Massive info dump

I'm thinking that maybe I'll actually just start constistently blogging about books on here...I mean, I really don't have a lot of other things that I feel it necessary to talk about on a regular basis, as most of the rants I would write on here always end up taking so long to write that by the time I'm halfway through writing them I'm no longer angry, and then I just really don't have any motivation to finish them. So. Books. Reviews. Maybe some movie-ish stuff? I don't know. Some random updates on life too I guess.
ANYWAY: Might as well start now!

Book #4 of the year: The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
Normally I don't like to talk too much about books we read in English because we discuss/write so much about them in class that it just feels like I'm doing more English homework when I have to talk about them outside of class, but this year I ended up with a teacher who isn't the best at getting good discussions going, so I need some sort of outlet to discuss.
The longer I spent thinking about this play, the more I liked it. At first, I absolutely hated the way everyone in the play was so wrapped in their own little worlds and disconnected from one another, but I have to say that as time went on, and after reading the final two acts, I warmed up to the play. I read somewhere that Chekhov considered this play to be a comedy, something which also made it more bearable. Thinking of this play as a serious tragedy makes it annoying and frustrating, while thinking of it as a comedy makes the melodramatics and ignorance of the characters funny and...well, it's a little bit like The Importance of Being Earnest in that I see a little bit of the ridiculousness in the characters there show up here. I do sympathize with these characters more, however - they're not supposed to be completely comical.
I thought it was fascinating to think about the way that Chekhov makes characters themselves into symbols of the different periods of Russia, but at the same time doesn't make it obvious, or even a focus within the play. Firs and Yasha are great examples of Russia pre-Industrial Revolution and post-, but this isn't really made super obvious. Instead of either of them being a main character, we see their differences subtly.

In other random media news:
1. I have entered into one of my "more music" phases, where I've just been downloading and buying music all over the place in order to just be more...not well-rounded, but something similar to that. So Shakira is the most recent addition to our iTunes, with Mika preceding her. I really enjoyed Mika, but Shakira I can't really get into - we'll see, but she may end up being like Jesse McCartney (don't judge), with a few songs I like amid the mass of songs I don't really care about.
2. Movies! We've recently acquired quite a few, so Sense & Sensibility is going to be watched soon, as will Little Women hopefully. And Brideshead Revisited, which I'm extremely excited to see for the first time.
3. Television: Everything's back on now, so that's nice. Merlin starts up on SyFy soon, White Collar's back on USA, and Glee and Fringe should be returning this/next week? Something like that. Going to continue with House of Anubis (...) and maybe I'll look at Tower Prep as well, though I'm a little iffy on that one. I don't understand why it is that networks like Nick and Cartoon Network make their website so screwed up in terms of schedules and shit, so that I can't figure out when anything is on, and consequently miss it, and then also can't watch them because they don't but them up online and wow this sentence is long. Whew.
(Also, when is the new Scooby Doo series coming back on? I kind of like it...)