OCTOBER 2008 ROUNDUP

Suddenly, there's two months left in the year. On Thursday we were exactly 4 weeks from Thanksgiving, 8 weeks from Christmas, and 9 weeks from 2009. Crazy. Well, let's get to rounding up...

I read 1.6 books in October, bringing my total for the year to 43.6. Why is it .6? Well, I'm about 60% done with Sideways in Crime (I also read Lord Tophet). I hit last weekend hoping to get it finished by last night or at least today but I realized there was no way with my schedule. So, I switched to reading a trade and I'll dive back into the book today. I hate that my book reading has slowed down so much (this is my lowest book total this year) but there's not a whole lot that can be done. I am still ahead of pace for 48 books on the year. Last year I read 6 books in October and had read 35 on the year.

I read 19 stories in October, bringing my total on the year to 199. Those stories came from the Aug. issues of Asimov's and F&SF, as well as the afore-mentioned Sideways in Crime. Last October I read 12 stories and had read 157 on the year.

I read 4 comics in October, 3 trades (The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before, Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, and Ex Machina Vol. 7: Ex Cathedra) and 1 single issue (FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS #2), which brings my total for the year to 79 comics (31 trades). Last year I didn't read any comics in October and was holding steady at 109 comics read (23 trades).

I downloaded 7 CDs and 1 song in October, bringing my total to 74 discs and 9 songs. I'll cover the eMusic downloads in a separate post - the other CD was the new Mountain Goats EP, Satanic Messiah, and the song was "The Kingdom" by John Vanderslice. Last October I got or downloaded 8 CDs and had reached a total of 90 for the year.

I didn't see any movies in October and my total for the year is holding at 7. I didn't see any movies last October but my total was 14 for the year at that point.

And we're done.

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

That song was in my head this morning and I'm not sure why. Sure, I did watch Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: The 30th Anniversary Concert on Friday night (that's the extra DVD in the big documentary I watched a couple weeks ago) but that song wasn't played in the concert. It's also been a while since I listened to Southern Accents. But there I was on the lifeguard stand, filling in for someone who had a sick child, and that song was running through my head. Weird.

Last Thursday NBC ran the last two original episodes they had left of Chuck; we watched one that night and one the next. That is such a good show and I hope the strike ends soon to get more of that show or at least a full second season. It's got humor and action and character work and it's smart and fun. It's easily my favorite new show of the year.

I also got back to a favorite comic last week as well, with Walking Dead Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life. It's been out for at least six months but my shop didn't order any until December and then I obviously didn't get around to it right away (I have Vol. 7 sitting in my pull file too). It's not a fun comic. In fact, it's very dark and this batch of issues really hits that home - torture and death and people starting to lose their humanity abound. There are one or two bright spots, at least, and the comic retains its high quality. I'm ready to read the next one in the next few weeks.