Show Notes - Week of January 10, 2022

Greetings at the 1/24th point of 2022. It is depressing to think that half a month is already gone from the year, but at least the last week was relaxing, rewarding, and productive. Coming up is a recap of the first two books of the year, a look at my 2021 reading review, five new drinks, and one new word. Let's jump in. 

Reading Pile:
First up for the reading section is an overview of my reading for 2021. I wanted to do a recap of the previous year's reading for the last couple years and actually did it this year. I was stoked as I started to draft the article earlier this week but ended up feeling a bit down. My numbers were done for the year and there were very few memorable books in retrospect. On the positive side, it did give me motivation to improve my reading in 2022 in several ways. I will leave the details for the actual article. If you want to know what I wrote about what I read, read "Reading Review for 2021" in the Long Form section of this site. 

Moving on to the reading progress for this year, Book #1 for 2022 was "Joyland" by Stephen King. I purchased this ebook three or four years ago after I read that the publisher, Hard Case Crime, had asked Stephen King for an endorsement but instead he wrote them a book. The book he wrote was not Joyland but it was a neat enough story that I picked up Joyland anyway. Joyland is a really good story, not so much of a horror as one might think coming from King but thrilling enough to be enjoyable. King did a masterful job providing hints and foreshadowing, talking about events and people that would enter the story at a later point. The conclusion was as satisfying as the plot. I am looking forward to reading more of King's books from Hard Case Crime. 

Book #2 for 2022 was my third lifetime read of "Our Man Weston" by Gordon Korman. This is a book I read in 2019 to my older daughter, and I enjoyed reading it just as much to my younger daughter in the past few days as I did three years ago. This is one of Korman's earliest books, and it is hard to find in any format now. That is a shame because the story is wonderfully put together and quite funny. I have a lot of good memories with Gordon Korman books both as a teen and as a parent, and this one is at the top of the heap. 

New Drinks:
Five new beers this week, up from the two or three I predicted in last week's entry. Most of the beers this week were disappointing, particularly the Alley Kat which continues their trend of turning out underwhelming beers. The best of the week was the Born Colorado Earl's Ale, and even it was not great as it was overly sweet. 

Ol' Beautiful Okami Kasu Japanese Ale, made with rice (3.5 / 5); Hawk Tail Mexican Style Lager (3.25); Howe Sound Pothole Filler Imperial Stout (3.0); Alley Kat Candid Coffee Porter (3.0); and, Born Colorado Earl's Ale (3.75).

These five entries bring me up to 851 unique check-ins and 1003 badges on Untapdd.

New Words:
Just one new word this week as the reading was fairly simple. There should be more next week as I will finish a relatively technical science fiction novel. 

neurasthenia
[ˌn(y)o͝orəsˈTHēnēə]
NOUN

1. (dated) an ill-defined medical condition characterized by lassitude, fatigue, headache, and irritability, associated chiefly with emotional disturbance.