Looking at my logbook, I noticed that I recently had a string of four starred books or movies in a row, the longest streak yet. (It would have been five in a row had I seen Brooklyn before Love & Mercy, which I liked a lot but not star-liked.)

749	Typewriter Revolution, The	Richard Polt	book	2015	☆	2015	Dec
748	Tangerine	Sean S. Baker	film	2015	☆	2015	Dec
747	Creed	Ryan Coogler	film	2015	☆	2015	Dec
746	Winter: Notes from Montana	Rick Bass	book	1991	☆	2015	Dec

That’s only the second time that’s happened since I started keeping track in 2010. The other was in December 2010:

208	Social Network, The	David Fincher	film	2010	☆	2010	Dec
207	True Grit	Joel and Ethan Coen	film	2010	☆	2010	Dec
206	Fighter, The	David O. Russell	film	2010	☆	2010	Dec
205	Black Swan	Darren Aronofsky	film	2010	☆	2010	Dec

All four of those films from 2010 made my best-of list that year, and yet I haven’t rewatched any of them besides The Social Network, so I couldn’t say whether they would still remain on my Best of 2010 list if I were to make a new one these five years later. Likewise, Creed and The Typewriter Revolution will make my 2015 lists (with Tangerine just missing the cut), but time will tell if they’ll stay there.

My criteria for earning a star are as diverse as the logbook itself, but my basic interpretation is whether that book or film could end up on my best-of list from whichever year it was made. So both of these streaks could be considered flukes given the inherent subjectivity of star-giving. On the other hand, that both occurred in December makes sense given the abundance of higher quality films in the thick of Oscar season.

With its mix of books and movies, old and new, the 2015 streak seems more unlikely—a conglomeration of providence and serendipity. I’m sure if I were to reread and rematch every movie and book on my list some would lose stars and some would gain them, so I won’t put too much stock in what’s essentially an anomaly. But that’s why I’m glad I started this logging practice: to document a fairly large part of my life, and to catch my first impressions and see how they fare in retrospect.

Still, I found it interesting enough to write a post about, so I have that going for me, which is nice.