Sunday, April 7, 2019

3 Book Day

Finished the last 100 pages of one book, "The Accidental War" by Walter Jon Williams, then all 438 pages of "Twisted Prey" by John Sandford, and then the first 60 or so pages of "Dark Intelligence" by Neal Asher.

Since I read about one page per minute, that's about 10 hours of reading.

I used to do that all the time, but lately I've just been reading the last hour or so before bed. I figure if I'm not going to write, I have a lot of empty time, and I have a rule that I won't watch TV during the day. The internet can suck up most of the day if I let it. Oh, and I've quite watching political talk shows for now. I'm done with that.

 My exploration of the music videos on YouTube reminds me of my teenage years--spending afternoons just exploring music and history and popular culture. They talk about "second childhoods" but I seem to have fallen into a "second teenage-hood."

I've gotten particular about what shows I'll watch and what books I'll read.

"The Accidental War" was good old-fashioned space opera and I really liked it. "Twisted Prey" is the kind of mindless book that can be gulped down in one sitting. "Dark Intelligence" I'm not going to finish because it has an unclear storyline and is filled with SF jargon.

I'm kind of getting sick of unclear storylines. I'm going to give up on the show "Magicians," even though I like the characters and the dialogue because I haven't a clue what's going on. They've fallen into the trap of pulling out a magic trick every time the story bogs down.

I'm having the same trouble with "American Gods." Very unclear what's going on, though the style has carried me along so far.

Giving up on "Deadly Class" because they can't seem the reconcile the point of the school with a moral or ethical position that makes any sense. "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" has much the same problem, but I'm waiting to see if they can make sense of it.

I like "Into the Badlands" despite how ridiculous it is because at least I understand what they're doing. The story is fairly straightforward. And I think I may have a thing about hot women in black leather and high heels.

We've been without Netflix for a couple of months. It seemed like we'd seen most of what we wanted to see, and then--the minute we don't have it--I hear about lots of intriguing shows.

We're going all-in next week. Getting a smart TV and hooked up to Amazon and CBS access and Netflix and every other show we want to watch. There will be more selection so I intend to be more selective.

Linda and I are currently watching only one network show--"The Rookie"-- only because of Nathan Fillion, even though it's about as formulaic as it can be. I leave the room when Linda watches "911" or "Bull." I just can't go there anymore.

I'm going to try to do some writing today, because this being only a consumer and not a producer is getting to me.


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