What I have been listening to, reading and watching lately

Listening to:

I have posted many times about some of the podcasts I enjoy, and I do tend to have a bit of a routine with them- some suit a commute, others I save for my runs. The podcast I am totally loving at the moment is the Judge John Hodgman Podcast– if you have not heard of it basically people take their domestic issues to him, give evidence, and then he gives his ruling. It is very funny, and as someone who loves an insight into the lives of other normal people (that is a polite way of saying I am nosy), I find that aspect of it brilliant. They are usually pretty “small” issues, such as who should feed the dog, whether you should ask permission before borrowing clothes from your sister and so on, but the way the show talks the issues through makes it entertaining.

Reading:

A while back I read Mr Mercedes, which is now being made into a TV show (or film- I can’t remember)- I won’t give away too many spoilers but it totally freaked me out because some of the terror events in the news could have been lifted directly from the book, and I was reading it while some of the events were going on.

After reading a few other detective novels (the latest Roy Grace one, and an old Bosch one) I fancied something a bit different, so now I am part-way through A Year of Living Danishly. I’d heard the author on a podcast recently and thought it sounded very interesting indeed. One word of warning- it will lead to cravings of cinnamon rolls and all things cosy.

I popped into Gail’s Bakery and noticed these cinnamon rolls- I was good enough to only eat half and save the other half for Andy- this took some willpower I assure you!

Watching:

After loving the athletics it was a bit of a come-down to watch the documentary Icarus (about the state-sponsored doping in Russia)- it was very interesting to see how it all unfolded, but also totally depressing that probably most drug-cheats won’t be caught, and that so many athletes were denied their medals at the time because of this.

Another brilliant documentary was The Keepers- this was several parts and was a bit like The Jinx or Making a Murderer- people were investigating the death of their teacher (who was a nun) as it happened years ago and was not solved. It was similar to Spotlight and was pretty infuriating, but very interesting.

For more light-hearted watching we’ve been going back through some old comedies. The order of watching these US comedies (for me anyway) went like this: 30 Rock- Parks and Rec– Master of None- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and then parallel to that for something a bit more off the wall, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. We also watched Pitch Perfect 2 the other night (and did you know that John Hodgman- see above- is in it?).

What have you been reading, watching or listening to recently?