awesome, welcome to tragedy
Greetings! Come in!
Happy Thanksgiving, if that’s a thing you celebrate! I am a Thanksgiving scrooge, but will be spending the day with good friends I don’t get to see very often, so I am thankful for that.
I’ve been on a social media fast, my 3rd? 4th? this year. This one has been the easiest yet. The only time I’m the tiniest bit tempted to check twitter is when I’m waiting for my coffee order to get called, but I downloaded a flashcards app and now I’m memorizing the European capital cities instead. All in all, it’s been a very, very nice time for my brain. I’ve read so many books! I organized my closet! Madness!
Dog Thing
human hands: perfectly shaped for holding dog’s head. coincidence??
Mixed Media
Crunchyroll is a great service for streaming anime, but I only recently ventured into its “drama” category, which contains live action shows. It was there that I found Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia’s Case Files, aka my true love. A bookshop mystery show!
Biblia is about Shinokawa Shioriko, a woman who owns a bookshop for rare and used books, and who has an uncanny ability to solve mysteries. Each episode deals with a mystery which, in some way, involves a book. This begins with the case in which Shinokawa meets Goura Daisuke, whom she subsequently hires and who becomes the Watson to her Sherlock. The show, and the pair of them, are completely charming. It’s full of heart and humor.
The humor comes from Goura, played by Akira. His expressions are a constant delight. The cast is rounded out by book hunters, family members, and employees of the nearby cafe that the bookshop detectives make frequent use of.
The show is adapted from a series of light novels (a term for novels which are on the shorter side and feature manga-style spot illustrations) by En Mikami. They haven’t received a published translation, but after I finished the show I found fan translations of the first 3 books, and have been eating them up. They’re wonderful. They’re different from the show, which leans heavily on the mystery format, and are more about the relationship between the two main characters. I love both show and book series for what they are, however. Plus, the benefit of watching the show is that it looks like this:
There’s another adaptation, this time a feature length film, coming out next year. I’ll definitely watch it, but have my doubts it can measure up to the lovely look and feel of the show. You can watch the bookshop mystery show for free on Crunchyroll, and you should. And then tell me if you do.
I’ve continued with my journey through all of the Diana Wynne Jones books in my library’s collection. I started the Chrestomanci series, and have read Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, and The Magicians of Caprona, which my library seems to think is second in the series but is actually fourth. So I got a bit ahead. On the whole, it’s a very good series. I’ve noticed that early Jones books seem to have an issue with fat characters, in terms of the way they are described (in detail) versus the way any other character is described (generally not), and I’m looking forward to reaching the point where that ceases to be a thing.
I saw Murder on the Orient Express, which I’d been looking forward on account of loving murder mysteries and trains. It’s not a good movie! The script is not good and Kenneth Branagh made some truly baffling choices. However! I enjoyed it. The train looked great. It could have been 2 hours of establishing shots of the train and I would have been content, so I got my money’s worth.
A very good friend has loaned his old laptop to me, so I’ve been tearing through video games that I’ve missed. I played Tacoma, which was probably my most anticipated game of the last few years. In it, you are an investigator piecing together what happened on the Tacoma Lunar Station before it went dark. It was beautiful and full of heart, like Fullbright’s previous game, Gone Home. I played Obduction, which was made by Cyan, the studio behind Myst. I enjoyed it, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Myst or Riven, both of which are now available on mobile, and which I replayed this week.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Lastly
That’s all from me! Enjoy the holiday if you have it, and if not then have a normal, happy Thursday.
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