Thanks to the entire-season-at-once release of House Of Cards, the new pastime of binge-viewing is being widely discussed. I must take issue with the term "binge", because what's so bad about really throwing yourself into someone's creative endeavor for awhile? It's the way I've always read…
A few months ago, I read all 544 pages of The Art Of Fielding in 24 hours. I started reading Saturday evening, continued until 4a.m., got up the next morning and read over breakfast, headed to the gym, then read in the sun in the park for many more blissful hours. (Perhaps it goes without saying that I live alone. Reading is not nearly the social activity that tv-watching can be.) In January I read The Night Circus in one weekend, pausing only to swim and go for a few walks. A few years ago I read the first two books of the His Dark Materials trilogy in one rainy Portland weekend, then counted down the workdays until I could dive into the third. I can't imagine what it was like for people who were reading them as they were being written. No, I can: the wait for each new Harry Potter seemed interminable. When a young friend received his first Harry Potter for Christmas, I told him, "You have no idea how lucky you are."
Technically, I guess this could be called binge-reading, but like the television executives in The New York Times story on this subject, "marathoning" seems more accurate. If you lead a generally active life, I can't think of a problem with devoting a day or two to a book or show. In fact, I have to periodically get out of the house and moving, no matter how involved in the story I am. Stretching is also key!
I think of reading a book all at once, or watching a show all at once, as a tribute to the creator's vision. For those 24 or 48 hours, I'm living with their characters, immersed in their lives, aware of every detail — truly paying attention to this world they've made. Writing that just now, I realize how escapist that sounds, but hey — as long as it's only once in a while, right? Overindulgence in moderation.
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I just got the 4th and 5th books in the Song Of Fire And Ice saga delivered yesterday (don't judge!).
I stayed up until 3 am finishing the 3rd book so I can dive right in this weekend, although I admit that this has been an INCREDIBLY long workday! =)
I totally binge read mystery series
I love being pulled into a book when I am voraciously reading it - although sometimes it's also nice to "live" awhile with the characters and take a book in slowly too.
In regards to shows, it's nice to watch many shows/seasons in a short period of time but I've often noticed that people don't generally get as attached with shows in the way that others do when they've been watching a show over a period of years. There is some kind of different attachment I think.
Love this post! In moderation a good entertainment binge is just fine - especially in the winter. Totally binged on the first season of Revenge on Netflix this winter. So much fun. As are literary binges because it means you're reading a good book. I'd recommend Wilkie Collin's classic, the Woman in White for your next binge. I happily lost a weekend to it last winter. I've actually been late for parties because I needed to finish a really engrossing book, even though I prefer real people to fictional ones :) While I made it to the New Years party, I had to finish The Time Traveler's Wife first. Same with the barbeque this summer that really had to wait until after I'd finished the Hunger Games.
I loved 'The Night Circus'. I devoured that too.
I really enjoy being so immersed in a book or tv show that you want to absorb it all at once. I miss that about books since having a baby...and as for tv shows, most successful ones these days follow what I call the 'Lost' phenomenon, where every episode leads to a cliff hanger to keep you hooked. It's much more satisfying to watch those kinds of shows back-to-back.
Star Trek Technical Manual FTW.
I used to do the book in a day when I lived at home. Now it's not so easy with the internet and cable.
I found Mad Men when my husband was away on an overnight. I watched the whole first season in a row on OnDemand then made him watch it when he got home. :)
I've done this for years now! It started with Nancy Drew. My mother gave me her collection. After that, I was hooked. I still do it to this day. I just bought nine books of a series because I fell in love with book one. Thank the stars for my kindle app! Makes it much easier to indulge.
That last books I remember binge-reading are Life and Death in Shanghai (it was soooo good!) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I guess I've realized that I prefer having something good to look forward to; I hate that empty feeling afterwards, when you can't find a book that is as good to fill the void, or a series that is as good and compelling as the one you just finished. (It took me a long time to be able to focus on another series after I finished Friday Night Lights. Nothing was as good.)
i've been watching 4 episodes of 30 Rock per night for the last two weeks. what a show!
I've never been able to not binge-read. In fact, I will often tell myself 'just one more chapter' and read until 4 am because I just can't put it down (and I have a very unhealthy disrespect for tomorrow) :P
A friend and I also had a Doctor Who marathon this winter (and by that, I mean ALL of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctor) and it was so much fun to re-watch them all. And because there wasn't a lot of time between the episodes, we caught a lot of the funny/sneaky time and character references the writers put in.
I'm a librarian, and, contrary to what my patrons seem to think, I almost never have TIME to binge read. I'm lucky to get 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. It's frustrating to be one of the people who chooses all the cool new books and who could place requests to read them as soon as we get them (in fair competition with our patrons, I hasten to mention), and not really have the time. Absolutely not at work, and sadly, not at home, either.
I rarely binge on TV shows either -- this season we were interested in Arrow, being fans of the super-hero movies and TV shows... but we missed the first few episodes. So we found them on Netflix or somewhere and caught up on a couple of weekends, but for me that's unusual. (My partner is fond of the practice, though. He's gone through several seasons of several sci-fi series, Downton Abbey, and other programs in big gulps while I'm squeezing in a little reading, sewing, crafting, cleaning, laundry or other time...)
I binge read comic series I've missed. I went though Flex Mentallo, The Invisibles, Seven Soldiers, Promethea and Tom Strong all in one weekend. Blew the back of my head off.
I rarely binge on TV though; mostly because I'm not always in front of Netflix but I'm among that first wave of people to discover Downton on Netflix and just recently I went through the whole third season of Whitechapel in one day.
I used to buy myself 3 thick books and read them over the Christmas/New Year period when I was on my own. It was a real treat - like a return to childhoodv (when I would read constantly).
I've done 2 Lord of the Rings extended version trilogy marathons, in a single day each time. And survived!
Omg, I did the same thing with House of Cards!!! And the same thing with cookbooks and Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small Cool Spaces :)