October in Review
Books Acquired:
The Happy Numbers of Julius Miles by Jim Keeble
The Amateur Emigrant/The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
I Am the Wolf: Lyrics and Writings by Mark Lanegan
If We All Spat at Once They’d Drown: Drawings About Class by Sam Wallman
Dear Writer Revisited by Carmel Bird
Law School: Sex and Relationship Advice by Benjamin Law, Jenny Phang
Pickled: Pickles, Vinegars, Kimchi and More by Freddie Janssen
Appetite by Nigel Slater
#takedown by David Blumenstein
Books Read:
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
Nod by Adrian Barnes
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
I always have big plans to read on vacation, but it almost never happens, and last month was no exception. Very little reading, but we spent three weeks in Australia, so that’s a fairly good excuse.
Lee-Ann used to live there, and has travelled around the country quite a bit, but this was my first visit. For the first week and a half we were in Western Australia, staying in Mandurah. We spent a couple of days eating and drinking our way through the Margaret River region and also managed to spend a bit of time in both Perth and Fremantle. We got to go out on the water a couple of times as well. I drove the boat one day, which was very exciting, and a we were lucky enough to find a few dolphins while we were out there. I’ll put a short video up on my Instagram and Twitter once I get around to editing all of my snippets together.
We like to try to take selfies with animals when we travel. From a safe distance, of course. Side note: I don’t know how to smile for the camera, so I just open my mouth.
We did visit quite a few bookshops and buy quite a few books. I noticed that several of the shops had these blind date books, where they wrap a novel in paper and write vague descriptions on the front, which I thought was a fun idea. I decided to pick up one, and managed to choose a book I hadn’t heard of and didn’t own.
Movies watched:
The Big Sick (2017) – Sitting on planes for about forty hours this month, and having a touch of motion sickness that made reading tricky, I watched a lot of movies. I’ll just list my favourites here, and this was one of the best. I loved it. Having been a fan of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon for years, I was excited to see this story of how they met after hearing about it on podcasts and such in the past. Funny and touching.
Hidden Figures (2016) – The inspiring and true account of a group of black mathematicians and their integral involvement in NASA during the race to space. Loved this also – a perfectly paced story.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) – We watched this in the office on Halloween, and it was so much better than I’d anticipated. Hilarious and surprisingly smart horror comedy.
Wilson (2017) – I read this comic just before I started this weblog and really enjoyed it, although it hit weirdly close to home for me at the time. The main character is quite unique in how he’s both misanthropic and desperately searching for human connection. Very funny dark comedy, and I wouldn’t have considered Woody Harrelson for the part if you’d asked me, but he did a brilliant job.
TV watched:
Chef’s Table: Season 3 (2017) – I love this series! I’d forgotten that we’d never gotten around to finishing this, so we watched the last few episodes. Great as always.
Games played:
Golf Story (2017) (Nintendo Switch) – I’ve only played the first couple of hours of this, on the plane to Australia, but it was a fun little concept. I’m not sure if it’s going to hold my attention to the end, but I plan to eventually get back to it.
What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?
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4 Comments
Silvia
Wow, that’s a nice post. I love the pics of your trip, the book titles and the shows and movies, everything!
I will be watching the new episodes of Chefs Table.
The blind date books idea is fun, the title you got looks good.
Rob
Thank you!
Every episode of Chef’s Table is a treat, if not just for the music and the cinematography.
I really like the idea of the blind book date. I probably wouldn’t do it too often, but it’s a fun way to try something you might not normally pick up.
Ruthiella
Yes, you smile like a puppet! 😀
Love the picture of Hanging Rock. I JUST FINISHED THAT BOOK…how serendipitous is that?
All the books you picked up…never heard of any of them, which is cool. I almost never do that anymore…I just have lists and lists and lists made up of goodreads reviews, book tube vlogs and blog posts. Hope they are all great reads!
Rob
Oh my god, I really do smile like a puppet, hah.
My girlfriend picked up the book, so I will eventually be reading it as well. Will be interested to read your thoughts on it. She was angry because they spoil the ending in their information centre, but I managed to avoid it.
I haven’t heard of a few of these either, but they were by local writers, so I thought I’d give them a try. A couple are small graphic novels actually.