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1. Goblin Emperor and A Natural History of Dragons are on sale for $1.99 at Amazon.

Why should I be the only one who needs a chaperon while buying books?

2. Television

In the Dark -- is interesting. It's the new CW series by Ben Stiller about a 20 something, snarky blind gal, who is investigating the death and disappearance of her best friend, Tyson. A 17 year old drug dealer. Sort of femme noire with a twist.

Very dark and snarky.

I like the main character quite a bit, which surprised me.

Fosse/Verdon -- this focuses more on the relationship, specifically the spousal relationship between Fosse/Verdon than their corroboration. But it does still focus heavily enough on the later to make the series highly entertaining and insightful. Also it's rather innovative in how they are telling the story -- which is in a series of out of sequence flash-backs. We see them now, then flashback to the event that led them here, and finally to how they met. The now in this instance -- is their breakup during Cabaret. (Suffice to say, Bob Fosse was his own worst enemy, most of us are.)

The musical numbers and banter between the two corrobators, along with the performances -- Rockwell and Williams have never been better and are sort of doing an interesting tango throughout. The series emphasizes what it is to be a dancer, a professional dancer, and the pain involved -- and how hard it is to perform in an industry that is constantly evaluating you.

A Discovery of Witches -- somewhat hokey in places (but that's in keeping with the genre, unfortunately) -- yet it is saved by the understated performances.
Not to mention understated production. I rather like the casting, and the story is different than most of these things -- in that it's not clear who the bad guys are, if any. Also there's a clear metaphor about how if we aren't careful we can destroy our own magical way of life.

Game of Thrones...

Finally got caught up on GoT. And the second episode was really good, much better than the first. After the first episode, I was rooting for the White Walkers to take out over half the cast. Honestly, when an army of dead is coming for you -- it hardly matters who is sitting on the Iron Throne. Apparently only Jon Snow got this?

But the second really delivered and made me care about everyone again. Also gave some definitive closure to a few things.

I'm less critical of the television series than some -- mainly because I read the books. And the television series improves on them. The books ended with ( Spoilers )

The reason GRR Martin hasn't come out with another book is he wrote himself into a corner with Dance of Dragons. The television series corrected his mistake and wrote itself out of the corner he'd written the story into.

Unless you've read the books (which I don't recommend), you won't get that. Okay, no, I take that back I do recommend that you read the books, if only for the innovative narrative approach Martin utilizes that not many have attempted and how, for the most part, he pulls off to startling effect. He basically goes into the points of view of over a thousand different characters of varying walks of life. Outdoing people like Tolkien, Dickens, and Hugo in the process. To see how he pulls it off -- is worth reading it. It's not an easy thing to do. And he keeps the continuity of the plot throughout, while staying real. Reading the books taught me how to play with point of view, why going for pure reality is deathly dull and not to do it. (We do not need to know all the mundane details of the journey. And it is frustrating when it doesn't move the plot forward and just stagnates it.) The books are far more realistic than the television series, albeit less satisfying. Characters you desperately want to meet up? Never do. Which in reality they wouldn't. ( spoilers for the books )

It got to the point in the books, that whenever a character went off on a quest to meet up with another one, I'd think -- don't bother. Seriously save yourself a trip. You'll never meet up with them. Makes it extremely frustrating to read. I mean you're reading this character's journey and they never reach their goal. And often not even their destination. Example of how hyper-realism doesn't work that well in fiction. Trust me, if you think the television series plot arcs are a tad contrived, try reading the opposite first -- it will make you appreciated the contrivances.

Reading fiction that is deeply flawed in places can often be more educational as a writer than reading brilliant stuff. Because it shows you what doesn't work.

This episode...( spoilers )