what i'm up to...

okay...

as i mentioned on friday, inspired by something craig does on his blog fairly regularly, i thought i'd let you know what i've been reading/watching/listening to lately and, hopefully, finding out what YOU'RE reading/watching/listening to!
i love hearing about cool things that friends and family have been into and have been enjoying enough to recommend and, like all of us i think, am thrilled when i hear that someone enjoyed something i suggested.
what's with that, anyway? i guess maybe we like to know that our tastes are popular or that we are somehow on the cutting edge of books or music, movies or television. i know that, when i was younger, it seemed that i knew all the cool new bands and heard the cool new songs before everyone else and so was known as the go-to guy for music.
that, of course, fades. but if you're the cat who turned someone on to something--music, tv shows, what have you--then you're the one they associate with it for a long time. and that's kinda nice.


so i think i mentioned once or twice here on the blog that sharon and i, starting back in october during our trip down to richmond to see matt and suzanne, were listening to the millennium trilogy--the girl with the dragon tattoo books--and were liking them very much. we've since finished them and have watched the film version of the first two (awaiting the third to come out on dvd) and are curious to see how our hollywood treats them as well. great books! read them or listen to them--suspenseful and intricately woven.


after that, once again entrenched in a pattern of audio book obsession, i followed scott's advice and downloaded the first entry of the hunger games, another trilogy aimed at the young adult, harry potter, twilight demo, about a non-definite future where the government stages a survivalist reality show where 2 dozen teens are forced to fight to the death. i dug the story and enjoyed all three installments, though, at times, i could definitely tell that i wasn't the target audience and felt that the author relied too many times on the same devices and plot twists. my 15 year old nephew loved the first book (we'll see how he feels about the others...) and we'll be the first ones in line when the movie comes out next year.




for my birthday, my friend beth got me season one of mad men. craig and matt and everyone else had raved about it and i was dying to see it, just hadn't gotten around to picking it up. for christmas she gave me season 2 and so, since new years day, we have been watching them non-stop. yes, obsessed. that's how i get--give me ALL of it, i need to see it all. and right now. we just finished the last of season 2 last night and i am praying that season three is in the mailbox today when i go out to check in a little while. love it! love it!
(and, despite her rather shaky stint as host on SNL, am i the only one who thinks january jones should be playing sue storm in a new FF movie...? she's perfect!)






admittedly, i've only read /listened to one other book by bill bryson and that was his reflections of growing up in 1950s america called the adventures of the thunderbolt kid. but, based on that heartfelt and informative opus, i will say here and now that i'd follow this guy anywhere. his ability to write about history, science, pop culture... just about anything and make it not only interesting, but thought-provoking, makes him a truly unique voice in literature today. i'm listening to his newest offering, at home, a study on the history of the home and all the things around us that we have learned to take for granted. it's fascinating. and read by the author, which i always think is an extra treat.






on the actual reading front, i was recently lucky enough to snag a couple of gently aged copies of the old sci-fi magazine, amazing stories on ebay...









...and i got for christmas stephen king's latest collection of short stories, full dark, no stars, which i can't wait to get to ( i'm almost done with the short story collection christian gave me for my birthday, voices from the night, featuring authors like william f. nolan, rex miller, jack ketchum, and rick hautala, to name few...)




music~? well, there was lots of christmas music on the radio these past months, a few errant downloads from itunes, mostly of a motown/girl group nature, the latest offering from gorillaz, and this lovely disc of righteous rockabilly, the kudzu ranch by southern culture on the skids.




so, that's some of mine--what have YOU been up to?
lemme know and i'll
smell ya later~!
todd