Consuming media

The recent holidays prompted a massive consumption of media on my part. On the most part I read books and then I watched some movies on DVDs and cinema. I read yet another comical book by Terry Pratchett, Small Gods. This one I read in French, a rather strange choice for an English book. I just could not resist all those cheap pocket books that they sell in FNAC (Brussels). I also bought the first novel of Michel Houellebecq (I will never learn how to spell his name without google). A great book that I received as a gift was Alamut by Vladimir Bartol. A story that takes place in eleventh century Iran. You got to love those kind of books.

On films I can recommend "María llena de gracia", a Colombian movie about "mulas", persons that traffic cocaine in their stomachs. I remember especially the scene where María swallows the "films". Expect unusually tense moments in that film.

Recently, I started listening to two podcasts. One is Radio Open Source with the slogan "A public radio show with Christopher Lydon". As far as I can tell they tackle sociological, economic and politic issues from around the world. Every program features a guest with expertise in a specific topic who also happens to be a blogger. I already pointed out the show that discussed the increasingly left-leaning Latin American governments. Topics such as Iraq and global warming are also discussed. There is even a program on cookbooks it seems. I will take a look at it!

The other podcast is called The Naked Scientists with the aim of promoting science to the general public. They do it with humor and quick-paced programs. Today I was listening to the special on social insects and biting bugs. I learned why the bites of horse flies are so painful. It was particularly interesting to me since I suffered the bites of this bastards in the island of Mljet. Thanks to Metka for suggesting this podcast.

I also recommend listening to the Documentary Archive from BBC Radio. You can find the podcast feed in this page.

Finally, following links in Barrio Flores I found a blog called I will teach you to be rich. I am not particularly interested in being rich or in becoming rich overnight. Well, It must not be completely true since I read the posts :). The ones that I liked are those that help me improving my self-management skills. So here you have a post about work and the guilt of not doing it and another on the myth of the great idea.