As always, let’s start with the numbers.

Media consumed # (remaining/total)
Movies Watched 2 (103/161)
Books Read: 10 (102/179)
Comics Read: 50 (300/856)
Podcast Episodes Remaining: 140

So the holidays have begun.

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorites, mainly because it’s an entire holiday devoted to gluttony and sloth.  Okay, there’s the whole food/family/togetherness angle, but really, I got to spend Thursday sitting on my ass reading and watching football.  I did manage to get out of the house a few times, one of which was going on a walk with my son because there’s only so many hours of video games he can play and so many hours of television that I can watch.  Plus, considering Saturday was spent running around and getting some of my last few Christmas gifts and Sunday was a washout wherein we decorated the tree, it was nice to get out.

I did, however, indulge in some self-purchasing on Black Friday via Comixology’s $5 digital graphic novel sale.  I wound up spending $20 on some pretty choice books, three of which I’ve already read and that were on my watch list for a while.  I’ve also continued to dive into the last-chance back issue bins at my LCS in hopes of crossing things off my back issue want list.  It’s part of a newer strategy that does involve getting more but is more purposeful as I try to pare down the want list and take advantage of my LCS’ much more accessible back issues.  Not that they weren’t accessible before, but in their previous location, the back issues were not very well organized and that meant time spent flipping through just about any bin and not just the random cheapie bins. So seeing them organized and seeing these last-chance quarter bins has actually motivated me to go on one of those classic back issue hunts, and with the regular bins having books priced between $1-$5, I’ll only be picking up an issue or two every once in a while.  But I have been plugging holes in my collection pretty nicely lately, and even though my “total” has gone up since the beginning of the year, my remainder has dipped below fewer than half of what I had to read.

When it comes to books, half of the nine books that I added to my total this month were related to either my podcasting ventures or to professional development for work.  I don’t mind when it’s the latter, especially since my school librarian is awesome and she runs a book club that helps us all earn PD/relicensure points.  So I get to read multi-genre literature for work and not just dry education books.  I really should review some of them on either this site or Required Reading; then again, I’m behind on reviews like crazy.

The unlistened podcasts are reducing a little, even if I still find myself picking up a new one here or there.  Thankfully, some of the shows I listen to are on hiatus or are ones where I pick and choose the episodes I want to listen to, or do not have a weekly episode release.  This coming month should be a slow one in that regard, mainly because I tend to spend December listening to Christmas music, although I guess an episode of Who’s Who is a good break from “Jingle Bells.”

At some point in December, of course–probably during my winter break–I will wind up doing an entire recount/recalibration of these collections.  That means flipping through that longbox of the unread, scanning my bookcases, and going over what movies remain.  That will also mean maybe setting up some reading/watching projects and maybe making this blog look a little more put together.

In the meantime, if you’d like to hear me talk about mental health, you can check out my conversation with Rob Kelly over on the Fire and Water Podcast Network:  FW Presents Geek Fitness 3 — Mental Health.  It was a great conversation and I’m very happy about how the episode came out and about all the positive response it got.

So until next time, I hope anyone reading this is having a stress-free holiday season so far and I can’t wait to see how things have gone with my “look back” at the year when December 31 rolls around.