“Currently Into” Monthly Roundup: May 2017

If you’ve never checked it out, I have a page on this site called “Currently Into…” where I post the things I’m currently reading, writing, watching, or listening to. I update the page on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of every month, letting you know what’s new with me.

Because I change the page so frequently, but also know people might be interested in what I was doing earlier on in a particular month, I post a round-up of everything that was on it over the course of the last month. Since today marks the beginning of June, here’s the round-up for May.

Reading

Early May: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

I finished Attachments finally, which I began in April, and I thought it was pretty good. I gave it a 4 star review, which you can read here. I then started George’s novel, but did not finish it until later in the month, which I discuss below.

Mid May: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

I finally trudged my way through this novel. It turned out to be a lot slower than I expected, so it took me a lot longer than I expected to finish it. I ended up not being a huge fan of this book, and found it a little boring, but I gave it 3 stars. You can read why in my review here.

Late May: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

I kicked off my Harry Potter re-readathon late this month. I post updates about it every Tuesday and Saturday, so if you’re interested in those, just scroll through and you’re bound to see them. I am very much enjoying my journey back to Hogwarts so far.

Writing

Early May: I wrote nothing. Except this blog.

Mid May: I wrote nothing. Except this blog. And two huge journalism finals. I am now the proud author of a 3k article about bees.

Late May: I wrote nothing. Except this blog. (*Sigh* Yes, I am terrible, and my Camp NaNo novel deserves better. Maybe June will be better).

TV Shows

Early May: I watched more of Narcos, and almost finished it. For a show that I was reluctant to watch in the first place, I loved it. The storyline is intense and super interesting. I loved that it’s based on real events too, because that just made it even more intriguing to me. The main actor also reminded me a bit of Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys, which is a nice bonus.

I also watched the entirety of a documentary series on Netflix called Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, which talks about the impact that technology has had on the dating world and sex. It was a pretty interesting show, but most of the interest that I had in it came from laughing at all the shallow people they interviewed. I saw maybe only a couple level-headed people featured on the whole show, which is a bit sad, but also kind of funny.

The last show I watched is Rick and Morty, of which I almost finished the second season.  I love the show and can’t wait to keep watching. I think it’s my favorite cartoon that I’ve ever seen.

Mid May: I accidentally got into The Great British Baking Show. I was in a bad mood on a Saturday and wanted to distract myself with something mindless on TV, so I turned it on, and needless to say, not only did it improve my mood that day, but I was also hooked (and still am). I think it’s my favorite cooking show, and also my favorite competition show that I’ve ever seen. I watched an entire season during the week of finals, and will probably keep binge-watching it this summer.

I also watched a couple episodes of the first seasons of How I Met Your Mother and another show called Blue Mountain State, but didn’t continue into them. I watched them pretty much only because my boyfriend turned them on, and while I enjoyed them both, I was hesitant about watching HIMYM because I’ve heard that the ending of the show is pretty awful, Blue Mountain State has kind of a crude humor to it. I like it, but I’m not sure if I’d get tired of it after watching a couple more episodes.

Late May: My dad introduced me to a show called Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel channel though, which is surprisingly cool from a historical standpoint. They talk about different artifacts in museums and the stories behind them. I did not watch any other shows since coming home from college though.

Music

Early May: I was in a music rut this part of the month. I listened to jazz though, because it’s the only music I can listen to while I read. The playlist “Calm Jazz” on Spotify was my go-to for this.

Mid May: I discovered a couple different artists to listen to after randomly clicking around on Spotify to see what my friends were listening to. I found a band called AJR that I’d never heard, and while I’m not really into their type of music, they had one song, called Buy You A Rose that I really liked. I also discovered a singer called Caro Emerald, who sings like, modern-jazzy songs. She’s actually pretty good, but I think that’s just the fact that I had been listening to regular jazz so much. Neither of them were new favorite artists of mine or anything, but they were something new to listen to.

Late May: I did not find any new music to listen to, but I got on an Ed Sheeran kick and have pretty much been listened to his albums on repeat, as I tend to do every couple months. It’s just so hard to get tired on his music when it’s SO GOOD. I also listened to some Twenty One Pilots, mainly my favorite songs by them.

Movies

Early May: I saw a movie on Netflix called Midnight Meat Train starring Bradley Cooper. It was a slasher/horror kind of movie, and based on the premise (a photographer becomes suspicious that a man is murdering people on the subway at night and wants to catch him), I was super excited to watch this movie in comparison to the other horror movies I watch with my boyfriend. And the movie was actually pretty good…up until the end. I don’t want to post spoilers, but let’s just say I thought it was going one way, and if it had gone the way I thought it was, I would have thought it was a pretty great movie. But it didn’t. It got weird and the end ruined this whole set-up they could have had for an awesome ending.

Mid May: The only movie I watched was Scream, which apparently is bad, because everyone I know was shocked I hadn’t seen it before. I did thoroughly enjoy it though, and I’m not usually one for horror movies. I thought it was suspenseful and interesting right from the beginning, and even though it got a little gory at times, I liked the mystery and the general plot of the movie. Though I think I’m going to be a lot more scared of people in the Scream masks come Halloween this year. If you, too, have never seen it, I would highly recommend it.

Late May: I saw Snatched in theaters, which was the new Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn movie that came out. I’m not a huge fan of Schumer, so I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to seeing the movie in the first place, and I didn’t end up enjoying it either. The story basically followed Schumer’s character and her mom, played by Hawn, as they get kidnapped while on vacation in South America. There’s a lot of them wandering through the rainforest while making bad jokes. It’s not a movie I’d really recommend to watch at all, but if you’re determined to see it, at least save yourself the money and wait until it’s out on DVD or Netflix.