I just picked up a book (the Mere Wife) that was exactly what I wanted in my next read. Have any of you had a recent read that was perfect for your reading mood?

EDIT: My friends, I have made a significant discovery. I pulled out my old, battered copy of Good Omens to see what the original text said.

Guys. It says "August 20-21".

😶

In my defense, in the audiobook it really sounds like 2021.

I guess this is a good example of being primed toward a certain mindset and finding fault where there really is none!

ORIGINAL POST IS BELOW, WHICH STARTED THE LENGTHY CONVERSATION. BUT BE AWARE THAT THIS WAS ALL MY MY ERROR AND NOT THE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER!

I'm listening to the Good Omens audiobook (narrated by Martin Jarvis) and had to go back and double check that I was hearing correctly. But I was:

"Something like a hotel reception desk now occupied one end of the hall [....] Aziraphale gazed at the board on an aluminum easel beside it. In little plastic letters laid into the black fabric of the board were the words 'August 2021 - United Holdings Holdings PLC Initiative Combat Course'"

August 2021.

The original book was written in 1990.

Every cultural reference in the book is from 1990. NONE OF THOSE REFERENCES MAKE SENSE IF THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN 2021.

Do publishers think that we aren't paying attention?? Why change the date? It isn't necessary! I'm assuming they want to make the audiobook more relevant to newer listeners, but how confusing is it to hear that it's the year 2021 and also have references to things like car phones, car aerials, and black and white TV's?

Not to mention pervading thoughts at the time about things like nuclear energy and global politics which make very little sense in a 2020's context. Oh, and Elvis flipping burgers in the Midwest - when was the last time you heard anyone make reference to that conspiracy?

Let the story take place in the 90's, as it was originally intended! Things don't need to be adjusted to make them more palatable to new readers/listeners. For folks who didn't grow up in the 90's, books like this are a great way to get a glimpse of what life was like waaaaaay back then. Let the references exist in their intended timeline.

I’ve seen so many people asking for book recommendations based on their favourite TV shows or films, and it made me realise that, for me, those tastes don’t overlap at all.

Take Gilmore Girls, for example. I adore it, and I constantly see people looking for books with the same cosy, comforting vibe (but honestly, that would bore me to tears in book form). What I love about Gilmore Girls, and about most of the shows I watch, is that they don’t demand my full attention. I can have them playing in the background while I snack, play with the cat, scroll on my phone, or drift in and out of the story without losing much.

Books are the complete opposite for me. I need them to be consuming. I want to feel like my face is being physically pulled into the pages by some invisible force. If a book feels too low-stakes or “easy watching,” I lose interest immediately.

The same applies to Studio Ghibli films. I’m a massive Ghibli nerd, but for me the magic comes from the animation, atmosphere, and music more than the narratives themselves. Those stories work because of how they feel audiovisually.

Ironically, my taste in books makes for terrible TV viewing. I love bleak, grim, hopeless-as-hell narratives when I read, but I struggle to watch stories like that on screen. Reading feels more controllable somehow; I can slow down, skim, pause, imagine things differently, soften or intensify scenes in my head. It feels like I get to co-direct the experience. With TV, I don’t have that distance, and I often end up disengaging or literally just looking away.

So my TBR and my TBW (to-be-watched) are wildly different worlds, and what works for me in one medium almost never works in the other.

Does anyone else feel this way? Or are your book and TV tastes more transferable?