Do you Binge?

RHYS BOWEN: A couple of weeks ago we decided to watch the third season of The Crown. Actually we binge-watched it. Several episodes a night until I was falling asleep. In a way it was satisfying to see it one episode after another as one could follow the continuity of the story. But then I regretted it was over so quickly. I remember how much I enjoyed Downton Abbey when it first came out, waiting impatiently for the next Sunday night to find out what happened next and when Mary would finally get together with Matthew. And then the awful wait for another whole year and the next season of the story.

                Actually I loved the anticipation. It gave us something to talk about, to discuss with friends. Who would Mary pick? Did I think this suitor was a good choice? What would happen to Edith?  I’m not quite so invested in Queen Victoria as I know what happened to her in real life, but I’m still looking forward to the continuation of her story, unfolding week by week. (Anyone know when this might happen?)
                In England most series come out with a six week run, even the sit-coms, and then you have to wait until the next year to continue. This is annoying but…
                I love anticipation, don’t you? Do you remember counting off the days until your birthday or the end of school as a child? Even now I find myself saying “Three weeks until Christmas” or lying in bed planning our next vacation.
                So I’m interested to know what the rest of you think? Do you binge-watch? Binge-read? I get letters from fans who say “I’ve just discovered your series and I have read non-stop until I’m up to date.”  I suppose when you look at it, reading a series is just like one long extended novel so it might make sense to read it through without stopping. But as a reader I would love the tension of not knowing whether Georgie and Darcy would finally get together.
                So confession time: any binge-watchers/binge-readers out there?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I am so used to binge-watching now that I’m baffled when I have to wait for the next episode. We completely binged The Crown, and  Unbelievable, and The Jury, and all kinds of other things that I forget. So we started watching The Outsider, and it’s fabulous, but--oh! I have to wait? So I can see both methods of watching--I do love to be able to see it all, but then, as you say,  it’s so over.


And psychologically? I am not so hot on anticipation, I have to say. Just show me. Just tell me. Just do it. Let’s just--go. But that’s me.


Binge reading? Huh. I’d think I’ve ever done that. I think it would be--diminishing returns.


LUCY BURDETTE: this is a great question Rhys! We are just home from a fabulous trip to Africa--all was great fun except for the actual getting there and getting home part. Luckily on the way home (one of the flights was 16 hours!), the airline offered Season 2 of BIG LITTLE LIES. I had already watched this and loved it so much that I was happy to watch again. I made it through all 7 episodes and this helped the time go by so well! I was finishing the denouement as our wheels touched down. (By the way, Reese Witherspoon is an absolute genius. How can one woman be such a brilliant actor and writer and incredible supporter of books, authors, and reading??)


Usually with TV shows though, we like to spread things out. And this is true for book series for me too. I’ve been slowly making my way through VERA by Ann Cleeves, and I should finish the last installment, THE MOTH CATCHER, by the time her newest book comes out next fall.


JENN McKINLAY: Binge reader/watcher here. I am a binger. When I find an author I enjoy, I double back and read everything they’ve written, especially if it’s a series. I like to do a complete immersion into the author’s world. I read the first five Harry Potter books (I came late to the party) in three weeks. Usually, I generally only read for pleasure at night, so it takes me a while to finish a big series. I am the same with TV. I will gobble up a show (curse you, Netflix, for looping one episode after another) until I run out and am left bereft. Shows that have hooked me in lately are Dead To Me (so good) and Fleabag (fabulous).
     Weirdly, I do love a cliff hanger and if a show or a book ends on a wicked twist and I have to wait, I am thrilled with the anticipation.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I actually like a bit of both. It’s certainly nice to be able to stream a whole series, but when we were watching The Mandalorian, looking forward to Friday nights and a new episode was really fun.  Now we are doing that with the new Star Trek Picard (which I’m not sure I’m following at all…) When Rick and I are watching something together it’s usually just on weekends, so it can take us several weeks to get through a series. If it’s just me, however, I tend to get distracted. Too many choices!! I’m still trying to finish the third season of Broadchurch, and have watched Vera totally sporadically. (Lucy, did you know there is a new series out?)


Series books I do binge read, and I think that is one of the biggest treats of reading. But then you eventually get to the end and have to wait for a new book to come out!


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Can I, like Debs, say both? The girls and I watched the entire run of The Mandalorian in one loooong evening, and I don’t think I could have survived seeing what happened next if I had to wait for a week. On the other hand, I love the painfully delicious sensation of waiting for the next book in a beloved series to come out, and like Jenn, I LOVE cliffhangers (this will not be a surprise to anyone who reads my own novels.)


Because we have a history of buying CD collections of or streaming older TV shows, I’ve noticed that the structure and pacing of the stories seem to have changed to fit the binging era. If I watch all however-many episodes of Russian Doll in one night, it doesn’t feel as if the story has been rushed. But, as an example, when I shared my beloved Babylon 5 with the kids, seeing one episode after another made it feel like all the events and character changes were on fast forward. I think B5 is a good example because it was the first TV show that I know of to have a genuinely novelistic approach to a season - unlike everything that came before, which was pretty much strictly episodic. But it was written for viewers who would have a week between chapters, as it were, and so the actual time passing helped fix the time unfolding in the show. We had to go back to watching it with a few days between episodes to make it feel right.

RHYS: So who out there likes to binge? Who likes the anticipation of waiting and spreading the satisfaction?

The Book Binge

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Rhys has already reported to you

about Left Coast Crime 16, The Cactus Caper, the fan and writer conference held in Phoenix over the last weekend in February. This conference was a blast! I saw so many friends, and met new ones, both writers and fans. The panels were great. The weather was glorious--this is why people move to Phoenix, perfect 75 to 80 degree days in February. I got to see a good bit of downtown Phoenix, plus I got to visit my friend chef Sean Currid's new restaurant, The Blue Hound, in the Kimpton Palomar. To top it off, I came home with a great stack of new books.

AND, unfortunately, the flu.  As did at least a dozen other people that I know.
Now the upside to this is that I had a day, in the middle of last week, when I did not get out of my pajamas, which is very unusual for me. That day, I did something else I don't do very often. I allowed myself a book binge.

I tucked myself up on the chaise in my office (having quarantined myself from the bedroom for the duration) and I read the new Charles Todd Ian Rutledge novel, No Shred of Evidence, from cover to cover. The book is fabulous, and Caroline (assuming she is recovered enough from the flu) will be here to talk about it on Friday.

But the uninterrupted read was such a treat, such a luxury, that it made me realize how seldom I allow myself to do it. Usually, only when I'm confined-to-bed sick, and sometimes in London, when I have none of the ordinary household/family responsibilities and can take a rest/read day. In fact, the last time I read a book straight through was last year in London, when I curled up in front of the gas fire in my flat and read Laurie King's Dreaming Spies in one cold, rainy day.

I think we experience books differently when we are completely immersed and our imaginative experience is not interrupted by time and daily life. We live the characters and the story more intensely. And I think books that we read this way stay with us, are imprinted on our memory more deeply.

Reds, how often do you manage to read a book in an uninterrupted day? What was the last book you read on a "binge?" And do books read that way make a greater or more lasting impression on you?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I completely think it's different. I manage to get through three or four pages in bed at night, before I fall asleep, and I often think about how unfair that is to the author. I will confess now, that back in 1980, I called in sick to work (!) because I knew all I wanted to do was stay home and read THE STAND.  Debs, I did the same thing with my first Rutledge, though I' m wracking my brains for the title, and I did the same thing more recently with Shannon Kirk's METHOD 15/30, and with Laura  DiSilverio's new thriller (coming soon)  CLOSE CALL.   Oh, and Gilly Macmillan's WHAT SHE KNEW. It helps to be on airplanes all the time. That is lovely enforced reading time. (Right now  I'm in the airport in St. Kitt's!)   Feel better, dear Debs!

HALLIE EPHRON: It rarely happens that I find a book that I CAN binge read as opposed to binge skim. Because the storytelling has to hook me and the writing has to be so good that I want to read every word. And I’m so happy when it happens. Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer. Laurie R. King’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. When I’m sick my go-to drug is an audio book.

RHYS BOWEN: Oh, what a luxury to be able to read a book straight through. I rarely have the time and I can't read fiction while I'm writing. But on vacation I get through at least 4 books and I just read Kate Morton's The Lake House in about three sessions because I hated to put it down. I did the same with Louise Penny's The Nature of the Beast last year. Now I'm engrossed in a good book, can't wait to get back to it, and actually it's mine. I've never found myself reading one of my own books with expectation and pleasure like this before. I'm supposed to be doing edits but I want to keep reading - but I can't tell you what it is. You'll have to wait a while.

DEBS: Rhys, you are such a tease! Now we're going to be chewing our nails wondering about this mysterious book... And Hallie, how interesting about the audio books. Is it that listening rather than reading allows you to turn off your editor-brain and focus on the story? It never occurs to me to listen rather than read. Although with this bug, I'd have had to stop the story every time I started coughing...

Readers, do you treat yourself to reading a book cover-to-cover? And what was the last book you got to read straight through?