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Movie Night! ‘Nothing brilliant but that’s ok…’ Edition

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After my first full week back at work, in a good three months, yesterday was always going to be one of those days where it wasn’t even worth trying to make solid plans; just wing it and anything achieved counts as a win. So that’s exactly what I did, just got through the day (with my kids so not exactly a chore) and rounded things off with a couple of movies before bed ;o) I’ve tried to focus a little more on reading, just recently, but that was never going to happen yesterday, and I did have a couple of movies in mind. The title, of the post, probably gave the game away but neither movie was that bad to be fair. Not every film has to be a winner (unless you invested in it, of course), so long as they do their job, that’s the main thing. And with that said… ‘The Evil in Us’ (2016) Run time: 90 mins. Six friends celebrate July 4th on a small island but by July 5th, only one of them will be left alive after some recreational cocaine has some unexpected side affects… This was a re-watch a...

What I'm looking to read in January...

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Am I going to finish all of these books by the end of the month? Absolutely not. Am I going to have fun trying though? I sure am :o) Is this TBR pile subject to change at a seconds notice? You don't really need me to answer that ;o) For now though, lets take a quick look at what my reading is looking like in the short term... One movie novelization (that looks like it has come out before the actual movie...), a couple of 'Warhammer' books (one of which looks like it has gone on a cannibalistic spree and eaten several other books...) and another stop on my journey to eventually read Keith Rosson's 'Coffin Moon'. You can see that I've made a start on 'Devour' and 'Ashes of the Imperium'; looking at the size of 'Ashes' though, it's more likely that I'll finish 'Devour' first. We'll see... I really want to finish 'Savage Sword of Conan' now and all being well, the plan is for that to happen this weekend. Out of...

‘We Used To Live Here’ – Marcus Kliewer (Penguin Books)

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  Page Count: 368 Pages My ‘kind of’ resolution to read more books that I already own, and as a result maybe buy less books (we’ll see…), in 2026 is going… Okay, it’s only been nine days, so far, but I think I’m doing alright so far. If the year ended tomorrow, I could say I kept my resolution. What? It’s a start :o) Anyway… I was looking for something to read, yesterday, and noticed ‘We Used To Live Here’ , sat on a shelf that I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to. You know that feeling you get when it is exactly the right time to read a particular book? Well, I finally got that feeling about ‘We Used To Live Here’ last night so sat down for a read and… You let them back in. You shouldn't have... Young couple Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they got on an old house deep in the mountains. One day, a man knocks on the door. He says he lived there years before and asks if he can show his family around. But, as soon as they enter, strange things start to happ...

‘Hunting Ground’ & ‘Lucius: Pride and Fall’ – Ian St. Martin (Black Library)

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This seems to be turning into a bit of a week, what with trying to get back into full days at work as well as having to deal with other stuff once I turn my work laptop off. Oh well, I’d get bored if there wasn’t stuff happening (spoiler, no I wouldn’t)… ;o) This goes a long way then towards explaining why this week is also turning into one of those weeks where my reading takes me into the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40K. It still feels a little weird to be calling it ‘comfort reading’ but I’ll be honest, that’s exactly what it is right now. A cast of morally dubious characters fighting the xenos (or each other), set against a backdrop that is almost the literal definition of ‘raging against the dying of the light’. If you’re me and just want to check out of the real world for a bit, what’s not to like? And there’s a lot to think about as well. Is someone a hero if they’re purging to the point of genocide (maybe), is there really any difference between the Imperium and the followers...

‘Oaths of Damnation: An Exorcists Novel’ – Robbie Macniven (Black Library)

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  Page Count: 382 Pages Now here’s a book that I’d been trying to read, on and off, and then Christmas happened and that was more or less that… Until now :o) Like I said the other day, I’m trying to go a little easier on myself this year (as far as my reading goes) but I do want to read more of the books that I’ve already bought and ‘Oaths of Damnation’ felt like the best place to start for that. I’ve also read a couple of Macniven’s 40K short stories , fairly recently, and it felt like time to pick up something novel-length. ‘Oaths of Damnation’ it was then… :o) The Exorcists are a Space Marine Chapter unlike any other. To combat the forces of Chaos, they willingly accept daemonic possession, knowing that once it is purged their shattered souls will no longer be susceptible to corruption. Those who fail the banishment trials become Broken Ones, living prisons for the terrors expelled from their brethren. Should such desperate measures become known to the wider Imperium, there is l...

‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ (2022)

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  A couple of years ago, I showed my eldest daughter the first episode of the ‘Walking Dead’ (Season 1), just to see what she thought of it Two years on and we’re deep into Season 8 so it’s fair to say that the experiment has been a success ;o) We have hit a bit of a roadblock though as a certain character is about to die, and she’s not ready to see him go, so I’ve been looked at a couple of the ‘spin-offs’, just to keep things ticking over until we’re ready to go again. ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ is looking like a safe bet for future viewing, it will be a while before I give ‘World Beyond’ another go though… ‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ is an anthology series of stand-alone tales set in the ‘Walking Dead’ universe; it was also on sale, on Prime Video, so it seemed like a good ‘next stop’ in my journey to find more ‘Friday night zombie telly’. And… It’s not a bad series, not brilliant but not bad either. I spent most of yesterday working through all the episodes, which should tell you ...

A Couple Of Bits & Pieces That I Watched Over Christmas and New Year…

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I’ll be honest, I did an awful lot of ‘re-watching’ over the holidays and it was just what this Graeme needed, a large dose of ‘comfort’ movies and TV shows. I wasn’t a lot of good for much else anyway but it was nice to have something on in the background while I did things like wrap presents and so on ;o) I did manage to watch some stuff that I hadn’t seen before though, and because my reading plans absolutely went down the drain over the weekend, this post (right here!) is where I’ll tell you about it. Lets start with the obvious one… ;o) ‘Stranger Things’ (Season 5) My eldest daughter and I have been working our way through the series, over the last few years, and while I wasn’t too bothered about watching ‘Stranger Things’ back in the day, watching it with my daughter has been brilliant fun. Now, we really need to finish watching ‘The Walking Dead’ :o) Anyway, there was never any question that we wouldn’t finish it and… I’m not going to go into it loads (the internet has done that...