The three hundred and thirty-ninth album: #339 Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner

Starting your week with a double album full of raw, spoken word jazz doesn't really get you going on a Monday morning. The album clearly revolves around Tom Waits' song writing, with two minute intros between songs, but his stage persona is so off putting that I found it hard to care and didn't get involved in the songs. At that point, they are jazz songs dominated by a scratchy voiced vocalist that I don't get much out of. It feels more like a drunken man's ramblings than creating an album that I actually enjoy.

The ninety-fourth book: #1016 Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

Probably rather heretically, I always feel like there are two sides to Jane Austen's novels, with only one half appealing to me. I find it fascinating to read about their daily life, the adventures of people living in the era and what they found impressive. Northanger Abbey has this well, including some interesting insights in how literary works of the day found reading novels to be a bad thing, even in novels, that became an interesting recurring discussion. It's a nice, light touch and the further separation of fact and fiction and how novels don't follow real life work really nice.

And then there's the love story, which follows all of Austen's familiar beats (the Austentatious improv show is based all around that concept and is worth seeking out if you have the chance). There's the rejection, the back and forth, and the lucky reunion with a wedding at the end. It's fine, but at this point I'm just waiting for it to hit the beats rather than feeling like I'm invested.