{"id":38091,"date":"2025-01-01T18:23:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=38091"},"modified":"2025-01-01T18:23:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:23:49","slug":"best-of-2024-films-books-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=38091","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2024: FILMS \/ BOOKS \/ Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2025\/z010125best_of.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">As we start 2025, let&#8217;s take a look at the <strong>BEST OF 2024<\/strong>. I hope you see something that you enjoyed or gets you interested to check out. Here we go&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Movies and Television Series<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2024, I watched 396 movies and tv series. That number is down 13 from last year. My favorite films and limited series released in 2024 included (in alpha order):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>American Nightmare<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Apollo 13: Survival<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Arnold<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Arnold &amp; Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Carry-On, The<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Cross: Season 1<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Fargo: Season 5<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>From Darkness to Light<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Greatest Night in Pop, The<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Interview with the Vampire: Season 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Mayor of Kingstown: Season 3 (A)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Mr. McMahon<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Reacher: Season 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Rebel Ridge<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Shogun<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Stallone Family, The Season 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Sugar: Season 1<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In 2024, I read 46 books (up 25 from last year) My favorites from this year included (in the order I read them):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>A Seance for Wicked King Death<\/strong> by Coy Hall<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Racing the Light<\/strong> by Robert Crais<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Ways of the Wolfe, The<\/strong> by James Carlos Blake<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>There and Back<\/strong> by Eric Beetner<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Wake-Up<\/strong> by Robert Ferrigno<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Amateurs<\/strong> by Marcus Sakey<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Blood Grove<\/strong> by Walter Mosley<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Scarecrow Returns<\/strong> by Matthew Reilly<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Man Who Came Uptown<\/strong> by George Pelecanos<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Bright Orange for the Shroud<\/strong> by John D. McDonald<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Silent Joe<\/strong> by T. Jefferson Parker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My Most Popular Posts of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I continue to find some surprises in what became my most popular posts each year. Here are the top ten for 2024 and some thoughts for each&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">10. <strong>SYFY\u2019s 2023\/2024 Twilight Zone New Year\u2019s Eve Marathon Schedule is Up!<\/strong> -\u2013 Who doesn&#8217;t love the Twilight Zone?<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">09. <strong>Top 10 Most Iconic Horror Movie Villains<\/strong> \u2013 After two years in the 10th spot, it moves into 9th place.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">08. <strong>Dracula Through the Ages<\/strong> \u2013 Fell from the #3 spot last year.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">07. <strong>Steranko\u2019s Concept Art for \u201cBram Stoker\u2019s Dracula\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 New to the list!<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">06. <strong>Philip Marlowe \u2013 Who Played Him Best? Ranking the Actors Who Played Him!<\/strong> \u2013 New to the list.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">05. <strong>\u201cArcadian\u201d starring Nicholas Cage \u2013 The Poster and Trailer are Here!<\/strong> \u2013 New to the list.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">04. <strong>Louis Meyers: Evidence He was the Zodiac Killer.<\/strong> \u2013 Same spot as last year (and the year before.)<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">03. <strong>Batman \u2013 \u201cIt Was a Dark and Stormy Night\u201d by Snoopy (Charles Schulz), Len Wein &amp; Walt Simonson!<\/strong> \u2013 Came in at #3 for the first time on the list.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">02. <strong>New Evidence Points to Gary Francis Poste as The Zodiac Killer!<\/strong> \u2013 Jumped to the #2 spot in for the first appearance on the list.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">01. <strong>Schwarzenegger in \u201cKing Lear\u201d &amp; Robin Williams in \u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d.<\/strong> \u2013 Returned to the #1 spot. It was #2 last year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My All-Time Most Popular Posts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">10. <strong>Joel Osteen in Jacksonville<\/strong> \u2013 held on to the 10th spot for three years in a row.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">09. <strong>Gadot &amp; The Rock Strike a Pose<\/strong> &#8211; in the 9th spot for the last four years.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">08. <strong>Steve Reeves as Superman<\/strong> \u2013 No change.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">07. <strong>TOP 10 MOST ICONIC HORROR MOVIE VILLAINS!<\/strong> &#8211; No change.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">06. <strong>New Billy the Kid Photo Discovered<\/strong> \u2013 Moves down from 5th.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">05. <strong>Dracula Through the Ages<\/strong> \u2013 Moves up to the 5th spot.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">04.<strong> SYFY&#8217;s 2023\/2024 TWILIGHT ZONE New Year\u2019s Eve Marathon is Up!<\/strong> &#8211; No change.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">03. <strong>Zodiac Killer Code Cracked?<\/strong> &#8211; No change!<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">02.<strong> Louis Meyers: Evidence He Was the Zodiac Killer<\/strong> \u2013 No change!<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">01. <strong>Schwarzenegger in \u201cKing Lear\u201d &amp; Robin Williams in \u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d<\/strong> &#8211; was #1 for the last two years and continues to be our most popular post of all-time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s always interesting to see which topics resonate with fans and continue to be popular long after their initial post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we start 2025, let&#8217;s take a look at the BEST OF 2024. I hope you see something that you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,52,51,53,54,65,50,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-books","category-crime","category-horror","category-movies","category-trivia","category-tv","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38092,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091\/revisions\/38092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}