Every Sunday since mid-May 2020, I have been taking my own personal Sabbath, where I tune out of the news and social media and turn off my ringer and all notifications on my phone. This past weekend, I tuned out for two days and participated in a readathon on Instagram, #october8in2, to read 8 hours in two days. What follows is what I read for the readathon:
I only finished one book: Cocaine Blues, the first Phryne Fisher mystery, by Kerry Greenwood. But I started a second, Flying Too High, the second Phryne Fisher mystery, also by Greenwood, and continued another, Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. By the end of Sunday, I was about halfway through the former and I am about two-thirds through the latter, which I started last week.
I tried restarting where I left off this morning in Flying Too High and decided to parachute out of it after I decided I didn’t care for the flight path it was taking.
It was time for Phryne to call in the debts that were owed her after the affair of the Cocaine Blues.
That opening sentence at the beginning of Chapter 8 was the place I finally decided to deploy the parachute,o since nowhere in the previous book did any of the characters refer to the case as “the Cocaine Blues.” I even did a search on the ebook to see if the phrase appeared anywhere beyond titles or an epigraph, and it didn’t. To me, that is laziness by the author referring to the title she gave the case.
The first one held my interest mainly because I recognized characters from the TV series as they were introduced. In both books, I didn’t like the way Greenwood was jumping back and forth between two cases that were unrelated. I just want one case and didn’t, and don’t, appreciate the distraction of a minor case.
I had a lot of other issues with the second one, but since I am moving on to read something else, I don’t feel like hashing over those issues. I’d rather just move on to another book and not waste any more thoughts on a series I won’t be continuing.
A series that I wish I could continue is Cold Case, which has been available for free with commercials on The Roku Channel. I only learned yesterday that the show from the 2000s will no longer be available on the channel after the end of the month. Earlier this year, I just rediscovered it after not having seen it in years. I’m only in the third season and with seven seasons and more than 100 episodes left to watch, I’m not going to make it through them by the end of the month.
Instead, I’ve decided I’ll try to watch most of the episodes with higher than a rating of 8 on IMDb. It still leaves a lot, but I also have searched on Reddit and found lists of favorite episodes by other fans to help me narrow down what I choose to watch. Unfortunately, because the show used a lot of popular music, it never has come out on DVD because of licensing issues and probably never will.
Aside: I wish other shows like Northern Exposure were available on DVD with the original soundtrack too. Years ago, we bought a collection only to discover the music, which was a huge part of the show was missing.
I’ll leave you with a song from the recently released Super Deluxe Edition of Sign o’ The Times by Prince, which I just am beginning to delve into:
Still an unfinished person... 
I feel like we should watch Shitt’s Creek. Northern Exposure was a great show. I am in the mood for sweet, nostalgic shows like Newhart or The Wonder Years. I need something to get me out of my head and off the news.
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Northern Exposure was a great show…with the original music. Binge-watch Schitt’s Creek this weekend and ignore the news all weekend. Sadly, it’s not going anywhere.
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Eight hours in two days could be doable. I’m on Instagram and I’m on Twitter, but I can never keep up with anything on those forms of social media.
I should look and see if my library system has Northern Exposure. We’re nearing the end of Seinfeld, and I’m not sure where we are going next. A comedy is a place that is Not-Here-Not-This-Time sounds good.
Got to go gather things up again. Another hurricane.
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I really can’t either. Unfortunately, Northern Exposure doesn’t have the original music, which really enhanced the show… And another one? Be safe, Deb. It was good seeing you the other night at the meditation event.
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I just started The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and after that, I just bought Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn… I’m trying to get some less typical settings and stories right now. (and darn! Northern Exposure was a good show. I miss that one.) I’ve been watching “Longmire” on Netflix when I need a break from reading. It’s a little crime/a little cowboy, and I like the way Native characters are portrayed.
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I liked the first couple of seasons of Longmire. The books, of course, are better. I’ve read some Solzhenitzyn, even a little of the Gulag Archipelago.
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Northern Exposure. Now there’s a show I haven’t thought about in ages, but really enjoyed watching when it was originally on! I could do with a show like that right about now.
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Ugh. Lazy writing is the WORST! It sounds like you made the right decision to drop the series and look for something else.
It is so frustrating when streaming services get rid of shows. I know this is completely a first-world problem but part of the appeal of streaming is the fact that you get to rediscover old shows and watch them in their entirety. That is, until they decide to remove them from the list of offerings and you are stuck in the middle of a season.
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