Do you binge?

• Posted in About Books, On TV, Superhero Stuff

Note: This post will also appear tomorrow at Magical Musings.

Earlier this year, I finally subscribed to Netflix. I know, I know. I’m a couple of years behind the times.

But for the first time, I understood why people binge-watch TV shows. Just … one … more … episode!

In the space of about a month, I watched both seasons of Marvel’s Daredevil, along with Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Since then, I’ve tried some other shows, including Marvel’s Luke Cage, which premiered in late September, and I’ve watched some episodes of shows that I already follow.

But I find that I don’t always do the same kind of binging when it comes to reading.

Rocket Raccoon Chasing TaleOne of my goals over the summer was to finally (finally!) whittle down my TBR pile, especially when it came to all the comics/graphic novels. And I did that. I read a lot of comics over the summer, including Rocket Raccoon Volume 1: A Chasing Tale by Skottie Young and Jake Parker, some Deadpool, several different Captain America series, and more.

But I didn’t sit down and read them all back-to-back-to-back, and I didn’t read just comics. I also read some contemporary and paranormal romances, action-adventure thrillers, and young adult books.

So why don’t I binge on a certain series or a certain genre when it comes to reading?

When it comes to a TV show, I want to know what’s going to happen to the characters next, and the Marvel shows are very good at ending their episodes on cliffhangers to keep you watching. Plus, in some ways, a season of a TV show feels like a book to me, especially the superhero-type shows that usually feature a big bad villain who is defeated by the end of the season. When I get to that last episode, I feel like I’ve finally seen the whole story (at least for the current season), and I can set it aside and move on to something else. Plus, sometimes I just want to laze around on the couch and watch TV. 🙂

When it comes to a book, I still want to know what’s going to happen to the characters, but I also want to absorb the words and story, especially if the characters are really interesting, or the book has some great, snappy dialogue. I tend to savor the experience of reading a good book a little more than I do watching a TV show. And I like to read in one genre, then read something else in a different genre. The variety just makes reading a little more fun for me.

What about you guys? Do you binge-watch, binge-read, or both? What are some of your favorite movies, TV shows, and book series to binge?

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4 Responses to “Do you binge?”

  1. Eloise says:

    I binge-watch some shows and binge-read some books. It’s hard to really put my finger on exactly what makes me do it.

    I think I have to find them easy enough to consume to want another bite, so to speak, but also good enough to want another bite.

    Luke Cage, for me, was too localised in Harlem and American racial history. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as a topic, but being based in the UK it made it harder for me to connect with so I didn’t watch it. Jessica Jones was about abused women and a possible form of coping with being a survivor of abuse and while it was very dark in places it was always compelling and accessible so I binged it.

    With an author, lighter reads, shorter books (there’s a definite trend that way in some genres since the rise of the eBook and self-publishing IMO) I’m more likely to consume 2, 3, 4 books in a row. If I’m reading (or rereading) someone like Stephen Donaldson or Steven Erikson where the physical books can be used as a deadly (if blunt) weapon, I’m much less likely to read several of them in a row, however much I like the stories.

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      Easy enough and good enough to binge — That’s a good way to put it.

      I really liked Jessica Jones too. I didn’t like Luke Cage as much because it just didn’t seem like there was as much action in it as there was in JJ or especially Daredevil. A lot of the characters in LC seemed to keep talking about what they were going to do, but it seemed to take them a long time to get around to actually doing anything.

      Yeah, I can binge something shorter or lighter — like comics or contemporary romance — but I can’t do the same thing with long, epic fantasy books. I have to make time in my schedule to sit down and read those.

  2. Chicory says:

    Yes, I binge, especially when I have a TV show season on DVD. I feel like you get a better sense of the over-all story when you binge-watch. (Not saying it’s a healthy habit, just that you get a better sense of the story’s flow.) I do binge-read sometimes, especially when it comes to cliff-hangers.

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      That’s very true. Even with network TV, I’ve found myself waiting until I have 2 or 3 episodes on my DVR before I sit down and watch them now.

      Usually, if I know a book has a major cliffhanger, I’ll try to wait until the second one is close to being released before I read the first one.

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