Headphones and Notebooks

If you’ve seen last week’s post, you’ll see that I’ve got out of the habit of reading. And that made me feel a little guilty, though I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Why should I feel bad about not enjoying reading as much as I used to? Why should I apologise for my tastes changing? Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about it this past week, and I’ve worked out just why I feel so bad about not reading as much. People think reading is better than watching telly. How often have we had that argument with someone about a book that’s been turned into a TV show or film? You know the one; the argument about whether the visual media stands up to the books. There’s admittedly a certain snobbery from people around novels turned into television, a sort of arrogance that only a true fan would have read the book before seeing the TV series. Is reading really better than watching TV, though? And should people be looked down on for not reading the books their new favourite show is based on? Of co

'It's not you, it's me,' I whisper, as I stare at the book I've been reading for well over a year. The book is Good Omens  by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. And I love it. I really, really do. So why is it taking me so long to read it? Well, as I've already told the book, the problem is me. I can't read like I used to, like I did as a child. As recently as 2013 I read Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane  in something like five and a half hours. I devoured it. But in more recent years I've found myself lacking the concentration, the discipline. And it makes me feel a little guilty. It shouldn't make me feel guilty. I read what I want, when I want. I've bought several graphic novels and such in the past few years and always read them as soon as I get them. It's just the bigger books- the novels, and the non-fiction- I'm having issues with. I had to read so much for my undergrad degree in Creative and Media Writing, and I&#

As a kid, I grew up watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons. One of my favourites was the  Scooby-Doo franchise. Now, I admit, I hadn't really sat down to watch any incarnation of the show since What's New, Scooby-Doo?  finished back in 2006. But I've always been fond, and a little intrigued by the different versions, and recently fancied watching the show again. I'd heard mixed things about Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated . Some people loved it. Some hated it. I'd heard things about it that made me want to watch it, and things that made me want to run a mile. But it looked interesting, and when I found out it was on Amazon Prime while watching Scooby Doo, Where Are You? , I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a go. Boy, am I glad I did. So without further ado, here are five reasons why you should watch the show. 1. It answered a lot of questions 6 year old me had I don't know about you guys, but I had a lot of questions about Scooby-Doo  as a child. Where

When I saw that Boom! Studios was rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer , I didn’t really know what to think. Part of me was intrigued to see what they would do with a modern reinvention of the characters. But another part of me was worried that I’d hate how they changed the characters. So I ordered the first issue, intent on reading it over and deciding whether or not I liked it before investing in the series as a whole. By the time my issue arrived, I’d seen some comments about it online. They had released the new character designs some weeks previously, and while most of the new designs had been met with excitement, Willow’s new design had left some fans a little bereft. While the design did look Willow-y enough, it seemed more based on Willow’s looks in later seasons- or more particularly, college Willow. Yet the comics were proudly taking us back to the start, to the corridors of Sunnydale High. TV’s Willow had spent her high school years in fluffy, pastel jumpers, dungarees, s