2020 Media Diet

It was a weird year bookended by COVID. We started the year with COVID causing our honeymoon to Almafi/Greece being cancelled, and we ended the year with both of us getting COVID and laid up at the house not able to taste/smell anything and completely lethargic. The day we got out of quarantine is the day Morgan’s work released her vaccination schedule.

COVID also changed our media habits—like everyone else we watched the big Netflix shows such as Tiger King and many reality ones like Love is Blind, but we also ended up subscribed to a bunch of things to watch shows I have no memory of. At last count, we’ve had or have subscriptions to Netflix, Prime, YouTube Premium, CBS All Access, ESPN+, HBO Max, Disney+, PBS Passport, Smithsonian Channel, Peacock, Hulu, AppleTV, MHz Choice (?) and of course, NFL Game Pass/Red Zone/MLB Network (don’t tell Morgan about those last three).

Because of this, sometime around April I stopped writing down all the streaming shows we were watching—we’d watch an episode of something, give it up, go on to the next thing, watch an episode, give it up, rinse repeat. So as for movies/tv shows I’m only listing the best of the best I remember and logged.

Books are much the same way as streaming shows—where looking back at my media list there are entire books I have no recollection reading. The main one being “Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege” by Anthony Beevor, which I read in its entirety, and “Enemy at the Gates” another book about Stalingrad I partially read by William Craig, then skipped to the battles I liked and didn’t even review cause I probably read less then 200 pages. Until compiling this list, I’d completely forgot that in July I spent two weeks absorbed in the battle of Stalingrad. It consumed my life for half a month and then completely faded from my memory.

2020 was like that.

Finally, I had a bunch of companion books/media this year, where just like with Stalingrad I’d go down a rabbit hole for a while. This year, instead of listing my media habits by month, I'm listing by topic with each topic in [BRACKETS].

[OCTOPUS]: For Morgan and I, 2020 was the year of the Octopus. These creatures are fascinating, sad (they only live two years or so), and incredibly relatable considering they have no vertebrae and live in an ocean. My Octopus Teacher was the best thing I watched all year.

Octopus: Making Contact; (Nature, PBS) (B)

My Octopus Teacher; Netflix (A+)

The Soul of an Octopus; Sy Montgomery (A-)

[DISNEY] Our trip to Disney World was cancelled in March but that didn’t stop us from consuming everything there was to know about the company. What started with a simple documentary series lead me to reading about the even more interesting power struggles in the exec office suits. DisneyWar by James B. Stewart was my second favorite book of the year.

The Imagineering Story: (Disney Plus) (A)

A Ride of a Lifetime; Bob Iger (A)

*DisneyWar; James B. Stewart (A+)

[STALINGRAD/THIRD REICH] All three of these books were absolutely fascinating in parts but also had passages/chapters where it seemed like homework getting through. The best read of the bunch was Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich, though I cannot recommend it as the more I looked into Speer after reading this book, the more likely it is he is a truly evil individual who in fact actively participated in the Holocaust, and is not in any way the innocent simple architect he claims to be throughout this book. Still as best of a profile into the person of Hitler as any book.

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: Antony Beevor (B)

Inside the Third Reich: Albert Speers (B+)

The Holocaust: A New History: Laurence Rees (B)

[CIVILIAZATION DOWNFALL]: I got into this genre after listening to several episodes of the Fall of Civilization Podcast. 1177 B.C. was a read suggested on the podcast and enjoyable but a Distant Mirror is an old classic and Cleopatra is well on its way to being a new classic and I include them here because they both feature declining civilizations.

'Fall of Civilization' Podcast (B)

1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed: Eric Cline (B minus)

Cleopatra: A Life: Stacy Schiff (A)

A Distant Mirror; Barbara Tuchman (B+)

[SPIES] At the beginning of COVID, I learned Morgan had never seen any of the original James Bond films and so over a couple of weeks we devoured all the Sean Connery’s and made it through exactly one Roger Moore before she decided that although Spy Who Love Me is a pretty good film, Roger Moore was not her style (I can’t disagree with her). Then, at the end of the year I returned to spy craft again with the death of John le Carre, which lead me to rewatch the original BBC series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. One of my little treats in life is completely forgetting the plot to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy once every five years and then rewatching it and being surprised again all over. Just a great story.

Bond Films

Dr. No: (A)

From Russia With Love (A++)

Goldfinger (A+)

Thunderball (B)

You Only Live Twice (B minus)

The Spy Who Loved Me (B)

John le Carre

The Russian House (film): (B)

The Russian House (novel) (A)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Mini-series with Alec Guinness, not the film (A+)

Random Spy/Mystery Media

Spy Catcher: Peter Wright (B+ Wright was a M-5 officer and is in many ways the real life George Smiley but his memoir could have been about 100 pages shorter.)

D.B. Cooper: HBO Max (A-)

[QUOTE BOOKS] These are mainly for work/trial so I have a clever quip or theme or a story to tie a case together. A wonderful find this year was Rosemarie Jarski, a British author with quite a reputation for compiling together good quotes but who seems to never have been published in the U.S. Thanks to media shipping and Amazon though I was able to get her entire collection of 5 books/3000 pages for a song. The other notable book in this category is Ronald Reagan’s personal notecards, compiled into a book.

The Funniest Thing You Never Said: Rosemarie Jarski (A)

A Word From the Wise: Rosemarie Jarski (A+)

Dim Wits: Rosemarie Jarski (B)

The Smartest Things ever Said: Rosemarie Jarski (A)

Ronald Reagan The Notes: Douglas Brinkley (B)

[MODERN WARFARE/TERRORISM] TBH, nothing in this list as good as Looming Tower. Really thought I’d like Margaret Macmillan’s book more but it’s like a simplified version of Guns, Germs, Steel. Only Plane in the Sky was maybe the most disappointing book of the entire year. There was no real analysis from anyone. Finally, I include Fentanyl Inc. in here since Ben Westhoff does a pretty compelling job of explaining how the opioid crisis is being conducted by state actors. Overall, none of this are must reads.

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 (C+)

Bulls Eye: The Assassination of Gerald Bull: James Adam (B minus)

Fentanyl Inc: Ben Westhoff (B)

War: How Conflict Shaped Us: Margaret Macmillan (B)

[MEMOIR/SHORT STORY] Along with octopus, I also got into the lives of wolves and I cannot say enough about how good the podcast Criminal is and how good the two episodes are that focus on a wolf pack in Yellowstone. The only media that made me cry this year.

Criminal’ Podcast (A++) I particularly recommend the following episodes

     - "10 Doors" About an escape from a South African prison which directly lead to me reading Papillion.

     - "Wolf 10" with companion episode “Wolves” (A+++)

Classic Krakauer: John Krakauer (A)

Apropos of Nothing: Woody Allen (B+ I started reading this at the book store to see what Allen would say about Mia Farrow and Soon Yi and really wanted to hate this book but I couldn't. Allen can write and does dish good stories about old comedians though anything after 1980 I take with a grain of salt)

Up in the Old Hotel: Joseph Mitchell (B minus)

Papillon:Henri Charriere (B+)

[FICTION]

True Grit: Charles Portis (A++ The best book I read this year. The dialogue of the characters, especially the scoundrels Mattie Ross encounters with Rooster Cogburn is just so so good. I was never a fan of the original or remade film but I now plan to read this to children/grandchildren someday. Just excellent)

Piranesi: Susanna Clarke (A, if you were wondering whether you'd like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell but don't want to commit to 700+ pages, I'd definitely recommend reading this 200-page book first. People either love Clarke or hate her and I really really love her but I get why this is not everyone's taste.)

And Then There Were None: Agatha Christie (A)

[ASSORTED]

Made in America: Bill Bryson (B, not Bryson’s best work)

The Big Goodbye: Sam Wasson (B, I read a book about Chinatown when I should have just watched Chinatown)

Class Action Park: HBO Max (A+, just a crazy fun documentary. I watched this three times and laughed every time. It's Tiger King craziness at a New Jersey waterpark)