Reading, Watching, Listening

What I’ve been reading: Issues of Doctor Who Magazine and Doctor Who Insider, Doctor Who comics on my iPad (do you see a theme emerging?), and I just started The Age of Dreamingby Nina Revoyr. I’ve been quite consumed by all things Doctor Who lately, thanks to the new season, but I decided to start this book by Revoyr. I’m a huge fan of silent movies, so when my friend mentioned it on her book blog, I had to pick it up. It’s about a Japanese silent movie star named Jun Nakayama telling the story of his life 40 years later to a newspaper reporter. I’m only two chapters in, but I’m already loving it. The narrator’s voice is a bit stiff and overly formal in spots, but I’m guessing that has more to do with the history/time of the subject matter than the author’s writing style. It’s certainly not a perfect book, but I’m still enjoying it immensely. I’ll just pretend I didn’t notice those weird transitions between time frames and the absurdity of some of the plot elements.

What I’m Reading Next: I’m definitely going to tackle Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, which is an anthology of 22 apocalyptic stories by authors like Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Kress, and more. It’s been on my Amazon wish list for a while, and all this talk about the rapture lately has rekindled my desire to read it. I’ve always enjoyed a good end-of-the-world, dystopian, or natural-disasterish novel, so I’m expecting to love the snot out of Wastelands. After I finish that, I might gravitate toward a Cristina Garcia (The Lady Matador’s Hotel) or Julia Alvarez (Return to Sender) novel – I need to give my Latina authors some much-needed reading time.

What I’ve Been watching: Doctor Who, season 6. LOVE IT. Eccleston will always be my Doctor, but Matt Smith is inching his way up there on my list. Amy is less obnoxious this season, and I even find myself warming up to River Song. I know, I know, blasphemy – but she’s kind of bad ass this season. I think that may have something to do with the fact that she’s not saying “spoilers!” every ten seconds. The last episode, The Doctor’s Wife written by Neil Gaiman (!!!), was super sexy and epic and, quite frankly, a Whovian’s wet dream – my favorite of the season thus far. The dark, fairy-tale feel of season six is quite to my liking; I know a lot of fans have been complaining about how “different” Moffat’s style is compared to Russell T. Davies, but that’s exactly what I like about Doctor Who. It’s constantly changing and always keeping you on your toes. I like a variety of styles and genres, so as long as the Doctor is there, I’ll watch it.

I’m also watching Warehouse 13, which is a show on the SyFy channel. I’m almost done with season one, and it’s just okay. Too many cheesy one-liners and it’s trying too hard to be Bones meets The X-Files. Bleh. I probably won’t download season two. It’s not nearly as good as Eureka.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the BBC show “Being Human”, so I decided to give that a go. I’ve watched the first three episodes, and I’m liking it a lot. I’m not typically a fan of vampires, but it doesn’t annoy me here. The most interesting story line, by far, is with the ghost. I’m trying to get my mom to watch this too so we can discuss our thoughts. She loves vampires, so I’m sure she’ll love this.

What I’m Watching Next: Probably season 2 and 3 of Being Human, and I’ll try to get into Smallville. I tried watching it back when it first came on, but couldn’t get into it. I’m a massive Superman fan, so I should give it another shot – right? I have a lot to catch up on. Also, that new show “Once Upon a Time” looks like it could be good. It’s on ABC, so it will probably get cancelled before the end of the first season, but I’ll watch anyway.

What I’ve Been Listening To: Madonna’s Immaculate Collection, Christopher Eccleston reading a very abridged version of The Book Thief (such a lovely, heartbreaking story – I purchased the unabridged book), The B52’s Funplex, and STILL trying to get through The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo audio book. It’s a chore and I’ll never keep all those characters straight in my head.

What have you been watching and reading lately?