July in Review

Books Acquired:
Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration by Nigella Lawson
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Alice in Wonderland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland #1) by Lewis Carroll

Books Read:
Saga, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Alice in Wonderland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland #1) by Lewis Carroll
The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) by Lev Grossman

I managed to only buy one physical book this month (the other three are audiobooks), and that was a cookbook. I’m not sure how to deal with cookbooks in my obsessive online tracking. I add them to Goodreads, but when can you really say you’ve ‘read’ a cookbook? I’ll typically read through the introduction and skim all of the recipes when I first buy one, but I’m not sure at which point to give it a star rating. After cooking three recipes? Five? Half the book? I don’t think I’ve ever cooked more than five or six recipes from one cookbook. I do enjoy the pretty photos, though.

This is just one of the many stressful issues I deal with in my life. It’s a rough existence.

Our new condo allows dogs, so we dog-sat for some friends this month. I really enjoyed taking her out for her daily walk and play around the park. It made for some excellent audiobook time. We’re considering getting our own dog at some point, but at this stage we’re happy to do some trial runs with other people’s pets. I’m still not sure I want to commit to morning walks.

Movies watched:
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – It was a slow movie month for us, this being the only movie we watched, but it was fairly good. It’s a bit silly and predictable, and at some parts quite unbelievable, but the acting was strong and it was beautifully shot on location. There are also a lot of references to Indiana Jones, which I can always appreciate, even if they’re distracting and completely out of place.

TV watched:
Wallander, Season 2 – I’ve decided to only mention series in which I completed a season, which doesn’t leave much this month, but we did continue on with Wallander. The second season wasn’t as good as the first, but I still really enjoyed it. It started off weak, but it bounced back. It’s worth it just for Kenneth Branagh’s acting and the cinematography.

Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle – This is a little mini-series I stumbled across on Netflix. It’s three hour-long documentaries on the history of comic books, through interviews with the creators. If you have any interest in comics and the history behind them, it’s a great watch. It’s hosted by Liev Schreiber, seemingly against his will. He’s very wooden, but he only takes up a couple of minutes at the beginning of each episode.

Games played:
The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings (PC) – I actually just finished this tonight, but I’ll count it for July. This was an excellent Action RPG, but it did have some odd faults. There are some really poor design choices, and it’s still riddled with bugs three years after release. Some of the voice acting and dialogue is also questionable, the worst sadly being the main character. He sounds like Christian Bale’s Batman, only less enthusiastic. The game mechanics and story compelled me on despite the flaws, though, so that’s a good sign. I’ll be looking forward to the third in the series, which is due to be released next February.

TowerFall Ascension (PS4) – My girlfriend and I played quite a bit of this. There’s a co-operative mode for 2 players, which has been a blast. It can get pretty frustrating if you get too hung up on winning, though, because you tend to die a lot. Especially when your girlfriend shoots you in the face. There’s a multiplayer versus mode which is also really fun. We’re looking forward to trying that out with four players.