Finished that Novel

72. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
    
    I had been holding off on reading this series until Martin finished (or, possibly, died), but with an HBO series coming up this spring, I decided to start reading these massive books.
    Wow.
    Teena and my friends have recommended this series, but that did not prepare me for how gripping the book is. I loved it, and I want to plunge straight into the next book, but I have a bunch of books from the library I should be getting to, not to mention a big stack of unread graphic novels. Also, I don't want to run through this series too fast when it could be a long time before volume 5 is published. But I will definitely be reading more soon (although I think I will hold off on A Feast for Crows until after A Dance with Dragons is published).
    
73. Black Jack, vol.12 by Osamu Tezuka. Yet another volume of this medical manga. (Checked out of the library.)
    
74. Atlas: Return of the Three Dimensional Man by Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman, et al. The final volume of one of the best comics Marvel has published in recent years. Parker was doing all sorts of interesting things with super-heroes in this, but not enough super-hero fans are interested in innovation.

Next week, I should have read more books than I have in the past few weeks.

Did watch a couple of movies:

• The Last Lovecraft: Relic of CthulhuThis was the highlight of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival a couple of years ago. Humorous, but with some heart, and surprisingly good special effects. Glad it's finally available on DVD.
  
• WhiteoutI loved the graphic novel this is based on, but I just didn't find this adaptation engaging. Admittedly, I am still infatuated with my iPad and was playing with it while watching the movie, but I don't think that's all. There's nothing specific I can point to, but it's just not that gripping.

The podcast this week is one that I am participating in: The Saint Clair Gamers Actual Play Podcast. My role-playing group has started recording some of our sessions, and Michael (our host and the guy who GMs most often) has started putting them up. Right now we are playing The Armitage Files campaign for Trail of Cthulhu. We are three sessions in, and it looks like we'll be playing for quite a while. I haven't listened to more than a snippet because I don't like listening to recordings of my own voice, but we are having fun playing the game. Give it a listen & let us know what you think.