My Week in Books, Movies and TV(9/21)

It’s been an odd week for me. My work schedule was different. I’m at the end of my seven-day stretch with no day off. I’ve only had one day off in the last two weeks. I usually work one evening shift a week, but this week I worked two. I’m tired and sometimes I don’t know what day it is. I’m going to use all of that as an excuse for not finishing a book this week. I did spend a lot of time in front of the TV.

Books – I’m still working my way through A Land More Kind Than This by Wiley Cash. I’m also re-reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for my new book club at work. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked by how much I had forgotten about Neverwhere since it’s been 20 years since I last read it. It has taken more time than it should to finish these two books.

TV – In addition to watching episodes of the shows I’ve already talked about here, I started watching two shows on Netflix. I watched all of season two of American Vandal. I wasn’t sure if season two would be as good as the first, especially since most of the cast was new, but I really liked it. I might have liked it more than season one. I would recommend not eating during the first fw minutes of the first episode. Also, if you have issues with poop, maybe don’t watch at all. We also started watching Shooter after my wife rewatched the movie version. It is much better than I expected. I am wondering, though, how the story can span three seasons. I also watched the first three episodes of Mr Mercedes. So far, so good.

Movies – It took me a second to remember that I did actually watch a movie this week. We finally got around to watching The Greatest Showman. I knew that I would probably like it I tend to like musicals. I was surprised that my wife liked it. Besides Grease, I’m not sure she’s every really liked a movie musical.

On Deck – I hope to actually finish the two books I’m reading. I’m not sure what I will read next. There will be a lot of TV as the new fall season starts. My most anticipated shows are Magnum PI and Single Parents. I will report on those during my week of TV posts next week. With all the TV, I don’t know if I will watch a movie. I guess that depends on what DVDs I might get from the library.

My Week in Books, Movies and TV(9/14)

It’s been another one of those weeks where I can’t remember what I did and when I did it. Was Labor Day just last week? I should probably start taking notes or something so I remember what I watched and read and don’t have to rebuild my week while I am still sleepy on a Friday morning. I probably won’t, but I should.

Books: I finished Sunrise Highway by Peter Blauner and There There by Tommy Orange. Sunrise Highway is a thriller dealing with an NYPD detective trying to prove that a police chief in a nearby county is a serial killer. It’s a good story and Blauner is a good writer, but I’m disappointed that he’s joined the “write a series” trend. There is nothing wrong with writing stand alone novels. There There was very good. I listened to it and the audio is great. It has a voice cast with a different person voicing each characters chapters. I love that. It takes a while for all of the characters to come together at the final event, but it’s worth the time it takes to get there.

Television: I watched episodes of the usual shows I’ve mentioned before. I watched the season premieres of Last Ship and The Deuce. The Last Ship is still a decent action show, but I’m not sad that this is the last season. I think the last season would have been a good stopping point. The Deuce’s time jump could be interesting. We’ll see. We also watched the premiere of You on Lifetime. So far, it looks like a good adaptation of the book. Peen Badgley is good as the stalker who can be charming. I think I will stick with it.

Movies: We watched Rampage. It will be no surprise to anyone that I slept through portions of it. It wasn’t as bad as I expected. I like The Rock, so that helped. I think that might actually be the only movie we watched this week. I don’t think we even watched an old movie in the background while doing other stuff. I have no movies from the library right now, so this coming week could also be a movie-less week unless we watch one that is sitting on our DVR.

On Deck: I’m reading a land more kind than home by Wiley Cash for my personal book club. I need to re-read/skim Neverwhere for my new book club at work. American Vandal season 2 is not available on Netflix and I have Mr Mercedes season 1 on DVD, so I know what shows I will be watching when my wife isn’t home. As I said above, I have no movies on deck. We do have Greatest Showman and Murder on the Orient Express on the DVR, but I’m not sure my wife wants to watch them.

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When Do You Give Up?

I have a few shows on my DVR that I never feel like watching. I’ve watched a few episodes of one of them and find myself looking at my phone more than the screen. One I haven’t had the urge to watch once. I watched the first seasons of the shows and liked them enough to record season two, but apparently not enough to watch season two. Yet, they are still there, taking up space on my DVR. I have no idea how long they will sit there until I give up and delete them. Probably when the new TV season starts and I start having a disk space crisis and something has to go to make room for the shows I actually care about.

I will occasionally give up on a book if I read 50 pages and it’s not grabbing me. I have problems giving up if I’ve made it past 50 pages and then get bored after 100 or so. I feel like I’ve committed too much time to give up at that point so my reading slows down while I spend days finishing a book I no longer care about. Why do I do that? There are too many good books out there to waste time reading one I obviously don’t like. It’s the same with movies. We recently watched an entire 90 minute movie that none of us as enjoying because no one wanted to be the one to suggest turning it off.

How long do you leave a show on your DVR before you admit you will never watch it and delete?

Do you have a page number for how long you read before you stop? Do you have a point of no return where you will finish no matter how bad it gets?

Do you turn movies off halfway through if you aren’t enjoying it?

Why do we waste precious time on things we aren’t enjoying?

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My Week in Books, Movies and TV(9/8)

After my nice, quiet hermit weekend last weekend my life got a little busy. Tuesday I spent the day trying to cover things at work in case I ended up out of the building the rest of the week to attend an event in place of my boss. Wednesday I had to get some mowing done in the extreme heat before working for 8 hours. Thursday and Friday I did spend time in Baltimore playing the part of the least important person in a room full of leaders from my profession. I didn’t find a lot of time for reading and watching much, but I do have a little to report.

Books: Most of my reading cam from the holiday weekend. I finished Feared by Lisa Scottoline(not as good as she usually is), Measure of Darkness by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman(Clay Edison is a good addition to the Alex Delaware universe) and 806 by Cynthia Weil(a decent teen novel about kids who search for their sperm donor father) all over the Labor Day weekend. In my little bit of free time on Tuesday and Wednesday I read Roughneck by Jeff Lemire, a graphic novel about a former hockey player and his sister who “must come together after years apart to face the disturbing history that has cursed their family). I would say it was probably the best of the bunch.

Television: This week bas mainly watching shows that had pied up on out DVR. We finally finished the latest season of Blacklist. We watched Whose Line is it Anyway, Salvation and Take Two. I watched the latest episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and Ballers. So, I watched more than I remembered, mostly over the holiday or n the hour or so between dinner and my wife going to bed. We are getting closer to the new season and new shows every night. I can’t wait.

Movies: We watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on Netflix while our daughter was home over the weekend. It was a cute, enjoyable teen romance. I would recommend it. I watched Blockers Wednesday morning while waiting for a reasonable time to mow. It was funny and had some surprising deeper moments about parents dealing with their kids leaving for college. Nothing ground breaking, but funny. Last night we finally watched Fahrenheit 451 with Michael B Jordan. It was decent. I was very sleepy, so that might have made me enjoy it less. It wasn’t terrible, but I was bored.

On Deck: I’ve started reading Sunrise Highway by Peter Blauner. New seasons of The Last Ship and The Deuce start tomorrow. You premieres of Lifetime(based on the book by Caroline Kepnes). We will finally get around to watching Rampage with The Rock

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My Week in Books, Movies and TV (8/25)

One day later than normal due to move in day yesterday, but here is my weekly review of what I’ve read and watched this week:

Books – I finished Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne. My daughter claims I couldn’t have liked it very much because it took me so long to read it, but she’s wrong. It did take a while to finish, but I think that’s more a me thing than a book thing. It is a humorous fantasy quest novel with witches, bards, wanna-be dark lords, talking goats and more. I’m currently reading The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green at may daughter’s recommendation. So far, so good, but after this one I will need to take a break from fantasy novels.

Television – Most of the week was focused on finishing shows with my daughter before she left. We did start a new show on Netflix – The Mighty Johnsons. It’s about Norse Gods reincarnated in to the bodies of New Zealanders. It’s a fun show. Now my focus will be finishing shows I’ve recorded that I watch alone to make room for the fall shows that will start soon.

Movies – We watched Love Simon mid-week. My daughter had seen it before and read the book. I had not read the book, so the story was new for me. It was an enjoyable teen romance movie with what seems to be the new regular troupe of teen actors. I finally watched Infinity War last night. I tried to keep away from spoilers, but from random comments I’d seen here and there online, I kind of knew the end. It didn’t make me enjoy the movie any less. I enjoyed seeing the Guardians interact with the Avengers. I’m looking forward to seeing where the next movies goes.

On Deck – I will finish The Smoke Thieves. I’m not sure if I will start with Westworld season 2 or Sharp Objects this week, but I will start working my way through seasons of shows I have recorded. Rampage is waiting for me at the library, so I guess we will watch that at some point this week.

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My Week in Books, Movies and TV(8/17)

It took me a while to remember what I’ve watched this week. Turns out I had more than I thought. Enjoy.

Books – I started out the week with a quick read – Hits and Misses by Simon Rich. It is a collection of short stories and is as good as I expected from him. My favorite was the autobiography of Paul Revere’s horse. I’m currently reading Kill the Farm Boy. I like it, but for some reason it is taking me forever to get through it. I think the stress that is messing with my sleep pattern is also messing with my reading.

Movies – I thought I might have a blank here, but then I looked back at last week’s post and read what I planned to watch. We did watch Death Wish with Bruce Willis. If you like action movies and Bruce Willis, you will like this one.I watched Rare Exports last night. It was weird, but I liked it. I think that is it for the week.

Television – We are still working our way through Yellowstone and still enjoying it. We watched the first episode of Carter with Jerry O’Connell. It is a Canadian show airing on WGN. O’Connell plays an actor who played a detective on TV. He moves back home and helps his housekeeper who is accused of murder. This leads to him being hired as a consultant with the police. Nothing ground-breaking, but I really like O’Connell so I liked this. I also watched HBO’s two-part documentary on Elvis and the one on Robin Williams. They were well done and very interesting.

On Deck – I feel like I will still be reading Kill The Farm Boy next week. Nothing new on TV is upcoming and I have no movies I will definitely watch. I guess that works out since next Friday I will be moving my daughter to her dorm, so I likely won’t do a week in review post.

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Tater Answers Some Book Related Questions No One Asked

I had nothing on my mind to write this morning. Luckily, The Britchy One just posted answers to book related questions. I wasn’t tagged, but I’m going to answer them anyway.

Have you ever re-gifted a book that you’ve been gifted?

No. Generally, when I get books as gifts they are books that people know I want. Usually the latest Stephen King. I would never regift those unless I somehow received two of the same one.

Have you ever claimed to have read a book when you haven’t?

No. I may have thought I read a book and then realized I never actually did. That type of thing happens when you get old. Otherwise, I see no reason to pretend I’ve read a book I haven’t actually read. I’ not that desperate to impress people.

Have you ever borrowed a book and not returned it?

Yes. I still have my brother’s copy of The Punch by John Feinstein. I still have never even read it. It’s particularly bad because he doesn’t really read books, so stealing one book he actually read and liked is a terrible thing. I don’t feel guilty at all.

Have you ever read a series out of order?

Only by accident. I am very much a “you must read a series on order” person. What kind of monster reads a series out of order? I would never associate with someone like that.

Have you ever spoiled a book for someone?

Not without permission. I don’t think? It’s possible I have. I’m old. I can’t remember. Maybe? I wouldn’t do it on purpose.

Have you ever skipped a chapter or a section of a book?

Skipped? No. Skimmed? Multiple times. Sometimes that’s the only way to finish a book you have to finish no matter how bad it is(book club/school). If you don’t want me to skim portions of your book, write better books(says the guy who can’t write).

Have you ever bad- mouthed a book you actually liked?

What kind of question is that? That makes no sense. Why would someone do that?

That’s it. The end. I don’t think I did a great job of answering the questions. If you made it this far, I am sorry for wasting your time.

Tater out.

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