{Sunday Post} - Book Purging, Star Trek Streaming, and Outages

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

1/1/22 - A cable and internet outage is a great way to begin a brand new year. No, the outage has nothing to do with the weather. The severe weather skipped over this area. All we got was snow covering, and that was several hours after the outage. 

I accessed the cable company's website via my smartphone. The outage covers only 36 homes, and whatever needed repairing was estimated to be fixed at 9 AM. 

It's now nearly 2 PM. I did call the cable company. After being placed on hold for what seemed like forever, I finally talked to a non-robot, who confirmed that a technician was on the job. If you're reading this post on Sunday morning, then you know my internet is working again.  

The Great Book Purge

Once a year, I go through my library and donate any unwanted books to Salvation Army. I planned on getting rid of more books sometime in early 2022 but ended up book purging on Wednesday afternoon and finished on Thursday morning. I crammed 21 boxes full of books. Six boxes contained Christian fiction, which I gave to a neighbor of a 90-some-year-old family friend. What books she doesn't want will be donated to either a hospital or community center. The other 15 boxes are taking up space in my living room. I'll drop them off at the local Salvation Army in the next few weeks, all depending on their donation schedule (typically, every other week) and the weather. 

Once I get rid of the 15 boxes, I will organize all my books. That'll be fun.

Reviews Are Coming Soon 

I still have three pending reviews to be posted on this blog next week – Goosebumps: SlappyWorld: Judy and the Beast, Gangs of London: Season One, and The Living Dead. Now because of my book purge, Cobra Kai binge-watching, and the internet outage, my mind has been preoccupied. Plus, I had to work on a sponsored article at the last minute. 

The Star Trek Streaming Purge 

I had resubscribed to Hulu on Cyber Monday during their .99 cents per month for a one-year subscription sale. My only reason for joining was to watch the fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale since there was no DVD release for it. I watched part of the season, then got distracted when I noticed Star Trek: The Original Series was on the streaming platform. Over three weeks, I almost watched the entire first season. Then I noticed there was an expiration date. ViacomCBS/Paramount is pulling all the Star Trek series from Hulu on January 6th and Amazon Prime on January 1st. As far as I know, TNG and DS9 are still available on Netflix, but the shows will eventually be yanked from there, too. The only way to stream Star Trek will be on Paramount+, which I haven't subscribed to yet. 

I never got into the TOS series until recently. I only saw a handful of episodes during my childhood. Well, the three or four my dad had on VHS. I was six-year-old when TNG debuted, so naturally, it's been my favorite series, along with DS9. It wasn't until I bought the TOS remastered Blu-ray set that I finally appreciated the TOS, and it's now my favorite Star Trek series. 

 

After learning the purging dates on Prime and Hulu, I noticed VUDU had the TOS remastered series on sale for $24.99. So, I now own the series on digital. The only downside is The Cage pilot isn't included with the bundle, though, technically it didn't air during the regular series run, except for the scenes shown in The Menagerie two-parter. The Cage debuted on television screens in the late 1980s. The non-remastered episode is available to buy via Amazon, and it's also available on the TOS Blu-ray set. 

 

Zero Resolutions 

I can't speak for anybody else, but I always fail with my New Year's Resolutions. I'll always begin with good intentions but end up crashing and burning by mid-March. So, this year I have zero resolutions. Beginning on Monday morning, I'll start a two-month exercise program, but it's not a resolution. I've had this planned for a while, so I'm not calling it a resolution. I call it a new routine to deal with stress.

 

What Am I Reading?

As of this writing, I'm on page 124 in Star Trek: Probe, and I might have it read before this post goes live. What am I reading next? Well, that's a question that I cannot answer. I have no clue what I'm reading next.

Recent Reviews

Sorry, I have no recent reviews to share with you today. Please, check back next week.

What's in the Mail?

There were no ARC's or screeners in the mail. Don't cross our fingers just yet, but there might be a few titles in the coming weeks and books. Well, see what happens.

What's New On the Bookshelf?

I picked up two more paperbacks at Dollar Tree – Task Force Baum by James D. Shipman and Stone Cross by Marc Cameron. 

I have mentioned this many times before that WWII settings are my least favorite. However, I was referring to romance novels. Task Force Baum is a WWII war story. So there is no lovey-dovey stuff insight here. I've read a few Civil War war stories, but never a WWII one. Maybe, I'll read Task Force Baum next or sometime soon. 

I was surprised to find Stone Cross at a Dollar Tree store. The paperback came out in 2020. I've seen Marc Cameron's books in stores, but I've never read anything by him. So, I guess, here's by chance to read one of his books at a low, low price. 

I awoke at 3 AM, slightly before the internet outage, and browsed through the new monthly Kindle deals. For 99 cents, I got Star Trek: Discovery: Wonderlands by Una McCormack, Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming by Christie Golden, and Star Trek: TNG: Available Light by Dayton Ward. For $1.99. I got The Autobiography of James T. Kirk by David A. Goodman, The Complete Alien Omnibus: Volume 1 (Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum, The Female War) by Steven and Stephani Perry, and The Complete Predator Omnibus (Concrete Jungle, Cold War, Big Game) by Nathan Archer and Sandy Schofield (the husband-and-wife writing team Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch). 

Additionally, I bought Body of Starfleet: A Fitness Guide by Ross Pearlman for $1.99 on New Year's Eve, which I have already read. I'm not writing a review for it, but I did give it a rating on Goodreads. 

I was going to buy two other Star Trek titles at $1.99 and one for $3-something. Then the internet went off. So, maybe, I'll share those with you next week.