MARCH ROUNDUP

Obviously, I haven't posted much this week. It's been fairly busy for a spring break but that's okay - it's been a lot of fun. I have a backlog of things I want to post about but I thought I'd at least throw up an overview of March for the time being.

I finished a book started in February and then read 4 books this month, bringing my total for the year to 8. I do feel good about doubling my output from the first two months of the year but my goal of 40 seems unreachable. I should have 10 books done by this point to have a hope. Still, I should end up in the mid-30s if I can be a bit more productive. Not that it matters in the end, as long as I enjoy what I'm reading. And that's been the case so far in 2007.

I only read 10 stories in March - the second half of Fast Forward 1 - and that was back at the beginning of the month. One side effect of doubling my book-reading was a dropoff in reading F&SF and Asimov's...I now have three issues of each piled up to read. That should mean a higher total in April; the year-to-date total is 61, about 20 a month.

I read 24 comics - 20 single issues and 4 trades - to bring the year's total to 57. Pretty much an explosion of comics reading. 3 of those trades are part of my "Hellboy Project," which are some of the posts I need to do. April's total could be very different, as I'm pretty close to going back to reading only trades. It's been great reading stuff as it comes out but I just don't have the space to keep a pile of single issues and I'd like to have the good stuff in a collection anyway, so it makes sense just to wait. We'll see how it plays out.

I bought or downloaded 9 new CDs in March, bringing my total for the year to 24. Only two of those were downloads, actually, but a couple were only EPs so it's not as bad as it seems. Does it seem bad? Anyway, I also downloaded 3 separate songs (from M. Ward's To Go Home EP), bringing the song total to 7. I know for sure that one of the albums from this month - Arcade Fire's Neon Bible - will end up on my top ten of the year. It's that good.

I just saw "Blades of Glory" in the theater yesterday, which means I actually saw 2 movies in March! That's gotta be a record. And 3 movies in the theater for the year is really good by my usual standards.

As for DVDs? Hmmm. I've watched Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny and a good portion of the extras (just commentaries and the Best Buy bonus disc to go). I finally finished watching 24 Season 2 and a number of the extras (just commentaries and deleted scenes to go). Grant and I completed Superman Animated Series Volume 1 after about 7 months and Batman Animated Series Volume 1 after even longer; now we're into Justice League Unlimited Season 2. We saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe via Netflix and I can't remember if I watched another movie from Netflix or not, so I guess that's that.

What else? I'm still behind on magazines - I'm currently reading the Mar. 12 issue of Newsweek and last week's Entertainment Weekly. I just finished SI's Baseball Preview issue and have ESPN The Magazine's as well. Plus, those magazines I mentioned earlier.

That's March for you... more information than you could ever want to know about my pop culture habits.