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July in Review

Books Acquired:
Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling by Tony Cliff

Books Read:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Poems That Make Grown Men Cry by Anthony Holden, Ben Holden
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
We Stand On Guard by Brian K. Vaughan

My plan for this upcoming month is to write more than one post. An achievable goal, you would think, but after this last month who knows. What a naughty blogger I’ve been. As an apology, here’s a video of my dog’s beard in the wind.

A video posted by Rob McMillan (@mcmillan) on

It was a relaxing month, although not a great reading month. The couple of books I got through were in audio. I have been reading A Prayer for Owen Meany at night, which I am actually really enjoying, but I’ve only been getting through 10 – 20 pages a day. It’s a bit of a chunker, so that’s been slow going. Sometimes it’s nice to slowly plod through a long novel, though. I don’t often spend that much time with the same characters, and it feels like a different experience in a way.

The book buying ban continues, to prepare for our Seattle/Portland trip, but I decided last month that comics don’t count. Audiobooks also do not count (yay, loopholes), so I was thinking of maybe picking up a novel set in one of those cities. Suggestions are welcome! I was considering Geek Love, or maybe Boneshaker, which I think is set in dystopian Seattle.

Hiking last week in East Sooke.

A photo posted by Rob McMillan (@mcmillan) on

Movies watched:
The Resurrection of Jake the Snake (2015) – I’m not a wrestling fan, and I’m not sure why I turned this on, but I actually really enjoyed it. It’s like one of those supposedly-reality-but-quite-obviously-scripted intervention television shows, but it seems to actually be a sincere documentary. It’s spread over a few years, so it doesn’t feel like they had to add extra drama to fill the time.

TV watched:
Outlander (2016) – After the end of the last season, I really wasn’t interested in continuing with this. My girlfriend is a huge fan, though, so we carried on. It really did pick up, and this season had some great moments.

W1A: Season 1 & 2 (2014-2015) – I watched Twenty Twelve a few years back and enjoyed it, so when we came across this follow-up on Netflix we decided to give it a try. It’s quite funny, but something about it is incredibly addicting. We burned through the short episodes pretty quickly this month.

A Cook Abroad (2015) – Great food travel show. Each episode follows a different celebrity chef in a country of their choosing. Some episodes are much better than others, but the best ones really are excellent.

Games played:
Overwatch (2016) (PC) – Still playing a match of this here and there and really enjoying it. There’s a lot of depth to this game, and they added their first new character to the roster, so that brought me back after not playing for a while.

What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?

6 Comments

  • Ruthiella

    My reading was slowish this month. I am trying to read Gravity’s Rainbow and it is really cramping my style. But I don’t want to give up. I am a book masochist in that way. I will finish one book by Pynchon regardless of the other book sacrifices it may cause!
    Love the dog video (apology accepted)! What did you think of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? I read most of the books ages ago, but listened to the original radio show (on CD in the car) not too long ago and found it just as hilarious as when I first read them.

    • Rob

      I’m the same way, complete book masochist. It’s something I am trying to avoid a bit more these days, but I will hate-read a book to its last page.

      I loved Hitchhiker’s Guide! I first read it nearly twenty years ago, and I think I liked it even more this time. I should try the radio show at some point.

  • Geoff W

    Bearded dog totally made up for the no posts! I agreed with most of your thoughts on Frankenstein so didn’t comment as I was trying to catch up on so many other posts! I also got sucked into Outlander by the s.o. recently and I’m glad to hear it picks up next season as it’s been a bit of a slog the last part of the first season.

    • Rob

      I really disliked how torture-porny it got at the end of the first season, and they just drew it out so long. Second season definitely picked up, and there were some changes that made it feel fresh again.

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