October-November Consumption Diary

MUSIC - OCTOBER

BOOKS

Note: as I mentioned last time, I'm a judge for the fiction category of the 2026 Ockham NZ Book Awards (books pubbed in 2025, longlist/shortlist/winner announced in 2026) so need to read about a dozen novels/story collections a month to be done by the end of the year and make longlist decisions early in Jan. I won't include any of these books in my summaries here, but will include them in my end of year reading stats. Safe to assume I'll crush last year's 100 books read (and whatever the previous record for physical books read might be).

Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2022)

A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2025) - kinda annoying how obviously this book was written for a North American audience so every aspect of NZ life needed to be glossed.

Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2021) - I'd seen Whiti talk about the recording of this audiobook on social media, so was keen to check out this version. (She does a great job).

May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase (novel, audiobook, Japan, translated, 2025)

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson (novel, audiobook, US, 2025)

New Transgender Blockbusters by Oscar Upperton (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2021)

A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-ran (novel, audiobook, South Korea, translated, 2025)

This is For Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee: the inventor of the World Wide Web (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2025) - the rare book where the author gets the subtitle rather than the title. Made me feel a bit less dark on the future by showing how the internet could have been ruined multiple times over the last four decades so maybe there's hope yet.

Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2025)

MOVIES & TV

Nobody Wants This - Season 1

The Chair Company - Season 1

Inside Llewyn Davis

Tick, tick... boom

Forrest Gump* - my daughter was watching it for the first time, and I found it hard to tear myself away to do the dishes or whatever. Moved a lit faster than in my memory. 

Fighting with my Family

And quite a bit of WWE content, which may or may not translate into research for a project

MUSIC - NOVEMBER

August-September Consumption Diary

MUSIC - AUGUST

BIOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE

Box One

I'm one of the judges for the fiction section for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, which means I need to read every novel and short story collection published in 2025 that is submitted for the awards. So far I've received two boxes of books (33 books in total) and there's at least one more box to come later in the year. I'd read three books already (score). So that's going to mean I smash some of the reading targets I set at the start of the year (read 100+ books, read 20+ physical books) but means some of the other targets will be harder to achieve (like read 10 non-fiction books by female authors).

(I could tally the numbers now and see, but I'm going to keep myself in the dark till I do my 2025 reading wrap up post).

Before the first box of books to judge arrived, I got a box of books I'd bought from the THWUP sale, which was mostly just Geoff Cochranes. I started a project to re-read all his poetry collections and come up with my own Best Of list, and compare it to the contents of The Collected Geoff Cochrane (which I bought but haven't read). I didn't quite finish this process before the Ockham judging bow wave hit, so this might be a Jan 2026 project :)

BOOKS

Into India, Aztec Noon*, Acetylene*, 84-484*, Pocket Edition*, Hypnic Jerks*, The Worm in the Tequila*, The Bengal Engine's Mango Afterglow* by Geoff Cochrane (poetry, physical books, NZ) - see above.

Tin Nimbus by Geoff Cochrane (novel, physical book, NZ) - Hadn't read this before. If you've only read Geoff's poetry, this novel is pretty much what you'd imagine his novel would be like. Alcoholism. Attention to life at the level of the sentence, the word, the syllable. And the sex scene - the chutzpah! 

The Bookshop Detectives: Tea and Cake and Death by Gareth and Louise Ward (novel, audiobook, NZ) - Book Two in the series. Diminishing marginal returns.

The CIA Book Club by Charlie English (non-fiction, audiobook, UK)

Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir by Craig Mod (non-fiction, audiobook, US) 

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata (novel, audiobook, Japan) - was actually written before Convenience Store Woman (terrific) and Earthlings (even better), but translated into English after those two and published in 2025. Not as strong.

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld (short stories, audiobook, US) - Kinda hated that a story made me empathise with Jeff Bezos. But: goooood stories.

Audition by Katie Kitamura (novel, audiobook, US) - Flesh by David Szalay is still my favourite book on the Booker Shortlist

A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (non-fiction, audiobook, US) - both a superserious takedown of space colony hype and also quite funny.

Rusty Brown by Chris Ware (graphic novel, physical book, US) - a real doorstop of a book. Can be thrilling at the level of the page in terms of composition / juxtaposition, but can also feel slow and dense. Would be interested in what someone who reads a lot of graphic novels thinks.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (novel, audiobook, Japan) - think Earthlings x Never Let Me Go. 

Electric Spark: the Enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson (non-fiction, audiobook, UK) - overpromised and underdelivered in terms of revelations (though there was certainly a lot of words).

+ 8 NZ works of fiction in my judging capacity, which I will remain cagey about.

FILM & TV

Honestly, the only thing I can remember watching (besides sport), was The Truman Show with my kids (first time for them, not for me). Maybe the odd Taskmaster episode. I tried watching Season 2 of The Night Agent, got bored. Season 2 of Squid Game: ditto. Season 1 of Untamed: samesies.

Books! Give me books! Or podcasts. Or another season of Unreal (please?).

Oh, I watched the Devo documentary, and Beau is Afraid, finished Black Mirror Season 7, and the documentary series Wrestlers about OVW (that was really good). 

MUSIC - SEPTEMBER

June-July 2025 consumption diary

MUSIC - JUNE

BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE

My in-laws inherited some money and took us to Japan in July. It was hot. It was humid. The ages in our party ranged from 10 to 70-mumble. I was the only one with any non-Duolingo, non-Google Translate Japanese education (School C baby!). We did a fairly standard Greatest Hits route (Tokyo, Kyoto/Osaka/Nara, Hiroshima). 

And... it was great.

BOOKS

(lotta travel / sharing rooms with snuffly kids = lotta audiobooks)

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe (novel, audiobook, UK) - good

Playworld by Adam Ross (novel, audiobook, US) - Felt like a novel written by someone immersed in the college creative writing industrial machine who takes a long time between books. Oh wait...

Pounamu Pounamu by Witi Ihimaera (short stories, audiobook, NZ)

How to Hold a Cockroach by Matthew Maxwell (fiction?, audiobook, US) - just don't.

Careless People: a story of where I used to work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ)

Courting the Wild Twin by Martin Shaw (non-fiction, audiobook, UK)

Universality by Natasha Brown (novel, audiobook, UK) - on the Booker Longlist... didn't hit for me like Brown's debut, Assembly.

Flesh by David Szalay (novel, audiobook, UK/Hungary) - on the Booker Longlist... this one hit for me. V v v v v good.

The Forgotten Forest by Robert Vennell (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ)

The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon (non-fiction, audiobook, France)

Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III (non-fiction, audiobook, US) - contender for the most annoying book of the year.

A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (novel, audiobook, NZ) - not what I was expecting. Much more subdued than I presumed from the hype.

Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito (non-fiction, audiobook, Japan)

Well Met by Jen DeLuca (novel, audiobook, US) - trope-city.

The Shetland Way by Marianne Brown (non-fiction, audiobook, UK)

Perspectives by Laurent Binet (novel, audiobook, France) - a few aspects are hard to believe, but there should be more intellectual romps.

A Lack of Good Sons by Jake Arthur (poetry, physical book, NZ)

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Landfall 249 (literary journal, physical book, NZ)

Demolition of the Century by Duncan Sarkies (novel, physical book, NZ)

Star Gazers by Duncan Sarkies (novel, physical book, NZ) - check out my review for Landfall here.

MOVIES & TV

Shoresy Season 1 - Why can't I get the later seasons in NZ? Why!?

The Eternaut Season 1

Dept Q Season 1

The Bear Season 4

Welcome to Wrexham Season 4

Paddington in Peru

Gladiator 2

Sharko

Tenet*

(I'm forgetting what else I watched on the plane...)

Happy Gilmore 2

Unreal (WWE) Season 1

Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe Season 1

MUSIC - JULY

April-May Consumption Diary

MUSIC - APRIL

BOOKS

Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia the Awekōtuku (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ)

Rejection: fiction by Tony Tulathimutte (short stories, audiobook, US)

The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (novel, audiobook, NZ)

The Serviceberry: an economy of gifts and abundance by Robin Wall Kimmerer (non-fiction, audiobook, US)

Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn (short stories, physical book, NZ)

Middle Youth by Morgan Bach (poetry, physical book, NZ)

Biter by Claudia Jardin (poetry, physical book, NZ)

he's so MASC by Chris Tse (poetry, physical book, NZ)

The making of another major motion picture masterpiece by Tom Hanks (novel, audiobook, US)

On the calculation of volume, part one, by Solvej Balle (novel, audiobook, Denmark)

Recognising the stranger: on Palestine and narrative by Isabella Hammad (non-fiction, audiobook, UK/Palestone)

Kāwai: for such a time as this by Monty Soutar (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Ash by Louise Wallace (novel, physical book, NZ)

The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir (novel, audiobook, Iceland)

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes (novel, audiobook, UK)

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (novel, audiobook, NZ)

FILM & TV

Andor - Season 2 - This is my Star Wars. Lots of Better Caul Saul vs Breaking Bad comparisons to be had if I had the time to write a thinkpiece... 

Rogue One*

The Rehearsal - Season 2

The Last of Us - Season 2

Twisters

Mountainhead

Trap

A Mistake

Inside Man 2

Wicked

Young Sheldon - my daughter binged all the seasons so I caught a fair amount.

MUSIC - MAY

March consumption diary

MUSIC

I went to see MJ Lenderman and the Wind at The Loons in Lyttleton at the end of March. 

It was really great. The last 20 minutes of the set (before the encore) got a bit ambient/dragging on for my old, out-of-practice standing for four hours self. But either side of that: magic. 

Opening act, Wurld Series, was also pretty good. Lenderman described them as weird. My wife said they looked like accountants who were also in a band. I think both descriptions are slightly unfair. They were more like if Midlake was a Flying Nun band (okay, maybe not as amazing as that sounds).

The thing I forget about concerts until I am back at one is how great they are for finding solutions to writing problems or coming up with new ideas. Something about being around all those other people - strangers mostly - but so much of the experience is personal and interior. Anyway, the novel I worked on last year and I thought needed to get much fatter and overtly "important"... well, I decided during the gig that maybe it would work as a novel-in-stories, and all the "fat" might be unnecessary.

READING

Stoner by John Williams (audiobook, novel, US, 1965) -  A little late to the revival, or maybe I'm the start of the 3rd wave, but v v v v v good.

Gliff by Ali Smith (audiobook, 2024, novel, UK) - Triggering (not just in the title's similarity to my name) in the way Ali Smith can be: the slide to techno-authoritarianism shown from the other side, clear-eyed and pun-filled.

The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (audiobook, novel, Pakistan/UK, 2007) - four hour audiobooks for the win. Any longer and the narrator addressing his American interlocutor framing may've become annoying. As is: great.

Several short sentences about writing by Evelyn Klinkenborg (audiobook, non-fiction, US, 2012). Loved the final section where VK dissects subpar sentences.

Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale (physical book, poetry, NZ, 2024). My daughter's class had to memorise a sonnet by Shakespeare (each choosing a different one), so I learnt one of Neale's poems...The young house surgeon / jogs the tree canopied avenue (etc). I could feel my brain working in ways it hasn't for YEARS. So good.

Juice by Tim Winton (audiobook, novel, Australia, 2024). A good book in the end, marred by the fact the narrator said "cachet" instead of "cache" 90% of the time (post-apocalptic, so lots of caching)... Couldn't even be consistently wrong. (There were other mispronounciations, too. Tagging this for next time someone asks what my pet peeve is).

Going Zero by Anthony McCarten (audiobook, novel, NZ, 2023) - felt like it should have been a TV series, but also understandable why it wasn't. 

Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton (audiobook, non-fiction, UK, 2018) - I preferred the Alderton novel I read last year. This felt a bit random brain splurge. Sucker for structure, me.

The extraordinary disappointments of Leopold Berry, Sunderworld v-01, by Ransom Riggs (audiobook, novel, US, 2024) - Not really my thing.

(For those counting along, that's 9 books, which is what I averaged in Jan/Feb... so still on pace for 108).

MOVIES & TV

Adolescence - worthy of the buzz

White Lotus - Season 3 (okay, there's still one episode to go, but)

Paradise - Season 1

Severance - Season 2

Dune Part 2

(And my daughter finished all seasons of Gilmore Girls, include A Year in the Life... She got annoyed when I fangirled over the scene where Rory is at a Shins concert. Oh that we could live in 2000-2007 again (when many would have longed for an even earlier time)).

January-Februrary 2025 Consumption Diary

MUSIC - JAN

READING

18 books so far this year. On pace for 108 (yeah, but, holiday reading... but also, no poetry collections yet...)

The Islanders by Christopher Priest (novel, physical book, UK, 2011) 

Classic Priest tropes (twins, theatre, unreliable narrator) in his fantasy world that feel like Earth if only Europeans existed (so, kinda ick). More interesting conceptually than in execution.

The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong (novel, physical book, Aus, 2016) 

Imagine Mark Waugh bloodied & stuffed in a car boot, reflecting on life. Loved all the backyard cricket stuff, brotherly tensions & dependency, the rise through to state cricket legend... The crime framing and twists felt less vital.

Funny Story by Emily Henry (novel, audiobook, US, 2024) 

As if reader notes from Henry's last book (Happy Place) said, "We want the exact same setup, but give him tattoos and spend longer on the sex scenes"... Elevated by the GOAT narrator (Goatarrator?) Julia Whelan.

Doxology by Nell Zink (novel, physical book, audiobook, US, 2019) 

Picked up on the promise of the elusive GOOD rock'n'roll novel. Starts by diagnosing a character with high-functioning Williams syndrome, which is unknown to all characters, and we keep this level of remove from most characters throughout. Oh well.

Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret (novel, audiobook, US, 1970)

Simultaneously an artifact of its era, a blueprint for others to follow (even picked up some resonances in Doxology, which I read concurrently) and an engaging yarn. Now to see what my 12y.o. daughter thinks 🤔

The Survivors by Steve Braunias (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2024) 

The alleged final book in a true crime trilogy. Much like Palmerston North pathologist Cynric Temple-Camp's trilogy-capping The Final Diagnosis, which I read last month, there's great moments, but it lacks the cohesion of earlier books.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (novel, Ireland, 2013) 

Had a couple solo South Island car trips tin Jan to churn through the audiobooks. Listening to this in transit felt apt, and the slow accumulation of detail, meaning and connection paid off...

Orbital by Samantha Harvey (novel, UK, 2024) 

...unlike this one, which felt like an extended creative writing exercise. No liftoff, no new layers exposed, dead on arrival.

Foraging New Zealand by Peter Langlands (non-fiction, physical book, NZ, 2024) 

The author's Instagram is full of quirky finds & unique dishes, but this is more of a straightlaced field guide. Kinda wished the book had more personality, & maybe a few place-based 2 page spreads (foraging at the beach, etc)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) 

Game of Thrones meets Harry Potter "romantasy" that was apparently big on BookTok (shrug) & people took the day off work to read the 3rd book when it came out last month. The engine runs but no need to ride again.

Magic Pill by Johann Hari (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2024) 

Hari both sides the Ozempic debate, with a heavy dose of Supersize Me-style autoethnography.

When it All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2019) 

I was once on a panel with Hawkins & Lloyd Jones (who demonstrated zero curiosity in commercial fiction/romance). Turns out, Hawkins is just as interested in the economics of farming as affairs of the heart. Time for Take 2.

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials book 1) by Philip Pullman (novel, audiobook, UK, 1995)

Thought I should check out what all the fuss is (was) about. Twas good. Not sure my kids are fantasy kids, so may not every go any further in this series.

The Colour of Magic (Discworld Book 1) by Terry Pratchett (novel, audiobook, UK, 1983)

Thought I should check out what all the fuss is (was) about. Twas okay. I'm not a fantasy guy (nor a this whole scene/character is a set up for a joke guy), so may not go any further with TP, though Pratchett heads may twist my arm.

Twist by Colum McCann (novel, physical book, Ireland, 2025) 

Reviewed this one for The Listener...

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (novel, physical book, Tanzania/UK, 2025)

...and this one.

Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell by Corbin Reiff (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2020)

Reiff didn't get access to interview anyone in Cornell's inner circle, so relied on previously published interviews and articles. That distance is felt throughout, as is the fact there can't be any new revelations.

Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins (novel, audiobook, US, 2003)

Hadn't read Robbins (RIP) before. Still not sure how representative this one was. Sooo many references to scrotums.

MOVIES & TV

Rogue Heroes (of the SAS) - Seasons 1 & 2

The Jackal - Season 1

Black Doves - Season 1

Ludwig - Season 1

The Kins of Tupelo - Season 1

Win or Lose - eps 1-4 (me and my son are really enjoying this)

The Lost Children

Night Bitch

Speed*

Mrs Doubtfire* (umm...)

MUSIC - FEB