November in Review
Books Acquired:
Saga, Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
Paper Girls, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang
Books Read:
Hell House by Richard Matheson
Head On by John Scalzi
Misery by Stephen King
X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont, John Byrne
We’ve hit December already! Unfortunately, my few months of reading drought here will mean I won’t be hitting most of my goals, but that’s okay. I enjoy making goals more than I hate missing them, so it all works out. Feeling a bit more in the swing of things now, though, so I expect the reading to pick up again.
Since keeping track of my reading these past years, I’ve noticed that I almost always have a month or three in the year where I struggle to find the time to read. It’s actually not really a matter of being busy, I think. It’s more that I seem to have a little annual breakdown where I just get a bit scattered and have trouble sitting down to focus on anything. It usually seems to culminate in obsessively anger-cleaning and organizing the apartment. Once everything’s fairly clean I seem to be able to find my focus again. It just takes a weekend of vacuuming the walls like a meth addict.
Speaking of vacuums, we treated ourselves to a Black Friday deal this year and picked up a Roomba. I really love scheduling it in the morning and waking up to a robot doing my chores. One more step towards that Jetsons dream.
After a few busy months, it was nice to slow things down a bit. We’re lucky to live a city that doesn’t tend to get more than a few days of snow each year, and the weather has been great this autumn, so we were still able to get out there with the bikes. We even took Paisley out for her first ride.
Now we just need to get her some goggles!
Movies watched:
Big Hero 6 (2014) – They did a great job with this one. I want a Baymax hug.
TV watched:
The Final Table: Season 1 (2018) – I keep saying I hate cooking competition shows, but I keep finding ones I like. The host is a bit annoying, and the whole concept of winning a spot at the table next to other great chefs just seemed so over-the-top and anticlimactic, but they definitely found some legit judges and competitors. It was really fun seeing who the chefs admired and idolized.
Games played:
Celeste (2018) – I loved this! Great little story that handled the topic of mental illness in a suprisingly tactful way.
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014) – I got the MMO itch and decided to play a bit more of this. It’s very well done. I love MMOs but move off of them fairly quickly. I could see myself coming back to this whenever the urge strikes.
Come say hello:
What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?
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11 Comments
Bookstooge
How do you like the roomba? I’ve got a rainbow vac and really like it, but my goodness, it is a rather bulky.
Hope you can get some good reading in in the next month or two…
Rob
We’re loving it so far! It does a great job and the scheduling is quite nice. We’ll still have to manually vacuum between a few things, but it’ll be a big time-saver I think. Even seems to do quite well with corners.
nikki @bookpunks
I, too, want to hear all about the Roomba. Someday I want to live that Jetson’s dream and let the robots do all the chores too.
Do your off reading months tend to be the same ones every year? I tend to have at least one during the summer (if not just a huge reduction in books read during the entire summer), when I’m biking even more stupid amounts than usual, and drinking in the sun with friends, and all that sort of thing, more often than I’m holing up and reading.
Rob
First impression is that it’s amazing. Seems to be doing a great job and you get to feel like an evil mastermind.
The months shift a little. The last few years it’s definitely been the end of summer and into the autumn. I think it’s like you say – having other interests and travelling when it’s sunny. Seems once I get out of the habit though, it just takes me a while to find my way back, hah.
Silvia
LOL, fun to read post. Congrats on your new bike. I too have those times of not being able to focus on reading that much, and I also get the cleaning like a possessed or ‘meth addict’, ha ha ha.
Rob
Haha, thanks! The new bike has been quite fun.
Geoff W
OMG Paisley on the bike is adorable! How’d he (I can’t remember!) react when you were driving?
I loved Big Hero 6, but I’ve never read the comic so no clue how they adapted it.
Rob
She was really good! We only did a short and slow ride to a nearby park, maybe ten minutes away, but she seemed fine. I think it’ll be fun taking her out on rides once spring comes around.
Rob
Also, I didn’t even realize Big Hero 6 was based on a comic! I’ll have to look into that.
Diana @ Thoughts on Papyrus
And how did you like Misery? I have seen a film recently and I don’t think I will stomach the book as well. Stephen King is a hit or miss with me. I enjoyed The Shining only mildly.
Rob
I remember really loving the movie. I liked the book, but I felt like it dragged quite a bit. I’m not sure if that’s because I already knew the plot, though.
Yeah, I haven’t had much luck with Stephen King so far. although I’ve only read this and Rose Madder.