Distractions: TV and Books

What distracts you from catching all the films you ever wanted to see?  Kids, social life, work, college, exercise, significant other wanting to do 'something else for a change'?  Why do I still have over 100 titles on my Lovefilm rental list?  How all you bloggers with kids manage to watch all these films and then find the time to blog about them, I will hopefully one day discover.  I am in awe of your good selves.

Well for me it's mostly work and the odd jog that get in my way but the real time consumer is the occasional TV boxset and the regular books that I get stuck into.

In February I only got through 18 films.  See the list of all of them here and here.  But this was due to ploughing through the third season of the wonderful Dexter and reading the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy.

Dexter season 3 was really just an obstacle to charge through in order to bridge the gap between the incredibly tense and brilliant second season and what I've heard is probably the highlight of the entire series, season 4 with John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer.  I'm really looking forward to this after hearing so many good things but am holding off on watching it until I've got through more of my list of 2011 films that I still need to see.  I've ticked off only three on the list I made back in January.

The Hunger Games book I need to highly recommend before I go any further.  Absolutely brilliant.  Unputdownable.  It's gripping with a fantastic female hero and a healthy feminist angle throughout.  I know the suits are desperate for it to be the new Twilight and it does feature a love triangle but this book is far from soppy.  Love is used, faked and lost in a desperate fight for survival where literally no character is safe. 

It's a real shame they've gone for a PG rating as it could have been a bloody nasty little shocker but I guess it's only right that kids should get to see this anti-violence, anti-reality TV, mix of The Running Man, 1984, Series 7: The Contenders and Battle Royale.  And the casting of Jennifer Lawrence after Winter's Bone and everything else I've seen her in is perfect.  Can't wait for this movie and glad I managed to stomp through the book in time for the cinema release.  Go read it before you see the film.  Just in case the movie turns out crap and at least then you'll always have the book!


One last thing that's been distracting the hell out of me the last couple of days is Flickchart.  I have to blame/praise Emil at A Swede Talks Movies for introducing me to this new distraction.  Well at least it's film related.  Go check out Emil's Introduction to the World of Flickchart if you haven't seen it already and get involved.  I'd love to have more friends on Flickchart to compare movie rankings with so if you're already on it, add me up.  If you're not on it, go sign up and start ranking films.  Worryingly I've completed 1324 rankings in the last two days, covering 502 different films.  It's fun but terribly addictive.  You've been warned.

So what's distracting you from all your film watching? 

Anyone else read The Hunger Games?

Is Dexter season 3 the low point of the entire series?

Anyone else on Flickchart and have advice for dealing with this terrible addiction?