a sad reading month for me. I made it through approximately 9/10ths of a book:
The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Epic TV Series by Jessica Radloff. This behemoth of a book clocks in at 528 pages and is everything you needed to know about TBBT...and a lot I didn't really need to know. Apparently, JR had written a number of articles about the show and thus had gained the trust of cast members and crew, which enabled her to get almost all of them (and all the ones that really mattered) to sit down for lengthy interviews. The book is written as a series of lengthy Q & As with the people involved in the show, with JR taking a backseat. Enough of the answers have been leaked over the years, so I didn't really learn much that I didn't already know. The best part of the book for me was Kaley Cuoco ("Penny") allowing JR to use many of her personal Polaroids of the cast and crew, which I enjoyed more than the formal, posed pictures. She comes across as a genuine sweetheart...OTOH, even though much was made of how nice he was to the cast and crew, especially the newcomers, I still go the impression that Johnny Galecki ("Leonard") is a bit of a diva, or at least thinks pretty highly of himself as a result of having been in the acting business since childhood. And while I already knew it was Jim Parsons ("Sheldon") who essentially killed the show by refusing to sign a contract once the last one was up, I didn't know the rest of the cast was blindsided by the announcement that Jim was done and so was the show. Kind of a d!ck move, not discussing it with the rest of the cast. Incidentally, Sheldon went from possibly my favorite character in the early years when he was socially clueless but willing to learn/try to being my least favorite character, turning into an insufferable man-baby who cr@pped all over his friends, then whined about how he didn't know any better so they had to forgive him. Ugh.
About the only other things I read in December were notes in Christmas cards (and two Christmas newsletters--I didn't know those were still a thing) and a little The Umbrella Academy fanfic. I discovered the show in mid-December or so and have been obsessing over it while simultaneously dreading its impending end (it ran for only 36 episodes, and I've read that the last 6--season four--"ruined" the show for many fans). Most of the UA fanfic has been good but the topics are pretty limited; the writers mostly either a) want someone to give Five a hug, b) want someone to give Klaus a hug or c) want the main characters, who were raised as siblings, to hook up.
