Checking in on my movie/book goals
How am I doing? Quite badly! Also: some stuff I've been into lately
I don’t know how it feels for you guys, but to me it seems like this year is flying by. I turn 36 this month and although I usually love my birthday (the chance to reflect, another opportunity to set goals, I get to go have dinner and a cocktail and a cake that I didn’t make), this year I’m feeling a little weird about it. As cliché as it is at this point, I’m blaming it on the pandemic. As a very goal-oriented person, I can usually look back on the past year and feel like I’ve accomplished a lot of things. Note that I didn’t say they were big or impressive things, just things. (“Kerry Winfrey: She Did Some Things”-my tombstone.)
But man, looking back over the past year, I just feel kinda queasy and unsettled because I didn’t do much…because I’ve been in survival mode! I hate that term—like, what am I surviving? I’m not a rugged outdoorswoman over here. But given that we don’t have a ton of childcare, and that last year we didn’t have any childcare, and that I’ve really filled up all the margins of my time with determinedly keeping on my “book a year” schedule and not going too far past my deadlines…well, I haven’t had the time or, more importantly, the mental capacity to do much else.
Which is all a longwinded way of saying that I’m doing quite poorly when it comes to this year’s movie goals! I’ve barely been watching anything and I hate that. Mental Health Movie Night is only sometimes a priority in the way that my own mental health is only sometimes a priority. Here’s my progress on the goals I wrote about at the beginning of the year.
Continue watching films in the TCM Essentials books. Oh, I haven’t watched a single one.
Watch at least ten films that aren’t in English. I’ve seen one.
Do the Criterion Challenge on Letterboxd. Well, I’ve watched a lot of Criterion movies, as is my wont, but I haven’t really paid attention to how they fit into the challenge.
Watch Harvey. I did this one! Harvey was great—so much funnier and sillier than I expected. Highly recommended.
As for my reading goals? Not to brag, but I’m crushing it. I don’t know that I’m really achieving my goal of “reading INSTEAD of scrolling through mind-numbing threads on Twitter and making myself mad,” but I am reading a lot. Last year I got back into thrillers, reading The Plot and Final Girls extremely quickly. It reminded me of being a kid and tearing through Stephen King books, and I realized I don’t have that feeling a ton these days. And I missed it! So I’ve been reading (or listening to) a lot of thrillers and other page turner type books (for example: Jodi Piccoult’s Wish You Were Here, which is women’s fiction but the kind of book that makes you feel kind of obsessive when you read it).
So yes, I’m actually on track to my goal of 100 books. One thing that helps is that my son and I have been reading chapter books together. I don’t count the picture books we read (otherwise I’d be reading hundreds/thousands of books a year), but I do count chapter books, so soon I’ll be able to add The House at Pooh Corner to my list.
And I have been utilizing the library, although mostly the digital collection. I get a lot of audiobooks through Libby and a ton of e-books. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should confess that I lost a library book for the first time ever and there’s currently a block on my card until I call them and pay for it (I’ll do it today!!!). This has filled me with deep shame, obviously, but not enough to call them in a timely manner and pay for it. Sometimes one just has to cosplay as an insouciant, forgetful female lead in a rom-com. Perhaps I’ll neglect my library fines and inadvertently change the life of a man simply by being myself! I’ll be sure to ask my husband if I’m inspiring him with my quirky carelessness.
Okay, I need to reiterate that I actually feel very bad about losing that library book. The library, which has given so much to me, only to have me treat its belongings this way!
As for my last reading goal, reading the books I have…well, the less said about that, the better. Unfortunately, my life is one of those memes libraries and publishers share about buying too many books and not reading them.
When I’m not completely failing at all my goals, I’ve been reading, listening to, and occasionally even watching things. Including:
Harry Styles, As It Was
This song has been on repeat the entire time I’ve been writing this newsletter. Can you feel it? I waited a bit after it came out to listen to it because I needed to be emotionally ready, and now I think it might be the only good song in the world. Sorry to the other songs.
Normal People
One of my favorite things to do is pick up a book after it has been through several hype/backlash/backlash to the backlash cycles, so it was the perfect time to read Normal People. This book was a cross between A Little Life and People We Meet on Vacation, and I know that seems like a nonsensical description, but I also know that I’m right. I thought it was going to be much sadder than it was, but the ending was very hopeful! Also it’s so funny to me that people keep talking about how Sally Rooney’s books are sexy…I mean, maybe the other ones are sexier. I wouldn’t know. But, uh…you guys know you can read romance novels, right? Like, books where the sex isn’t intertwined with trauma (no offense to trauma books, which I also love)? I didn’t find this book very sexy but that’s okay, I still loved it and can’t stop thinking about it. Sally Rooney does whatever she wants with punctuation and I find that inspiring.
Bright Star
One of my little pet peeves is when people shit-talk the first season of Parks and Rec and specifically call out the character of Mark Brendanawicz, as played by Paul Schneider, because I simply cannot stand for anyone to ever speak an ill word about Paul Schneider. George Washington? Elizabethtown? The Family Stone? Any part you give him, he makes it good. He left that show for a reason, that reason being it wasn’t good enough for him!!
Anyway, he’s in Bright Star wearing some bonkers pants and he’s great. I love this movie. It’s like a beautiful, sad dream. When it ended, Netflix asked me if I wanted to watch the TV show Is It Cake? No, Netflix. I need a moment.
Did you know my next book, Just Another Love Song, comes out in August? Well, prepare yourself to hear about it a lot between now and August 2nd. I was so lucky to receive this lovely quote from Beth O’Leary, an author I adore. You can read more about the book and preorder it here.
I’ll see you next week, when things should be less disjointed. I might even have time to watch some stuff this week. My husband recently informed me that he hadn’t even heard of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, so I need to fix that soon (maybe this is my chance to change his life with my irreverent personality/movie taste!). Also by next week I will have definitely paid that library fine. I mean, probably. See you next Monday.
When the library started letting me pay fines online, my shame-level decreased a thousand percent. I love you, libraries.