visual effects and great scenes, specially the battles, finally a big battle showing great spells and the final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry.

Of course the movie has some flaws but the good things are much more important than the details.

35. Blue Valentine. June 2011. Derek Cianfrance.

35. Blue Valentine. June 2011. Derek Cianfrance.

I liked the feelings of the movie, how a relationship can goes from the wonder of the beginning to a complete failure. Works with the idea that people can have good and bad things and that many adjectives are not exclusive and everybody has some good and evil. My classic example for this is that you can be an excellent doctor and be mean with patients, being nice and being a good doctor are not exclusive. The usual saying that a relationship has to be nurtured everyday is a cliche but is true (another example of non exclusive adjectives).

"So if I break your heart last night is because I love you most of all".

34. Sucker Punch. June 2011. Zack Snyder.

34. Sucker Punch. June 2011. Zack Snyder.

I only watched this movie because of the director, and expecting to see the visual settings and the colors of the movie. The movie is bad, the story has no foundation. But as I expected the music and the pictures were good, as the name in spanish they are surreal. Of course this aspects do not make a good movie. The first fight with the giant samurais is excellent.

"We control the worlds we create"