Despite the hectic place of life lately, I have been finding the time to consume a bit of media. In fact, I've probably read more books over the past twelve months than I have read in the past twelve years. In addition to that, 
As I said, I have been reading a lot more lately, so much so, that my wife decided it would be a good idea to get me a Kindle Paperwhite for my upcoming 50th birthday. I honestly had no problem reading books on my phone, but she felt I needed something "better for my eyes" I think she put it. The fact is, I have gotten to the point where I have been reading a physical book and an electronic book simultaneously. If you told my family that, they would probably laugh at you as they can attest to how "reading adverse" I was growing up.
As far as physical books go, I have been working through the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. You might be familiar with Bosch from the successful Amazon Prime series starting Titus Welliver. Having watched the entire series, I was worried the books might be too similar, but that definitely isn't the case. There are some pretty significant differences between the books and the show that make it easy to pick them up and read them without feeling like you have been through this before.
They did a lot of side character development in the show that make sense for TV, but not so much for books. There are a ton of books in the series and I think I am only on the fourth one right now. We keep picking them up cheap at used bookstores or from the Thriftbooks website. They have been in print long enough that you usually don't have to pay more than a couple dollars for them.
If I were a faster reader, I would just check them out from the library, but I know I wouldn't be able to finish them without having to renew the book several times.
On the Kindle side of things, I just finished a series of books called The Dawning of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler. The first book is called The Druid, and there are two more books in the series. This is actually a prequel series to some other series that he has. After finishing these three books, I thought about reading some of the other ones, but I decided to hold off.
If you are looking for a decent story about someone coming into their own magical powers, I would recommend this series, but I don't think you are going to find any themes that haven't been covered before. It's pretty run of the mill stuff with a few unique twists here and there.
After I finished those books, I started reading a science fiction book called Nightfall. It actually started off as a short story written by Isaac Asimov back in 1941, but more recently Robert Silverberg has worked to build it into a complete book. I am about 70% done with it at this point and it has been a really fascinating read.
The basic premise is that these people live on a plant with something like five or six suns, so it is basically daytime all the time, when darkness finally comes, how will they handle it? This book has been really good to read and I can understand why it is such a classic. I also understand why they felt the rest of the story needed to be told. I'm glad I picked up the full book versus just the original short story.
As you might guess, that book was the inspiration for the photos in this post.
On the television side of things, we have been watching a lot of the NCAA softball tournament, but we have also found time to watch non sports stuff.
I nearly turned it off when it started off with a talking octopus, but don't worry, it's not a real talking octopus, it's more a view into the octopuses mind. Anyway, it turned out to be a really great movie. It's a little sad, a little funny, and just a really good watch. You could maybe even watch it with your family if you kids are a little older. There are some mature themes like suicide, drug use, and stuff like that. I've gotta say, for the Star Trek fans out there, Colm Meaney was great in this.
In addition to our regular shows like Abbot Elementary, Tracker, High Potential, Will Trent, and a few others, we also picked up a new show called RJ Decker. The first season was only 9 episodes, so it was a pretty quick watch for us. We maybe watched one episode per night after we got home from work. It's about an ex-con who becomes a private investigator down in Florida. The characters are fun and the premise is pretty interesting. I just hope they don't cancel it early like they tend to do lately.
Personally, I've been watching episodes of St. Denis which is farcical comedy about people working at a hospital in the vein of The Office. I wouldn't consider it as good as The Office, but it makes me laugh occasionally, so I don't mind it. My wife wasn't interested in it after watching the first episode. Though she doesn't like The Office either.
More importantly, I have been watching the latest season of Dark Winds which is a show that was started by Robert Redford and George R R Martin or whatever his name is from Game of Thrones. It follows tribal police officers on a reservation back in the 70's and it has been a really good watch. I think this is the third or fourth season now and as I said, it has been phenomenal.
I've actually got a huge backlog of shows to watch now that I have been reading more which I am not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. It stresses me out a bit, but I like the fact that I am engaging my imagination a bit more.
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