
How to Stay Bookish When You’re Binge Watching
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We’re all book lovers here. We eat, sleep, and breathe them; we carry books with us everywhere we go, even when we know we won’t be able to read where we’re going, but we just NEED to have them with us. You’re with me right? So how do you stay bookish when you’re on a powerful TV binge? Here are some bookish binge watching tips.
Sprinkle in this new Sherlock book adaptation dropping in July, A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell, aka Beth Bernobich. All you need to know is in this snippet from the blurb: “[Dr. Janet Watson], honorably discharged and struggling with the semi-functional mechanical arm that replaced the limb she lost, she returns to the nation’s capital, a bleak, edgy city in the throes of a fraught presidential election. Homeless and jobless, Watson is uncertain of the future when she meets another black LGBTQA woman, Sara Holmes, a mysterious yet playfully challenging covert agent who offers the doctor a place to stay.”
Here are some other binge-worthy shows based on books and comics: Longmire (Netflix) based on the Walt Longmire mysteries by Craig Johnson, Luke Cage (Netflix) based on the Power Man comics, Alias Grace (Netflix) based on the book by Margaret Atwood, Masters of Sex (Showtime) based on the book by Thomas Maier, and American Gods (Starz) based on the book by Neil Gaiman.
I love audiobooks, and a good narrator can bring extra life to a story. A familiar voice might be just the thing you need to finally pick up a book you’ve had on your TBR and have always meant to read. So, picture this: Sicily, 1922. Oh wait, wrong post. Picture this, you just finished bingeing a show and you’ve developed a mighty need for more time with your new fave…or maybe you’re just suddenly speaking in a British accent and your friends are like, get it together.
This recently happened to me when I finished watching Foyle’s War on Netflix with Michael Kitchen in the title role. Not only did I develop a killer squint/head tilt in response to every human interaction, but I did an audiobook check and it turns out Kitchen has a decent amount of audio book credits to his name, and I ended up listening to a few classics from my TBR, including The African Queen by C.S. Forester and The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene.
Let’s face it, we’re all on Wikipedia or second-screening with Google all the time, because you really never have to wonder about the answer to a question these days. So, you’re loving a show and you’ve already looked up the book, the read-alikes, and the audiobooks, and now it’s time for a deeper dive. Whether the topic of the show is just interesting or you’re on a mission to discover the historical accuracy of a show, there’s probably a book for that.
My latest experience with this is the PBS/ITV series Victoria starring my eyebrow hero and erstwhile Doctor Who companion, Jenna Coleman. I read Victoria by Daisy Goodwin while waiting for the series to make its way across the pond. After a quick donation to Connecticut Public Television and a one-day binge, my advanced internet research kicked in when, for historical accuracy, I had to know if Lord M was indeed as handsome as Rufus Sewell (hint: not even close).
So, I really go down the rabbit-hole sometimes, literally anything about a show can lead me to my next book. There have been times where I head over to iTunes or YouTube to check out the soundtrack and some internet algorithm really wants me to check out the soundtrack to another show, which makes me want to watch that one, and then it starts all over again. See, it’s like how researching the Remember the Titans soundtrack turns into an audiobook binge of the Mr. Mercedes series by Stephen King and narrated by Will Patton. Thanks, Coach Yoast!