Oh look, here is me starting a new “must do”! This time, I vow to write a “week in review” every weekend, to summarise what I have done, what I have read, what I have watched and what I have learnt. Don’t expect any profound, mindful observations here. This is just a chilled look at the week past.
What I have watched
Not much, obviously, because there is just no time! I have a whole list of shows I need to binge watch to catch up with popular culture, but I honestly do not know when I am going to get to do taht (given that I had earmarked December for this and December is loooong past). Nevertheless, this week we watched:
One episode of The Circle, which is a mix of reality TV/contest/social media on Netflix. Did nothing for me, but everyone else I speak to has loved it and is commenting on the “utterly fascinating” insigh into todays social space. I think it’s stupid and pointless.
All the available episodes of The Block, Australia, on DSTV catchup. Can’t believe we caught this so late…we only managed to watch the last seven or so episodes, and will watch the final one tonight. I loved the SA version of this (eons back), and would have liked to see this one from the start. If you don’t know, The Block takes five couples, gives them a blank unfinished house and some money, and gets them to complete it in 12 weeks, with challenges and prizes along the way. At the end, all houses go on auction, and the one that sells for the most wins. It’s fun to watch because it’s so real…the couple usually have little experience in renovating, have to manage budgets, contractors etc, have to do A LOT of the work themselves….and then also have to manage each other. Great, mindless, fun.
A couple of episodes of The Morning Show, AppleTv. Love this. I think Jennifer Aniston is great in it. On the one hand I want to binge watch the whole season, on the other hand I ma happy to just relax and watch it slowly. This is the show I watched by myself this week, so I do enjoy the quiet, uninterrupted time.
What I have read
So, I never understand how people can say they have “read” an audio book, but then again I never listen to audio books anyway. Until this week, when I was somehow persuaded by some obviously well designed ad to take a trial of audible.com. I chose “Take control of your life” by Mel Robbins, which seemed apt for the beginning of the year, and I must say I am actually quite enjoying it. I am sure if I was actually reading it instead of listening to it I would be finished by now, but the audio book came very in handy when I had to wait for 4 hours to renew my driver’s license. Anyway, the book is made up of about 6 coaching sessions for people who have various issues they need to overcome (Procrastination, fear of standing up for yourself etc). Even if none of the specific issues resonate with you, I guarantee you that you will find gems in this book. The author narrates herself, and is very easy on the ear, as a bonus.
I’m still reading Loon Shots, by Safi Bachal. The book is about “How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries“. I loved the title! The book is ok. I think the takeaways are actually quite worthwhile but the book goes into loooong build ups of the conclusions, giving the reader a detailed history of World War 2 strategy, for example, and sometimes I feel as if the author is just desperate to fill up space. Also (and this irks me greatly) even despite the long build ups, there are many points in the book where the author will casually throw in a takeaway, conclusion or “fact”, and I am bewildered as to how he got to that point. I think this book would be a terrible one to “listen to” because it would just get boring. But, to be fair, I am looking forward to finishing the book and “re-reading” the important bits, because I do think there is a lot of wisdom here. I hope to write a post on this book at some point.
Articles. I have read many of these, from The Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Medium, Fortune etc. Unfortunately I don’t (yet) have a good way of tagging them or recording my reading history, so no detaails available this week. Maybe next week it will be better? 🙂
