For serious, this will be the final installment of New Year’s Resolutions (but as evidenced by his videos which we posted some time ago, Mr. Heim is pretty popular on this blog). I thank all the authors, editors, publicists, and others who contributed to this exercise in sharing. Now these from Scott Heim, author of In Awe, Mysterious Skin, and forthcoming in March, We Disappear:
What was the best book of the year?
A couple of these may have actually been published late in 2006, but I’d have to say: Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell; The View From Castle Rock, by Alice Munro; Some Phantom/No Time Flat, by Stephen Beachy; and Charity Girl, by Michael Lowenthal. And just because I happen to share my life with one of these writers doesn’t mean I still don’t think it was one of the year’s best.
What was the best movie?
No Country for Old Men; The Lives of Others; The Diving Bell & the Butterfly. (And for very different reasons, I also really liked The Host and Knocked Up.)
What was the best song/album?
Okay, this is where I could list about 20 or 30. But here were some of my favorite albums, in no particular order: Radiohead, “In Rainbows”; The National, “Boxer”; Burial, “Untrue”; “Apparat, “Walls”; Band of Horses, “Cease to Begin”; Blonde Redhead, “23”; Ulrich Schnauss, “Goodbye”; The Mary Onettes, “The Mary Onettes”; Interpol, “Our Love to Admire”; Air Formation, “Daylight Storms”; The Twilight Sad, “Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters”; The Field, “From Here We Go Sublime”; Crescent, “Little Waves”; and Bracken, “We Know About the Need”
Who was the person of the year?
Doris Lessing? Al Gore? Thom Yorke? Jonathan Papelbon?
What is your New Year’s resolution?
To make improvements on my house. To read many more books than I did in 2007. To finally learn some Spanish. To enjoy the publication of my book without freaking out too much. To start a new novel, or to go back to writing the occasional short story now and then.
Any predictions for 2008?
The Red Sox will win the World Series again.
