I'm gradually getting more and more interested in history books, the more I read the more I want to know. This was recommended to me a long, long time ago, and I've just got around to finishing it. On the one hand, it's a good book, well-written and interesting. On the other hand, all the people within it are awful!

I've been following the progress of Ghost, a new Kickstarter-funded blogging platform, for a while. It just recently went live for self-hosted blogs, which I briefly considered signing up to. I really want to try out and encourage new blogging formats, rather than the same-old, same-old, but having been through the pain of self-hosted, I decided I'd wait for the hosted solution instead. This week, the brilliant Ghost folks gave …

I’ve developed a bit of a fascination with workout apps and digital videos, and it turns out iTunes is stocked full of both. I’ve tried a few here and there, but was most excited when it was announced that Miranda Hart, of Miranda fame, was going to release something. The premise behind her video is that you have to have fun while getting up and moving, otherwise it’s easier to …

Mostly, this was very good. It took a long time to get going, and actually the bits where Sandra and Melissa were doing their own thing were not as much fun. When they finally got together and started working as a duo, it was a lot better. Aside from that, the only real problem I had with it was how predictable it was in terms of a cop story - as mentioned above, the heart to heart in the bar and then being taken off the case, and then actually winning the day.

Up until recently, Bose was just a name that I occasionally heard in reference to headphones. I didn’t realise it was a pretty big brand that have their own stores and everything, not until I was dragged into one. Mr C was investigating the options for their SoundTouch system, and wanted to get a closer look. The SoundTouch is a pretty clever piece of kit, similar to the Sonos system. …

This is another of those huge saga stories, following a full generation, almost two, from birth to death, and everything that happens in between. It's reminiscent of Archer's other works - Cain and Abel style - and is just as good. The thing about these books is they're not always beautifully written but they're a page-turner anyway, because you just want to know what happens next.

I managed to miss a lot of the hype surrounding the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. Obviously in the run up to the episode airing, it was almost impossible to take an online step without finding something related to the sci-fi show, but before that, I’d side-stepped most of it. I knew of the Billie Piper/David Tennant return, and was obviously expecting an appearance from this new rogue Doctor …

There was never any doubt that we would watch this one, as the first film was an instant hit in our household. My recent blog header would indicate as much, with minions becoming a firm favourite of mine. We had to wait until my exams had finished, partly because I wanted to use the film as a treat for getting through it, and partly because I knew I couldn't cope with the minion-ness until I was done!

I've not seen The Wire, but I was still interested in the book that the TV series was based on - because it seems like an original of those 'on-the-job' memoirs I've been fascinated by of late. Following one year in the Baltimore homicide police department, the book tracks a few cases, a lot of deaths but most importantly, the men who are in charge of investigating the two.

The trailers Okay, so, we watched The Internship recently and it left a pretty awful taste in our mouths. I'm thinking that watching Vince Vaugn do something slightly less of a commercial might work, and thus the trailer for Delivery Man kinda works. It's a pretty far-fetched concept, and all seems a bit contrived, but hey, I didn't see any Google in the trailer, so I'm sold. Delivery Man I'm …

I've always managed to get a lot of use out of my iPad. There are two main dilemmas around Apple's tablet device (aside from price, etc) with one being "What would I use it for?" and the other being "It's only good for consuming, not creating." My iPad has always been kept busy, but I would admit that it's mostly for consumption. Watching TV, videos, listening to music, browsing the …

Sky have been expanding their Now TV offering with a fantastic Entertainment Pass. The Now TV app is on demand and live programming from Sky without having to sign up to a huge contract, or get dish-shaped things installed on the side of your house. They've got sports and movies, but it's the entertainment package that has really caught my eye. For £4.99 a month (introductory price, we'll have to …

As soon as the film was over, Mr C and I turned to each other and shuddered. It really does make you feel dirty for having watched it. That's a real shame, too, because there's quite a lot of good in there. There's a great story bubbling under all the primary colours - fish out of water salesmen, adapting to the changing technologies, connecting with younger generations, and helping them find themselves in a very difficult environment. When they were stood on the hill, looking out over the bay, I thought, that's a really nice moment.

It was what I expected - a traditional rom-com style story, with two great performances from Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. The characters were all completely crazy but that was part of the fun. I liked it, but it wasn't particularly special. A nice filler movie if you've got some time to waste or want a feel-good Sunday afternoon thing. It might mean more if you had experienced the university thing, in any country, but particularly the seemingly obscure admissions process that this film is based.

I thought this was a really good film, surprising actually because I wasn't filled with hope going into it. The direction is so very Baz Luhrmann and although it takes a bit of getting used to, it spices up what could otherwise be a dull two and a bit hours. The acting is good, Leonardo is really on top-form. I've realised that although I do have a big problem with the dialogue in Spiderman, a lot of my feelings might also come from Tobey Maguire... just not a fan. Aside from that, though, the only real problem with the film is the same as with the book - none of the characters are particularly likeable or relatable which makes it hard to properly care.

When I took on some pretty serious studying, I knew I'd have to make some sacrifices and that the book learning, revision hours and exam week would need a lot of time, focus and brain power. I hadn't quite anticipated the degree with which diving into those books took over my life, but this week I finished up the first batch of exams, giving me a bit of breathing space …

The Beach is another book that I've read several times, and really enjoy it. It's been a while since the last outing, though, so I had mostly forgotten the intricate twists and turns that the story takes. What's brilliant about it is how subtly things go wrong. An island dream paradise, with fellow travellers who all work and play and get along together.

This is the End gave us the same reaction as This is 40 (maybe something to do with having 'this is' in the title?) because it was both brilliant and awful in equal measure. The moments that were genius were absolutely fantastic - in particular, possessed Jonah Hill, the fight about the Milky Way, Jonah Hill praying, sinkhole-de-mayo, anything Jonah Hill did really. But they were littered in what was quite a long film for not much story, a whole heap of self-indulgent talk and references that we didn't get, and a few gross moments I wasn't so keen on.

I actually managed to read all of Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything but I can't honestly say that I retained anything from it. This book is a similar endeavour, chronicling each room of the house and looking into the history of why it's there, how its purpose has changed and how many of the things we find inside came to be.

I think, generally speaking, my initial impressions summed up the film - I enjoyed it, I can see that other people probably didn't like it as much as the first one, if at all. It seems like the kind of film that is for proper fans of the game, rather than an Avengers-style anyone can enjoy it adventure. The best bits about both films remain the nods to the games, so if you're not spotting those, I'm not sure there's an awful lot to entertain you with.

Monsters Inc was one of the first films that I watched with this new note-taking process, but we had to rewatch it in anticipation of the prequel. I was particularly looking forward to this one, having seen the trailer and it not looking like Pixar totally ruined the concept - as they have done with a few of their other films.

I stayed with the Apple podcast app for much longer than I should have done. For a while, I couldn't really abandon it - having far too many podcasts to listen to, limited space available on the phone, and a need to manage which episodes synced to my device. But a while back, I got over my obsessive compulsion to listen to every single thing in the right order from …

I hadn't heard of Bastille before I saw them on the iTunes Festival this year, but I've grown to like quite a few of their songs, particularly the anthemic Pompeii. I loved this recent video on Vevo of the band rocking up to a park with the barest of instruments and putting on an impromptu performance. Well, impromptu enough that you have plugs for your keyboard, anyway. Things to love …

I love this book. I've read it several times, and snapped it up for my Kindle bookshelf too. As it's Halloween-ish time, I started reading it, but at this point I don't find it that scary anymore. I just love how it's written - the build up, the anticipation, the way things slowly unravel.

I'm not entirely sure how I've managed to get this far without Film Watching this. It feels like I've seen it relatively recently too, but I reckon I might have caught snippets of it on TV, it's always on the box! Anyway, love it. Love the game and love the film, so we absolutely knew what we were getting into when we settled down to watch this one.

We've been awaiting this one for a while, after spotting the trailer for it. It also got my attention when I read about Isla nearly drowning filming her piranha scene. Magic seems to be the in thing at the moment, in the way subjects often go through phases in Hollywood. This one seemed like the perfect weekend watch.

The Valley of the Rocks is in North Devon, accessible from the nearby village of Lynton. It’s steeped in history, all sorts of Ice Age glacier references and rocky bits and pieces. The Wikipedia entry has what is now my new favourite word – fossiliferous – included in the description. Apparently parts of the book Lorna Doone were set there, although I can’t really picture that in my head, despite …

It's been nearly two months since I posted one of these, and as you can imagine the trailers have amassed at quite a rate. I've a list of about a dozen films we've been intrigued by, but I'll just post two trailers here today. The trailers First up, the obvious. Captain America. We didn't think all that much of the first one, the second one looks an awful lot better. …

The National Trust look after heaps of properties - gardens, coastlines, historic buildings - and it is in their interest to get people up and off the sofa and visiting their patches of land. I do like their initiative for the kids, though, a Life List of sorts, except this one has a time limit. Fifty Things to Do before you are 11 and three quarters. These are things that …

It's good and I still like it, but it doesn't really live up to the memory I had of it. The dogs were just rubbish, and the effects on the Creature were really poor. I still love Milla in it, and it was nice that I couldn't remember all of it so some was still a surprise. I think it's a good story, has a few holes, but the narrative stands the test of time, even if the special effects don't.

TV and film does very well on Twitter. Besides live tweeting essential events and posting instant reviews to films you've just seen, there are also the endless accounts packed with quotes (I follow some Friends and some Simpsons ones), and those that go a little beyond that. In the past, I've seen a few "recreation lists" whereby someone sets up a few accounts to do the back and forth that …

I had a few options for the letter U in my alphabet adventure, but I opted for the Uffington White Horse as it was something a little bit different. I’ve done castles, gardens, museums and attractions, but I had not, as yet, done a chalk drawing on the side of a hill. Naturally, October isn’t the ideal time to get out and about in the British Countryside, and it was …

I was really fascinated by the opening few chapters of this book - wherein a TT racer has a motorbike accident on the Isle of Man, comes to after blacking out and asks about the welfare of his passenger, only to be told he was riding alone. The 'doubting your own senses' thing has intrigued me since watching Flight Plan, and I thought that's what this would be.

I was in two minds about this one. I was curious at Brad Pitt in the role, as it didn't really seem like his kind of film. I was intrigued by the trailer, but then slightly put off by some of the mixed reviews it got. I didn't think we would ever get round to watching it, as it's not Mr C's type of film really. But he was feeling brave, so we settled down to find out about a new breed of zombies.

A classic, and one that we watched when we needed something simple and delightful. I've seen it before, although I can remember the sequel more than I can the original. What I do know is, and this will not come as a surprise to anyone, that Franck is brilliant!

I was intrigued by the premise of this one, and I must admit a little put off by the casting. A family affair with Will Smith and his wife producing the film, and Smith acting alongside his now teenage son Jaden. It happens, of course, family acting together, and there's nothing wrong with it, but this has a very nepotistic feel to it. Nevertheless, the dystopian thing always attracts me, so I was keen to find out if it lived up to the premise.

I don't remember buying this one but I have recently started getting more interested in the spy game, after reading some Ken Follett wartime adventures. There's also the whole James Bond romanticism which paints spies in a fantastic, suave and ultimately successful light. This book attempts to tell a more realistic story - the real MI5 and how it came into being, at the hands of one William Melville.

I was intrigued by this book - a peek behind the closed nation of North Korea, by those who lived there and decided to leave. The disclaimer at the beginning naturally says that it's hard to verify everything, given how little access to North Korea there is, but even if only half of it is true, it's still an incredible eye-opener.

I was surprised by this film for two reasons - one, that it was brilliant and two, that it had escaped my notice up until this point. A time travel style action adventure with Tony Scott at the helm and Denzel Washington on form. It was a bit slow to get started, but once it was rolling, it was so good.

Thankfully, it was good. Funnier than I had thought it would be, and a bit shocking in places I really wasn't expecting. I'm glad it was short because I don't think they could have sustained it for much longer than the ninety minutes but having said that, there was a lot in there that I can see has been referenced in other things. So in that sense, it was packed! I do think Otto should have had his own spin-off show though.

It's just not as good, really. As a film in its own right, it doesn't stand up at all, and as the second half of the two-part story, it's not that great either. There are some more great bits of action, but mostly there isn't much story. When Neo took the ship and ran off with Trinity, we spent a lot of time focusing on the war in the city. I found myself wishing we could catch up with Neo but then, when we did revisit The One, I kinda wished we hadn't.

Having really enjoyed the book behind the film Limitless, I was interested in what else Alan Glynn had written. This one takes the form of a sort of action/thriller, a crime novel that doesn't really focus on investigating the crime itself, but unravelling an entire conspiracy surrounding a new building complex, politics, and all that jazz.

Last year, the iTunes Festival was the awesome tail-end of what had been a fantastic year of sport and general greatness. Mr C watched every single available minute of it, and found a whole host of new acts to like. I even liked some of it, and wrote about my findings. This year, we were excited for the month of September music, although a little disappointed in the line-up when …

It took me a long time to get into this. For the first half of the book, I think the only thing that was keeping me reading was that I wanted to see how the Prologue fitted in to the story. The character of Freida was interesting, refreshingly different, but also very cold and hard to relate to. There weren't really any characters that grabbed at me, except for Josef - the Ukrainian handy man that falls through the floor.

The third and final book in a collection of three Ken Follett war time spy thrillers focused on another allied country - this time, Denmark. With Germans occupying the Danish territory, a fledgling resistance network takes shape, and this story follows the boy who tries to save the day, and the policeman trying to stop him.

I think it's a generally established fact that the first Matrix film is one of the best things ever, whilst the second two are not so much. However, I know that everyone around me hated them a lot more than me, and I remember having arguments with people about them at the time. Unfortunately, since then, I've realised there are only two scenes from the second two films that I can remember, which doesn't help me at all. So, we needed to work our way through the entire trilogy so the arguments could recommence!

The previous Ken Follett wartime thriller I read was all about Brits trying to catch a German spy in their midst, across the English country and up in to Scotland. This time, it was about plucky Brits infiltrating German-occupied France, which almost makes us the bad guys considering the setting of the book.

I'm a fan of Ken Follett's work and jumped at the chance to buy a collection of three of his early thrillers for the Kindle. This was the first and introduced me to the adventures of World War Two spying and those trying to catch them. The novel spends half the time in the company of a German spy trying to get some important photographs out of the country. The rest is with those who are half a step behind, and have to stop him to save the war.

Not great, really. It didn't make an awful lot of sense as it was progressing, they stole their ending from Jonathan Creek, and then it turns out the Denzel detective guy wasn't even that likeable a fellow in the first place. And I really didn't understand what Jodie Foster was there for, or why she was allowed in the bank.

Don't be put off by the overly long title, this is a fun read. It took me a while to get in the right zone for it, but once I was there it was great. The style is something unusual - at first I thought it was a translation thing, before realising it was a deliberate style choice. It's sort of impersonal, with thoughts and dialogue often written in prose rather than speech, and there are lots of nicknames with continued use - the young man with blond hair and a leather jacket, for example.