Combo cause was too frantic to get them done separately.
Books:
I read the next two books in the Alex Versus series, ‘Cursed‘ and ‘Taken‘. I’m still not really that into them but I think it’s becoming a bit more interesting. Writing can be a bit repetitive but as far as a pretty low maintenance read that you can knock out in a day goes, you could do worse. I also read ‘Career of Evil‘, the third Cormoran Strike novel. I just really enjoy them, they remind me of why I loved Nancy Drew as a kid. In the interest of getting a bit more on top of things, I’ve also been delving into the more self-help, arm chair psychology side of things. So far I’ve finished ‘Unplugged: The Essential Digital Detox Plan‘ which was more about mindfulness than any really useful insight into the obsession with digital life/social media. Nothing really there that I hadn’t heard before. I also read Marie Kondo’s much lauded book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up‘. Found this surprisingly insightful and I’ve already tackled my wardrobe using the principle with great results. Major obstacle for me is that it feels very wasteful, but donating as much as I can to charity sort of helps circumvent that. Finally, I read ‘How Trump Thinks: His Tweets and the Birth of a New Political Language‘ by Peter Oborne. It’s basically just a chronicle of Trump’s tweets over his Twitter lifespan and just reinforces how batshit crazy the man is.
Music:
Let’s be real, most of December is dedicated to listening to pop covers of Christmas Carols. But here is a combo list for the two months.
Movies:
Murder on the Orient Express: Love a bit of Agatha Christie and Kenneth Branagh so this was an enjoyable wee adaptation. Nothing revolutionary but inoffensive. Thoroughly enjoyed the costuming.
Justice League: I actually forgot I saw this which should really tell you everything you need to know about it. It wasn’t bad…time passed pretty quickly and as a generic action film it was fine. But it wasn’t good either. DC just haven’t laid the groundwork the way that Marvel have and in the end, you don’t really care about any of these people. Also, Superman has always been problematic in that he’s way to overpowered and it kind of ruins everything? Also Aquaman is a ridiculous hero. But he was pretty funny in this. And the Flash is funny but I just…I don’t care. Marvel is the better franchise. Much like Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman is the best thing in this. She’s a wonderful character and the only one who feels really fleshed out. They should just cut their losses and only make her films from now on.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Spare me the whining that’s come off the back of this. Aren’t hardcore fans just the absolute pits? Probably a bit long and self-indulgent, but I really enjoyed it. Enjoyed the humour and thought the message it was sending about shades of grey, futility vs hope and the short-sightedness of heroes was very refreshing. Plus the lightsaber duel was epic. Don’t get the fuss about Adam Driver though. Bleh. Hoping to go see it again!