Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: October 2025
Alan:
Hello Heroes!
Spoooooky!
What I’m reading!
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Is this HIGH ART? Nope. Was it a fun read? Yep. A silly sci-fi premise leads us to a silly fantasy premise. There’s a talking cat. There’s a lot of D&D-related humor. Copious amounts of splatter. It’s a great “B” novel. A bit bummed that it definitely doesn’t get close to telling a full story. But hey, how else are you gonna write 10 novels of the same thing? I’ll probably read more.
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. This guy is such a good writer that I was enthralled for two chapters of just straight History of Geology. GREAT book. Interesting information. Surprising relevance to your life. What can I say, strong recommend for just about anybody.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I read this when it first came out. But I’m back. I only read the first two books, then decided to wait until the whole series was done to actually read them. Too long waiting between books to keep up with it. I like these books, though not as much as most other Brando Sando stuff. Feels bloated to me. But I still really like it!
What I’m watching!
Shelby Oaks - Debut film from fellow YouTuber Chris Stuckmann. It was really well directed. The story was, imo, undercooked and a bit meh. Kinda an assembly of a bunch of things that Stuckmann liked in other movies, sorta glomped together. But man, I’m excited to see his next project. (I hear good things about his next script!)
Loads of other stuff from the FilmQuest festival! I might do a write-up of the fest when it’s finished (only halfway done as I write this). Lots of fun/interesting films here. All very indie. And Cyranø played great!
What I’m playing!
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Back to the Western Frontier, baby! I’m playing the DLCs to get ready for Avatar: Fire & Ash in just about 6 weeks! That’s right. I’m an unapologetic Avatar homer. I love the movies. I really like the game. I adore the world. Sign me up for that first RDA transport out. I’m moving off-world!
Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)
Jono:
Hello and Happy Spooky Season, y'all! This month I've been reading Stephen King's The Shining because Five Below had it in paperback for $5 and I said what the heck, why not? Fantastic book and quite different in the details than the Kubrick film.
I've been watching as many scary/spooky movies as I can for the season, including Frankenstein 2025 (sumptuous), Shelby Oaks (well-directed but poorly-written), Good Boy (good fun), Psycho (classic), Cabin in the Woods (a personal favorite), Happy Death Day (more fun than scary, but very fun), Five Nights at Freddy's (sorry Chuck-E-Cheese), and Poltergeist (the original, still unnerving).
What about you lot? What have you been taking into your eyeballs?
Comments (16)
Please watch Black phone 2 (and the first one if you haven’t) such a wonderful story about healing and facing one’s fear
Reading not much this month honestly. Watching some Halloween classics The Lost Boys is tradition on Halloween for me. I watched it with someone who had never seen it before. I watched the first episode of The Penguin and plan on watching more. I watched Weapons fantastic movie. Doctor Sleep one of my other favorites. My friend showed me Catch me if you can which I also really liked. Very fun movie and interesting story. I got to see The Witcher 3 in concert in Utah it was amazing! My favorite game of all time and one of the best soundtracks of all time. It was amazing! I will gladly remember it for years! Sadly didnt do much for halloween do to my health. Also lots of stressor this month on top of it.
Always Over the Garden Wall in October!
Rewatched Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass and am excited to see Frankenstein. Would love to see your take on a couple of Flanagan's series sometime: Midnight Mass is a great exploration of fanaticism vs faith and The Haunting of Hill House is a powerful look at grief (especially from a family systems perspective!).
I binged Agatha All Along in about 2 days. So good!
Glad to see another unapologetic Avatar fan. I've loved the movies since I saw the first one in IMAX back in 09.
Jono it makes me so happy to see that someone else watched and liked Good Boy. This month my entire brain is being taken over by Celebrity Traitors UK 😅
Reading: The Foundation series by Asmiov Watching: Mostly comfort rewatching at the moment. Going through Mythbusters and rewatching the US Office rather than anything new
Jono, I made the mistake of listening to The Shining on audiobook whilst working night shift security in a retail warehouse. Hindsight, not such a great idea! Great book, though! I hope you go on to also read Doctor Sleep, which is the sequel, following Danny as a grown man.
I started the month out finishing A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas, then read The Picture of Dorian Gray, and now I'm about halfway through Insomnia by Stephen King. I've been burning through movies and shows. Like, holy crap. I should start keeping a written list. Hereditary, Gerald's Game (do not watch if you're even a little bit squeamish. Jesus.), Santa Clarita Diet, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, American Horror Story, Wednesday, Winchester, The VVitch (I would LOVE if you guys reviewed this movie), Coraline, both versions of It (1990 and 2017), Nosferatu, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Hocus Pocus (1 and 2), Halloweentown (all of them), The Haunted Mansion, The Labyrinth, Nightmare Before Christmas, Crimson Peak, Witches, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Addams Family... So. Many.
Just finished season 2 of Gen V. The entire season was great, though the end was a bit anti-climactic. Now we are watching Deadwood, on season 2. Deadwood is so great, you could definitely get some good episodes out of it. For movies we've been watching the Child's Play films, Bride of Chucky, and Nosferatu. Still reading A Tale of Two Cities since I haven't been consistently reading.
First half of the month was reading to meet the new Goodreads quarterly challenges - Witch You Would (meh), Dead Silence (great! Will be reading more horror sci-fi from S.A. Barnes!), The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door (very enjoyable), The Diamond Eye (will be checking out more Kate Quinn books), All My Knotted-Up Life (couldn't put it down tbh, teared up, sat and reflected...good stuff), and a bunch of Mimi Matthews titles for some good fluff reading. Second half of the month has been watching because I am back in K-drama land and loving it! First, Genie Make a Wish - so fun, and a great representation of someone with antisocial personality disorder working through how to operate in society without being a criminal. Then Bon Appetit Your Majesty - WOW. Incredible. 10 out of 10, no notes. Followed by King the Land, which actually made it into my top ten K-drama list - a very difficult feat after how many I've seen. Consent is sexy (like...really sexy you guys...) and so much good clarifying communication and trust in the main relationship! LOVED IT. I teared up twice throughout and then flat out cried during the final episode! Also Lovely Runner and it was so gut-wrenching and roller-coaster-y and made me tear up at the end too. K-drama land is such a good place to live.
currently in the thick of uni work, but have been sticking on "poker face" every dinner time! been on my list since it came out, just never got round to watching it. and I'm LOVING it, so excited for the new knives out this year :D
Me and my girlfriend just finished a playthrough of Silent Hill F, and now we're working through Tormented Souls II, a fun little survival horror game in the style of classic Resident Evil.
A friend of mine discovered that I've never read anything by Asimov. He very quickly chucked the Foundation trilogy as well as the accompanying books at me, so I've been working my way through them. I'm on "Second Foundation" now, and am finding it interesting to see how his writing is subtly beginning to improve 😊. As far as watching goes, my list is LONG. I've been watching a spooky movie for every night of the month, so I won't bore people with all of them. New favorites to me this year have been Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, The Babadook (NEVER WATCHING THAT AGAIN, THOUGH!), ParaNorman, and Heart Eyes. Happy Halloween, y'all!
That's so weird; I literally just finished Foundation and Empire a few days ago 😮 Marvel at the interconnectedness of all things!