January-February 2026

I’m trying out doing bi-monthly roundups of the books I’ve read and movies that I’ve watched. Who knows if this is something that I keep doing long-term but I will try at least for a few months. I also retroactively wrote up a roundup for december of 2025.

Books completed   10 books

Birdking Vol. 1 Re:Zero Vol. 36 Dungeon Crawler Carl Carl's Doomsday Scenario The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook The Gate of the Feral Gods The Butcher's Masquerade The Eye of the Bedlam Bride The Golden Compass This Inevitable Ruin

I set myself a goal of reading 24 books this year. One month in and I’m already a quarter of the way there! I started reading Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series and got hooked pretty quickly. I tore through all 7 currently-released books in just two months so that is a good indicator of how much I enjoyed the series. It’s a strong recommend from me. The next book comes out in May and I am very much looking forward to it.

Books carried over   2 books

The Subtle Knife A Parade of Horribles

I started A Parade of Horribles (unreleased) and The Subtle Knife, but didn’t finish them in time. I am liking them so far so they will likely be the first entries in my March reading log.

Movies watched   26 movies

Superman KPop Demon Hunters Wicked: For Good Morning Glory Avatar Avatar: The Way of Water Avatar: Fire and Ash Now You See Me: Now You Don't Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves All You Need is Kill Inception Wine Country Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Fatherhood No Other Choice Send Help Zootopia 2 Promare / Side: Galo Promare / Side: Lio Promare Nope Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die Failure to Launch 47 Meters Down The Golden Compass How to Train Your Dragon

Lots of movies. Quite a few of them were rewatches, but I also watched a number of other movies that I would definitely see myself watching again in the future. It surpassed my expectations. The Golden Compass movie was terrible in a way that sorta made me like it. I didn’t have high expectations for the How to Train Your Dragon life action remake, but I was pleasantly surprised. I haven’t seen the original for a while, so I forgot most of the story. I really liked it.

Most of the movies I watch are older releases. A movie has to really jump out at me to get me to go see it in theaters, and that’s what Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die and Send Help did. Send Help surpassed my expectations.

Shows I’ve been watching

I’m not keeping up with very many weekly shows right now. The two main ones are the second season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Sentenced to be a Hero. At some point I will get caught up on Jujutsu Kaisen but haven’t managed it yet. I finished season 2 of Fallout and would say that I was whelmed. My wife and I watched the first season of The White Lotus, which I enjoyed, but she wasn’t too impressed with it. We finished the first season of The Righteous Gemstones and so far are really enjoying the character development.

Reflection

What went well this month

Book club

I started going a book club with my wife, starting with The Golden Compass. It’s been really fun to regularly talk to each other about the book as we go, discuss questions and theories that we have and what we hope happens next in the story. I ended up really liking the book and plan to finish the six-book series.

Reading every day

I don’t think I’ve missed a day yet this year. As of 02/28/2026, I have completed 10 books. That puts me well above pace for my 24 book goal this year. Even if I don’t count the two books from the start of the year that carried over from last year, that still puts me at 4 books ahead of schedule. I would never set myself a goal of more than 24 books in a year, but if I naturally exceed that then that’s perfectly fine and good. I want the books I read to be because I enjoyed them and not because I felt like I had to finish my homework.

What didn’t go well this month

I need to work out more

I set myself a goal of working out more this year and so far I have worked out 10 times. That’s only an average of about once per week. I would like to get to at least 3 times each week. One mistake I made was trying to get back into weight lifting based on how I used to train when I was in college and did it regularly. I pushed myself too hard too early and hurt my knee.

I’m not drinking nearly enough water

Originally I set myself a goal of drinking 120 ounces of water every day. After tracking my success (or more accurately lack of) for the last few months of 2026, I decided to lower my goal to 80 oz each day to give myself a higher chance of success. I though that it was better to get a quick win to build morale and then iteratively improve until get to my original goal of 120 oz. So far that strategy has not worked out.

What I am going to try to do differently

I am going to prioritize building my habit of working out first before I try to get back to where I was 7 years ago at the peak of my lifting journey. I won’t ever get there if I keep failing to jump from nothing to lifting heavy 5 days a week. I struggle with an all-or-nothing mindset so when I fail at the obviously too difficult first step, I end up giving up. Improving iteratively from where I am will make any individual failure less of a setback.

New rule: The only non-water beverage I am allowed to drink before I have had 80 oz of water on any given day is a protein shake or milk. I don’t like drinking milk, so if I want something other than water or Premier Protein, I need to get chugging.