vivdunstan

Sharing this for other fans of sometime Doctor Who companion Bernice “Benny” Summerfield, whether in novel, comic or audio form. I’m not sure why Big Finish are posting this on YouTube now, 2 years after Benny’s Big Finish 25th anniversary. But it is a nice documentary regardless.

I will be resuming my listen through of the Big Finish Benny audios in the New Year.

Prompted by a YouTuber I watch I've started drawing up a list of book favourites and recommendations with one for each year of my life up to 2024. No repetition of authors. Not necessarily my all time favourites each year, but things that really spoke to me and I'm happy to recommend. Many not read in year of publication, especially when I was very small!

I will probably blog the results of this on my academic musings blog in due course. But will link to it from here too. It is going to take me a while to finish this list. 32/53 entries filled already though.

Watching the rules for my next card game to try, The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. This is going to take a while to get my head around! But should be fun. You don't have to play it right through all the way. I'd hope to manage a chapter at a time (there are 18 chapters).

Starting our week of decaf coffee taste testing with James Hoffmann's Decaf Project. Have our beans (natural + 3 types of decaf processing, all same coffee originally) ready from an Aberdeenshire roaster. And going to be trying over 4 nights. Big YouTube live video on Sunday. We're going to make my usual style of coffee with our Hario Switch machine. And because we have a spare backup Hario Switch (!), that will be in operation beside it, making a coffee for Martin too. Who rarely drinks coffee, but is keen to take part in this decaf tasting. We are starting with the natural caffeinated beans, then working through Swiss Water, Ethyl Acetate and CO2 decaffeinated versions. Aiming to be done by Friday, one way or another!

Lots more books finished since last time. Rather a mixed bag.

The graphic novel Robyn from Blue Fox Comics was a gender-swap reworking of Robin Hood. Nice artwork, but often confusing storytelling.

Manga Insomniacs After School continues to delight. An innocent coming of age story, involving two likeable kids, and some astronomy.

The second Bridgerton book started off really well. Sparkling verbal repartee between the two lead characters. But the writing went significantly downhill later.

I adore The Lord of the Rings. So I was very very happy rereading Fellowship. Will continue with the rest in the coming months.

Queen Macbeth was a historically grounded retelling of the true historical character that Shakespeare misrepresents. Until it went off into sheer flights of fancy. It also felt like what should have been a much longer book that turned into so many "then this happened" in the breathless closing pages. However I'm glad I read it, not least after seeing (online) Val McDermid talk recently about it at the Edinburgh Book Festival. It's also a quick read, more of a novella. One of a series of "Darkland Tales" retelling Scottish history in that format.

The Adapting Tolkien book of seminar papers was a varied set, some less successful than others. I was exasperated by how poorly the illustrations for one paper - so essential to what it was discussing - were reproduced in the Kindle ebook. Luckily I found a YouTube video of the original seminar paper presentation! But an interesting mix, ranging across within Tolkien's Legendarium, Elvish in the films, the Folio Society's illustrated Silmarillion, and the process of naming astronomical objects after Tolkien names. And more.

( earlier books )
1. Robyn Volume One - No One Above Another (graphic novel) by Simon Birks et al
2. Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 2 by Makoto Ojiro
3. Bridgerton: The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
4. The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
5. Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid
6. Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar. Peter Roe Series XX edited by Will Sherwood

I’ve seen quite a lot of these videos in the past. But did not expect one to show up on the Doctor Who YouTube channel today!

British archaeology TV series Time Team is 30 years old today, originally airing on Channel 4 on 16th January 1994. It's still creating new broadcast content, featuring new digs, free to watch on YouTube. What a fabulous legacy from all those years and now.

Oh this is nice. Plus a couple of teasers of what's to come in the future.

Loving this photo (on the Time Team Facebook feed) from the latest Time Team dig last weekend. In Dorset. I’m a Patreon backer so get early previews of things, but we will be waiting to watch the main dig videos that will go freely on YouTube for all to watch. We’ve enjoyed all their new dig videos on YouTube. Recommended.