The second Jessica Daniel book in the series, and I whipped through it in next to no time. It was nice to have the familiarity of the characters from the first book, with some taking a larger role, and others only mentioned in passing. It was totally believable in terms of the amount of time that had gone by and the way that relationships had changed in the intervening period.

I remember hearing an interview with the author of Gold a long while ago and thought it sounded interesting, particularly as Olympics fever was gripping the nation. I didn’t get round to reading it until now, but the Winter Olympics are on at the moment, so perhaps that can be my excuse!

Bought this as a trilogy of the first three books in the DS Jessica Daniels series, and the first thing that struck me was just how British the whole thing is. Set in Manchester, it follows a female detective trying to link together some murders and trace the serial killer.

Recently, we’ve been playing Tomb Raider, the definitive edition on the PS4. It’s the game that actually made us interested in the new generation consoles in the first place, and it’s a highlight in what has been a very quiet early market for this new Playstation. I was intrigued by the game trailer when we saw it so very long ago, it looked good but I was concerned about the level of screeching and pained noises that Lara was making. It seemed to show a level of realism that I’m not really looking for when it comes to an hour or two of Playstation time.

The title of this book made me think it might be a bit wishy-washy, but the great thing about it is the author addresses that straight away. There are some moments of connection between man and elephant that aren’t explainable but they are treated in a matter-of-fact fashion that I appreciated.

I thought the first half of the film was much better than the second. Initally, my concern was with trying to work out if Halle was having a good or bad hair day, but I was soon distracted by how the 911 operation worked. The Hive, as the call centre was called, was endlessly fascinating, the way they took calls, tracked them, dispatched people, all good.

It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I’d expected your more traditional rom-com style story, but this was unusual and quirky, with fun dialogue and fascinating characters. It got a bit too weird and times, and bizarrely predictable despite being weird.

With Tom Hanks on board, you’re pretty must guaranteed that we’re going to watch this, but it was also a story that we were interested in finding more about too. When the time came, Mr C actually seemed more keen to watch, I think I was worried it would be hard-going. I was kinda right, although it wasn’t as tough as I expected it would be. There was a lot of tension, a lot of great acting through the pre-boarding crew disputes, to the time on the ship and then the whole situation with the lifeboat.

The 2014 F1 season promises to be a dramatic one, a time of regeneration and modernisation that more than anything else guarantees to be unpredictable. With an overhaul in the regulations, a raft of driver and personnel movements, plus a handful of new races to challenge all, it is set to be an eventful year in motor sport. Defending champions Red Bull field a revised driver line-up, but they are far from alone. All teams bar Marussia and Mercedes have at least one new face behind the wheel. The regulations too create their own special kind of chaos, with new turbo engines, fuel limits, plus a raft of aerodynamic tweaks to challenge the most experienced of engineers.

I really enjoyed this book. It got off to a bit of a stilted start, and the mechanics of getting Magnus back to Iceland felt a little contrived, but gradually even that side of the story became fascinating. Once in Iceland, the mystery took over, the intrigue of such an unusual landscape all the time topped with Magnus’ inner struggles with his identity.

I’ve been following the recent tumultuous times at TWiT with interest. As one of the mainstays of podcasting, and one of the few able to create a business from the process, Leo Laporte has always been something of an inspiration. When he hired Tom Merritt to create a daily news show and step into his shoes whenever necessary, I thought they were on to a very good thing. Unfortunately that all fell apart at the end of last year, and Tom departed from the TWiT shores. I have many thoughts about this, some are wildly speculative, some are opinionated about Leo’s choice of replacement, but most of them are just sad that the magic partnership didn’t deliver.

Do you read a lot of series of books? I do. Books from the likes of Clive Cussler, Jeffrey Deaver, Bernard Cornwell, and Alex Scarrow all make my list. And the list is the key point here. Sometimes, particularly if there are double digits worth of books in a series, it can be hard to keep track. It’s okay if you’re just working through a trilogy, it’s not difficult to keep your place, but something like the Sharpe series has 24 books, and they’re written out of sequence in terms of dates and history. Tricky.

Interesting one, this. I don’t think I would have read it if it hadn’t been on the list I’m working through, but when I first started, I quite enjoyed it. Aubrey and Stephen make for a good pair of characters, although it surprised me how quickly they became friends having shown such animosity during the music concert!

I was looking forward to this, a time travel movie is always going to get my attention, and if you combine it with the good things Richard Curtis has done, then you should be in for a treat! As soon as it was over, my initial feeling was that it had been a good film. But gradually, as the minutes ticked by, I changed my mind. There were heaps of inconsistencies in terms of the science of time travel but you don’t go into a Curtis film expecting it to be scientifically accurate. You expect witty dialogue and brilliant characters, and that’s exactly what you get.

We’ve shied away from indie films in the past, but where they’re starting to be a bit more mainstream (if that’s possible?) then we’re starting to pay attention. Hadn’t heard of this one until it appeared in the iTunes store, but wanting something not loud or brash of an evening, we turned to The Lifeguard.

You win this time, Benedict-Sherlock! Ahhh, Sesame Street.

This is a sequel to Winterland, or in reality, it’s not so much a sequel as another story with a couple of the same characters and a few mentions of what went before. That isn’t a bad thing though, it’s perfect for anyone that didn’t read Winterland, and as someone who has, it’s nice to get those little nods towards the events in the previous book.

It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Of course, the technology is dated and laughable in places, but actually the thriller aspect is just as real a problem now as it was then - if not worse. Identity theft is a big prevailing concern about this epic connectivity the world has, and even back then in the days of floppy disks and attached car phones, there were plenty of ways it could go wrong.

Apple are celebrating thirty years of putting technology at people’s fingertips, and they’ve come out with a beautifully creative video showing off their gadgets in glorious surroundings or being put to fantastic use. Thankfully, they’ve toned down the emotion and the smug for this video, and what comes across is just how useful mobile technology can be and what a difference it is making, and will make, to the world.

Another attempt at capturing the bubbles in all their slo-motion glory. This time with rousing music!

Wasn’t sure what to make of this one to start with, it took quite a long time to get going, and spent a considerable amount of time setting the groundwork for the characters. It wouldn’t really have been a problem except the nature of the book and the style of the writing meant it felt like we were being kept at arm’s length the entire time.

I joined Pinterest recently. I know this isn’t groundbreaking news, finally signing up to a social network that’s been around since 2010. I tried signing up once before but they didn’t have my preferred username so I had to go away and sulk about that for a bit. Pinterest, in my limited experience, appears to be one of those social networks that is different things to different people. I can’t see myself getting a huge amount of use out of it, as fun as it is to browse screenshots from film and TV, and ogle cute pandas. I can see how it would be very handy for creative types, and businesses.

Recently, I’ve noticed a few people lacking motivation when it comes to writing – specifically in this instance about blogging. I thought I’d share a few of my favourite tips on getting back your writing mojo, whatever the project, because it’s a new year and a good time to blow the dust off that keyboard. I’m not an expert, by any means, but I’ve written and I’ve had writer’s block, and these are the tips that have helped me. If you’re struggling to get the motivation to write, try one or more of these on for size, and see how you get on!

This was on our to-watch list a long time ago but we just never got round to it, it dropped off our radar and went missing. In an effort to move on from the disastrous R.I.P.D. we uncovered it and moved it back to the top of the list.

Ah, I was looking forward to this. I knew it wasn’t going to be epic, you could tell from the concept and the trailer, but it looked like it might hold its own and hey, Ryan Reynolds! But no, it was unwatchable. We gave it a chance through some really dodgy CGI, through the setup which was just a badly done Men in Black, and then through some unintelligible conversation about curry.

I’ve seen this plenty of times before but not for a long time, and I couldn’t really remember all that much about it. I particularly couldn’t remember what the actual story was, or if there even was one. It’s a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the interaction with the camera, knocking a pencil off a table to have a ‘secret’ word. There is a story, somewhat predictable in places, but with such bizarre characters, you can’t always know where it’s going to go.

One of the things I miss most about running is playing about with Zombies Run. Making exercise fun is a key thing for me, and the game aspect of it helped keep my going when otherwise I would probably have stopped early. I’ve been keeping an eye on apps and things that made moving about fun, and spotted the new Zumba Dance app. Now, I’ve never done Zumba - my understanding is that doing it in the class is the best way, everyone all having fun and not worrying about how good you are. I’m not sure how good it actually is for fitness, but moving is always better than not moving. I’m not particularly good at dancing, but I was intrigued by the motion tracking aspect of this app.

It was really very good. Unusual, and oddly arty in places, but an interesting story, fascinating characters and some tough scenes. I read a description of it as First World Problems: The Movie which is very true, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good portrayal of the battle with addiction, and how it affects everyone, not just those going through it.

I don’t think I would have heard of this if it hadn’t been for the film, but I enjoyed the movie and wanted to see what the book was like. They were quite different - where the film has to tell a story and focuses on one man, the book is a mish-mash of stories from a huge variety of people.

It took me a couple of attempts to get into this one, but the words ’time’ and ’travel’ on the front had got me interested. The story follows a journalist who goes to interview someone about the 1950s and ends up in that time period. It takes her a while to adjust, but she finds herself adapting to life decades ago, and as you might imagine, she learns lots of lessons about herself and about life to bring back with her when she returns to the present.

It’s weird how films come along in twos. After watching, and not really liking, Olympus Has Fallen, we were hoping this would be a lot better. And we were not disappointed. I loved it! It’s Roland Emmerich, so you have to expect the disaster style movie from the outset, a kind of film I love. Tatum was great as the dad, and the kid, far from being just a prop to get in the way, was feisty and fearless and awesome.

I wrote about our difficult initiation with the Playstation 4, but once it finally started working, there is no question that it’s a great bit of kit. We’ve played a couple of games and been pretty impressed with what we’ve seen, but most of our attention has been on Need for Speed Rivals. I am the first to admit that my virtual driving skills are practically non-existent, and racing games don’t really do it for me. I crash, I lose, I prefer to just press X for go and to hell with the braking consequences.

I made one thwarted attempt at reading this, but was determined to give it a second go and I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, although it was a hard read - lonely and sad, with only a little glimpse of positivity right near the very end. The writing was exquisite, however, the kind of prose that makes you feel the atmosphere - the cold and warmth, the anger and the joy.

I love this, particularly Wednesday. Anything that celebrates the weird is good by me. Watching it again after quite a long time made me see some of its flaws and that it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered it being. But I still love it, and it’s still very quotable to me.

This was an okay film, interesting, procedural with a few plot holes and unresolved questions. I think the main problem with it was the perpetrator was known from the outset, so there was no mystery, no real guesswork to be done. There were some moments of suspense and it had a bit of a thriller about it, but otherwise it wasn’t particularly stirring, although equally not boring. I thought Hudgens was really good, having officially bid her Disney days goodbye!

For the previous two series of Sherlock, I have written a dedicated post for each episode, celebrating the highs and lows of each series as it progressed. This year, I didn’t feel the need to do that, as my thoughts tend to cover the third series as a whole. That seems like a good place to start, the whole series didn’t seem to generate as much excitement within me as its predecessors.

Another Big Read book, I delved into this classic without any preconceptions, having never heard of it. It took me a little while to get into it, particularly as I haven’t read a classic for a while and it takes time to adjust. I did like it but also thought that there wasn’t an awful lot in the way of story.

This book, the first of three that he wrote, gives an insight into how the Professor got to his position, what kind of activities he got up to during his time in F1, as well as thoughts on various aspects of the sport from a position as a fan, and as a doctor. A big part of the book is detailing some of the huge accidents that Watkins dealt with, and the aftermath of such. Whether it was a tragic and fatal crash, such as Ratzenberger or Villeneuve, or one that the participant walked away from, Sid talks of them with the same clinical descriptions youíd expect from a doctor.

I always like to look at the iTunes Film Bundles section, to see what they’ve got on offer. They do a lot of franchise bundles - Back to the Future, Harry Potter, etc. - but this past week I noticed they were doing a set of genre collections instead. The brilliance of these bundles is that they are around the £40 mark, for ten films. And not ten rubbishy films, they’re pretty good movies, in HD format. That makes them about £4 each, which is a bargain by anyone’s standards.

It’s probably prudent to separate the F1 fan and the film fan in me apart. As a follower of F1, I thought it did a good job of putting across the story to non-fans, and was a good attempt at being interesting to people who don’t give two hoots about the sport. Having said that, the racing scenes got a little repetitive and didn’t exactly inspire. F1 is complicated and it’s hard to tell the story of a season in just a few short sequences.

I’ve seen this many times before, it’s one of the few films I’d watch over and over on DVD when I was younger. I even watched a lot of the extras to learn all about green screening and that kind of fun and games.

Was a bit wary of reading this, as I recall disliking the second film very, very much, although I can’t really remember very much about it. But of course, books are not always like the films they are made into and this was fun, a bizarre year in the life of someone desperately trying to fit in.

So much love for this. I often forget to check xkcd but every time I do, there’s always something that resonates.

This is the first book in a lengthy series about the Women’s Murder Club, a collection of professional women who meet and bring their various expertise to the table (usually a cafe or wine bar table) to solve crimes. In this first book, the club is gathered together, instigated by Lindsay Boxer, as they try to solve a particularly gruesome wedding killer.

Console gaming is a slow moving beast, particularly when compared with the fast moving online and app world. But after twenty years in the business, and with a desperate need to distinguish themselves from Microsoft’s offerings, Sony should know better, try harder, get the digital side working seamlessly. Santa brought us an incredible gift this Christmas, in the shape of a Playstation 4. It’s been well documented that we don’t really do gifts, but this was something we wanted and would have bought ourselves as soon as we could have found stock, so it was really the perfect present.

As part of my Big Read list, I hadn’t heard of this book before, but it was an interesting one! Another of those sprawling epics following multiple generations of the same family through birth, love, death and everything in between. Set in New Zealand and Australia at the turn of the 20th century, there’s plenty of reference to the heat, humidity and dust, and the suffocating nature of the conditions really comes across in the prose.

As my interest in Mark Wahlberg continues to grow, this had to be on our list of films to watch, although the premise seemed a bit odd and the trailer didn’t peak our interest massively. Still, it looked good, and it was on the Playstation store, as we investigated the Sony option of renting films.

One of those films in the Love Actually strain, and one of those that I have to be in exactly the right mood for. New Year’s Day was the perfect time, because my brain was too fried for Sherlock, but just about right for nonsensical romancey stuff.

Just as with the top five songs of the year, Mr C also likes to pass judgement on the movies we have watched over the past twelve months as well. This is a slightly more tricky selection to explain, as we live constantly about four months behind cinema release dates due to the rental window. So, it’s not quite “top five films released in 2013” and it’s not really “top five films watched in 2013” either, it’s more “top five films that were released between August 2012 and August 2013 that we watched in 2013.” But that’s not as catchy.

It’s the last day of the year, and this is the time when people start making New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t tend to do that anymore, instead working from a broader Life List instead. When I set about thinking of this annual round-up, I felt a little disappointed about how much (or how little) I’ve achieved this year. Looking back can be useful though, as I hadn’t quite realised I’d been to so many places!