How I spent my summer vacation

I had a rather productive summer vacation this year. Probably because they have been so non-productive for the past three summers, I felt that I had to be productive.

First of all, I found this book:

The Rough Guide to sci-fi Movies

which contained, among other things, a list of top 50 movies that defined the Science Fiction genre during the past century. Combine that with many hours at a slow, privately owned, 50,000 video Video store, and I think it qualifies as fate. I shall list the movies, and which ones I watched (48 of them), and which ones are good. Ready?

I had watched it before this summer.
I watched it this summer.
I haven't watched it at all.

A Clockwork Orange **
the Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension!
Akira
Alien *
Aliens *
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner **
Brazil ***
Bride of Frankenstein
the Brother from Another Planet *
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contactt
Damned (aka These are the Damned)
the Day the Earth Stood Still **
Delicatessen **
Destination Moon
Escape from New York
E.T. : The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers
the Fly (1986) **
Forbidden Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira (Godzilla) (1954)
the Incredibles
the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2 (aka the Road Warrior) *
the Matrix ***
Metropolis (1927) **
On the Beach **
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Robocop
Sleeper *
Solyaris (Solaris) (1972) ***
Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Stepford Wives (1975) **
Superman (1978)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
the Thing form Another World
Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys **
28 Days Later...
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
2001: A Space Odyssey ***
Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune)
War of the Worlds (1953)


* = Good
** = Great!
*** = Holy shit, that was awesome!

Then, during my family's two week summer vacation (yeah, a vacation from a vacation is tough), I read a plethora of books as well:

Neuromancer, by Willian Gibson
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Ethics for a New Millennium by the Dalai Lama
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit by Al Gore

And ALL OF THESE were amazing. Two fantastic Science Fiction novels and five spiritual / ethical / ecological books + 47 Science Fiction movies = one very happy Ben.