How I pick media

This is probably going to be a short post but its going to revolve around something I was thinking about during the week, which is how I go about picking the kind of media that I consume. We'd go over books, shows, music and games.

Books

One of the things that tends to draw me to books is the author's writing style. This isn't fixed and tends to vary across the books that they write. I don't think I have a specific style that I gravitate too, but I do find it hard to get into certain books and I end up dropping them halfway. In the past year, I've picked up two books that I couldn't continue because the dialogue and style felt off to me. In one case, the dialogue felt forced and didn't flow well, so couldn't immerse myself in it. In the second, I just wasn't as engaged with it no matter how much I tried that I had to go read science books for a bit.

Style also determines how likely I am to go into a focused state with books that I read. We'd take Cradle for example. It's a series that a friend got me into last year and I read all 12 books in it in less than a month. The dialogue in it was fun for me to read. The worldbuilding was great, and it was easy to love the characters, Suriel especially. I could also empathize with the antagonists while still hating them; the exception being Regan Shen.

I love reading series too, especially when they're over five books long. I've read the books in the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series (10 books) say three times. I've read the Expanse (9 books) twice. Most of my favourite authors write series. I find them easier to read because I struggle with transitions a lot(thank you AuDHD). So long running series tend to be comforting as I don't have to think of what my next read would be until I'm done. Some of my other favourite series are The Legendborn Cycle(not completed yet so I can't reread) and The Six of Crows Duology(read twice).

Games

I've been playing games since 2000. We got a PS2 back then that came with a French version of Spiderman. You'd have thought that this would have encouraged me to learn French so I could navigate the game. It did not. I did manage to play the game with French enabled. We played a number of demo games too growing up, and a whole bunch of chipped games which stopped working after a while.

For the longest of times, I used to play different iterations of FIFA. Used to be a good comfort game, until EA decided to sell themselves to the PSF(why they did so, I have no idea). I loved FIFA because I could play it to relax, but still feel pretty challenged. I've tried to find new comfort games ever since but I've not been able to.

Currently I enjoy playing action and adventure style RPGs. Some of my favourites include the Horizon series: Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. You play as Aloy, a young woman in a post apocalyptic war in which humans lost to a horde of machines, as she tries to find out more about the past and also why machines are currently being corrupted in her timeline. It has one of the best stories of any game that I've played recently and the gameplay is pretty fun too.

I also love the new God of War games, and Spiderman too. I have tried to play some pure RPGs' like Final Fantasy but never fully got into them.

The category of games that I absolutely avoid are souls like games. They're too much stress for me. I bought Nioh/Nioh 2 thinking that they'd be fun games for me to play. But noooo, they just had to be souls like. When it comes to games, I don't believe in stressing myself too much. I drop games if they're too hard. I want to play games to relax.

Series

For series, I tend to prefer long-running shows. You know, the thing I mentioned with transitions. It comes into play a lot here. But generally, I gravitate towards police procedural shows, thrillers, some adventure, and action. Also sci-fi, though I think I prefer to read sci-fi than watch it most of the time. With the exception of shows that aren't book adaptations like Star Trek.

I also love rewatching shows. I don't care how many times I rewatch certain shows. Twice, thrice, up to infinity. I learn something new each time. I do this a lot with Castlevania. The style speaks to me, and I love hearing the monologues in it. On the other hand, I love rewatching police procedural shows because knowing what comes next in them is calming and I can also multi-task in the background. I sometimes read in the background while certain shows are playing as it weirdly helps me focus on whatever I'm reading. Music rarely does it for me.

Music

My music taste is something I've actively been developing since 2015. A lot of people who know me know that Lorde is my favourite artist. Coincidentally, 2015 was the year in which I discovered her. Spreading out from Lorde, I typically look for artists who sound similar to her and experiment with them to see if I'd like their sounds too. This was how I sort of discovered another gem, in Rachel Chinouriri(I'd known of her because I have an old tweet of hers saved but didn't listen to her songs until I started experimenting).

One other way I used to build up my library was looking up artists from songs I heard on shows or movies. The Blacklist used to be really good at this. Whoever curated soundtracks for them was the bomb. Some of the artists that I've discovered this way include Ruelle (Mortal Instruments), Santigold, Tanerelle(Now a fave. Had a crush on her for a long while), Of Monsters and Men (Jessica Jones).

I used to also discover songs from FIFA as they also put in a lot of effort into curating soundtracks from each of their iterations. Some of the artists I discovered from doing this are Sampa The Great and Moonchild Sanelly.

I also just rely on Spotify's Release Radar to find new stuff to listen to. Made it into a routine that I follow every weekend. Some of the artists that I've found out this way are Rainbow Kitten Surprise, BENEE, and The Beaches.

I should mention that I also like k-pop, but I can not for the life of me remember how I got into it. I know it was in 2021, but I don't remember what pushed me in that direction. YouTube recommendations maybe. I honestly don't know. Anyways, I've tried out a number of groups since then. I started out with Twice, BlackPink, and Stray Kids. But my favourite group is currently IVE. CLC and STAYC next, and then others. I-dle used to be up there but they've fallen down the pecking order. I still like Soyeon though, especially in K/DA.

Anyways, this was largely me rambling about how I pick some of the things that I like. Thought it would help to give people a little insight into what goes on in my head since I might not always share. Byeee, until next time.