My essentials: John Bonello’s cultural picks

1. Book

‘The Name of The Wind’, by Patrick Rothfuss. I picked it up because of the title, and the genre. It’s a high fantasy for young adults, the first in a series called the Kingkiller Chronicles and the storytelling is simply amazing. The narrator is the main character, an ex-wizard, who’s also a skilled musician, now working as an innkeeper, and is telling his life story to a customer. It resonated with me and I keep going back to it often.

2. Film

One great show I watched recently is Altered Carbon, a futuristic sci-fi series (with combined murder mystery), where humans have found a way to separate consciousness from the body, so they can download it into new cloned bodies to live longer. It’s gritty, well written, visually very pleasing and the action is solid. Shame it got cancelled.

3. TV/Internet 

I tend to watch a lot of table tennis-related content on YouTube and Instagram. I also follow blogs on the same subject, since I’m passionate about this sport. Google is my friend when it comes to research. On TV, I look for documentaries. At the moment it’s all about Expedition Unknown on the Travel Channel and Ancient Aliens on History Channel. I can’t get enough of these two shows.

4. Music

Pleasantly surprised by Metallica’s newest album, 72 Seasons, which was released on April 14th. I’ve been a fan since the late 80s, but for me, anything they released after ...And Justice for All could not compare to their first four albums. 72 Seasons sounds modern, but has something of the great past in it as well. Full speed or nothing!

5. Place

By chance, I visited Naples three times within the last six months, and with every visit I seem to love the place more and more. There’s something really enigmatic about this chaotic city that is beautiful in many ways that are not immediately evident. And there’s so much to discover, almost around every corner. I’m going again.