April in Review

Books Acquired:
Get Jiro! by Anthony Bourdain
Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow

Books Read:
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel
The Human Factor by Graham Greene

We have the used book sale this weekend (maybe I’ve mentioned that once or twice?), and this last month they had a book drive to collect donations. Lee-Ann and I happily got rid of two bags full of books. Some were books I didn’t enjoy, and therefore didn’t want to keep around, and others were books I had for a while and didn’t see myself reading anytime soon. The nice thing about this book sale is that the proceeds go to local literacy programs, so if I buy a book that I later decide I don’t want, I can just donate it back another year and not feel guilty about it. Guilt free book buying!

We were going to hold off buying anything until the sale, but we couldn’t help ourselves one afternoon and wandered into the bookstores downtown. I’ve been meaning to read Get Jiro! for ages now, being a fan of Anthony Bourdain, but the reviews were a bit spotty when it was released and I lost interest. I plan to read it this month and decide for myself. I hadn’t heard of the Judd Apatow’s book, but I love behind-the-scenes comedy interviews, so it sounds great to me. It’s a collection of interviews he’s conducted with various comedians over the last thirty years.

Two bags for the @TCBookDrive today. More room on the shelves for new books! pic.twitter.com/ANga9fuRkF

— Rob (@mcmillan) April 22, 2017

Movies watched:
American Ultra (2015) – Silly, but fun. Not a great movie, but it was entertaining, and I like Jesse Eisenberg.

Reptilicus (1961) (MST3K) – This was the movie featured in the first episode of the newly revamped Mystery Science Theater 3000, where they commentate over terrible old movies. I used to love watching cheesy bad movies, and their commentary can be quite funny, so I’ll be watching more of them. Reptilicus was gloriously bad, with jokes that didn’t land and special effects that were extraordinarily awful.

Seven Psychopaths (2012) – I put this on because I love Tom Waits, although it turns out he has just a very small part, and I love movies in which the main character is an author, even though that’s seen as a little hacky. It turned out to be really good. I didn’t realize before watching, but it’s directed by Martin McDonagh, and I loved his last movie In Bruges. This wasn’t quite on that level, but the script took some really clever twists, and it was the best performance I’ve seen out of Christopher Walken in quite a while.

TV watched:
None finished.

Games played:
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (2017) (PC) – I usually avoid Early Access games out of pure principle, but this one pulled me in, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s still quite rough, performance-wise, but I haven’t come across any huge bugs yet. I managed to come in second on a solo game, which won’t matter to anyone who hasn’t played it, but I was quite happy with myself.

Rocket League (2015) (PC) – This is my ‘just ten minutes before I go’ game. The new Dropshot mode is a blast.

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