Late July Diversions: An Update on My TBR and TBW Lists for the Summer of ’22

Well, with the end of July only a few days off, it’s time for an update on my To Be Watched (TBW) and To Be Read (TBR) lists for the seventh month of 2022.

As you know, July is not my favorite month of the year. My mother died on July 19, 2015, after her health took a nosedive in the spring of 2010 because of issues with her spine, heart and kidney issues, and dementia. Her last five years were difficult for everyone involved, and her passing triggered the equally vexing chain of events that led to my move from South Florida to the Tampa Bay area less than a year later.

I have a hard time reading books as of late. No, no. It’s not my eyesight; I can see just fine. My issues with reading are purely environmental; my room is not laid out in a reader-friendly fashion, and the futon that was provided for me when the Caregiver moved in her now-deceased boyfriend and moved me from the master bedroom to what was exclusively my library/study is not comfortable enough for me to read on. (Hell, it’s not even comfortable enough to watch movies on.)

And because I’m a creature of habit, I do not take reading breaks in either the living room or the Florida room, both of which have more comfortable couches than my futon. I can go out there and read; there’s no edict that forbids me from doing so. It’s just my path-of-least-resistance nature that gets in my way.

Still, despite my obsession with Dr. PinkCake’s sexy visual novels Acting Lessons and Being a DIK, I have made some progress with both my TBW and TBR lists.

So far in July, I have read:

• One-third of Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War, 1945-1960, by the late James D. Hornfischer, one of the best naval historians I have ever read
• One-fourth of Fire & Steel: The End of World War Two in the West, by Peter Caddick-Adams
• One-third of The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle: Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger, by Thomas Wikman
• Two chapters of Star Wars: Brotherhood, by Mike Chen

And if you want to include interactive “visual novels” with adults-only content, I might as well add:

• Acting Lessons, by “Dr. PinkCake”
• Being a DIK, by “Dr. PinkCake”

As far as movies go, I have watched:

• Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
• The War of the Worlds (1953)
• The Peacemaker (1997)
• The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
• First to the Moon (2018)

I am hoping to get some Blu-ray titles that I have on Amazon Prime preorder in August, including the sexy Swedish movie Made in Sweden (1971), which I have never seen, and the 4K UHD premiere of John Milius’ 1984 Red Dawn, a right-wing fantasy about a group of American teenagers who become resistance fighters after the Soviet Union invades the U.S.

I saw Red Dawn in theaters 38 years ago, and even though it’s hokey and reflects its director’s extreme right-wing views, it’s still a fun action-adventure movie. I’ve owned home media versions on videotape, DVD, and high-definition Blu-ray, and I like it just enough to add it to my 4K UHD Blu-ray collection as well.

I should go have something for breakfast and take a shower, so I’ll close here. Until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.