Best Film Adaptation of 2012

Every book lover always yearns to see their favorite characters come to life. Who wouldn't want to see them in action, straight out of the big screen? Of course, no one! So most of us couldn't help but to feel gratified at the producers who had brought as these best film adaptations this 2012. See if your film adaptation had made it to the list:

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had brought us the perfect film to year the end right. Directed by acclaimed director Peter Jackson, who also brought life to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first installment of the The Hobbit book who was divided into three parts and will be followed by two other installment: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and There and Back Again (2014).  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the prequel of The Lord of the Rings which starts off with Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins' uncle, who was picked by the wizard Gandalf to accompany thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. This installment also introduced how Bilbo gain possession of the One Ring from Gollum's hand... the simple gold ring that will change the fate of all Middle-Earth.

• Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2

The final conclusion of The Twilight Saga had finally reached the big screen and was true to their promise to left a satisfying end to The Twilight series. In this astonishing conclusion, Bella who finally awoken to the life of vampires must do everything in her power to protect her vampire family, the Olympian Coven, upon the threats of the powerful old coven Volturi. With her vampire husband, Edward Cullen and her werewolf bestfriend, Jacob Black, they will find a way to save her hybrid daughter Renesmee, who will either be annihilated upon being suspected as a newborn child--a false allegation that will put their entire fates in danger. Together with Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmet, Alice and Jasper, they will sought alliance with old vampire friends to side with them in proving the Volturi that Renesmee was not a newborn child but half-human, half-vampire child that Bella sacrificed her human life for.

• Life of Pi

The most inspiring and dramatic film 2012 has to offer, Life of Pi was originally adapted from Yann Martel's novel. Directed by legendary Ang Lee who brought fame to the acclaimed action movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, the Life of Pi talks about a young man by the name of Piscine Patel played by Suraj Sharma, who survived a disaster at sea and hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery alone with the company of a Bengal Tiger by the name of Parker. Perhaps the most unforgetable thing in this movie is how Pi rediscovered his life and gave more importance to it after spending 227 days alone with a ferocious tiger in a boat. There he will learn to live and face his fear as he tried to fight for his survival and learn to care for tiger's life as well.

Dystopia - The Fictional Society Built in Destruction

While everyone is fussing about the Apocalypse or Doomsday about to happen (as they say) this December 21, I couldn't just literally hate the idea of it all. Why? Simply because if these false prophecies didn't exist, I couldn't imagine how my reading life would be without dystopian novels. From YA best-selling novels The Hunger Games, Julianna Baggott's The Pure, Shatter Me, Matched and The Giver, all fall under the same setting, dystopia.

But what is dystopia in the first place? Dystopia, or the word itself, literally came from two Ancient Greek words: δυσ-, "bad, hard", and  τόπος, "place, landscape". According to Wikipedia, "it can alternatively be called cacotopia or anti-utopia." It is the counterpart of utopia, wherein instead of the community being built into a desirable atmosphere, the dystopia is a community or society that is built in an undesirable and frightening setting.

The term was originally coined by Thomas More in the book he wrote in 1516. The first known use of the word itself, recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary, was during the speech given by John Stuart Mill in the year 1968 as he described the Irish government land policy:

Best Dystopian Novels

With all the 12/21/2012 apocalypse scare being so damned popular over the internet and media, especially now that the "presumed Doomsday" will happen Friday of this week, why not join in with the whole fuss and put off a top ten list of the best and most popular dystopian novels in the YA fiction world today. Besides, I wouldn't forgive myself if I miss the chance of writing it down here--whether there is an Apocalypse on the way or not.

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | Amazon Price (Paperback/Kindle) - $ 3.99

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning? In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

• Pure (The Pure Trilogy) by Julianna Baggott | Amazon Price (Paperback) - $9.99

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters...

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash...

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her. 

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.