Ten Years Ago

Yipe. Ten years. Where has the time gone? How in the world do I commemorate something like this? When I started this blog I didn’t know what shape it would take or where it would go. Heck, those of you who have been around for a while know that Taking Up Room began as a book blog, which only lasted about a month before I started reviewing movies as well due to an abundance of new Bogart DVDs.

Ten years later I’m a proud Classic Movie Blog Association member with a growing readership and more reviews of bad movies and Poverty Row stuff than I can shake a stick at. And that’s just what’s going on here on Taking Up Room. Things are hopping over on Substack, too, as I’ve been a guest on a few podcasts (listen to one of them here), which I’m enjoying way more than I thought I would.

It’s also funny to think that when I started this blog my son was eight and a second grader, and now he’s eighteen and a college student. He’s also taller than I am. By quite a bit. Yipe, again.

Content-wise, if I could sum up this year it would be the Year of the Listicle. If anyone clicks on “Blog 2025” in my Instagram Highlights it seems as if every other post links to some kind of listicle. Ergo, we’re gonna lean into this whole listicle thing with a Listicle of Listicles. Inception-y, right?

Which ones were your favorites in this Year of Our Lord, 2025? I’ll be leaving out the Club 15 posts, of course, because paywall, and this list will be more like our Top Fourteen because some of these posts tied in the ranking. Click on the titles to read the full posts. So yeah, we’re gonna start with…

10. My Top Ten Documentaries and Docuseries (April, 20 views)

Kinda ironic that this post ended up at Number Ten, but you, the readers, have spoken.

9. 1946 Movie Recs (July, 21 views)

Ah, the “During World War Two” series. It was fun to research and write, and I honestly miss it.

8. 1943 Movie Recs (April, 22 views)

1943 was a busy year in wartime Hollywood in more ways than one, with more movies about the worldwide conflict than any other time during the Second World War.

7. Postwar Movie Recs (August, 23 views)

More movie recs. It’s funny that these lists kept getting longer and longer, but it was honestly too hard to pare everything down.

6. A Long December (January, 25 views)

Our first Substack recap of 2025, covering the last month of 2024, of course. January is always a funny mix of carryovers from the previous year, which is one of the things I like about it.

5. Cooking With the French Chef: 2024 Recap and Ranking (January, 26 views)

Speaking of carryover, it was fun looking back at my first year of cooking out of The French Chef Cookbook. Mmmmm, chocolate mousse and Coquilles St. Jacques…

4. 1941 Movie Recs (February, 28 views)

More movie recs, and a very good year (My mother was born in November of 1941, on the day that was then known as Armistice Day).

4. Five Favorite Hollywood Biopics (January, 28 views)

I’m proud to say that after almost five years in circulation, my Pick My Movie Tag still exists, and it happily came back to haunt me when my lovely friend and fellow ten-year blogger, Gill, tagged me to write about my five favorite Hollywood biopics. This was a fun one.

3. A Jana Kramer Film Festival (July, 29 views)

I doubt Jana Kramer is the first person we’d normally think of for a film festival, but she’s certainly made enough movies for one. Two of the ones I watched feature Barry Bostwick, and two of them have romantic leads named Luke, but they’re movies, nonetheless. Pretty much.

2. 1944 Movie Recs (May, 31 views)

This was a good year for movies, so it was another long list. As a lot of you will surely remember.

1. Were They As Good the Second Time? (May, 36 views)

The eternal question yet remains (Looking at you, Weapons).

1. 1940 Movie Recs (January, 36 views)

You all really liked those World War Two movie recs, and they were fun to compile. I’d do them all over again, to be honest. And it’s hard to believe Pinocchio came out in 1940.

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I want to sincerely thank everyone for reading Taking Up Room over the past decade. A lot of you have been subscribers for years, some of you since the beginning, but whether you’re new to Taking Up Room or a longtime reader, this blog would be nothing without you. That seems like such a cliche, but it’s nevertheless true, and I really appreciate the comments and support from all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! It sounds a little scary, but here’s to another ten years…

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If you’re enjoying what you see on Taking Up Room, please subscribe to my Substack page, where you’ll find both free and paid subscriber-only reviews of mostly new and newish movies, documentaries, and shows. I publish every Wednesday and Saturday. You can also subscribe to my Club 15 Tier, which gives you at least one extra Taking Up Room post every month for a small fee.