tv detox
this morning i had breakfast with my friend jay, from australia. he’s heading back to bangkok tonight so we were catching up on what we’d both been up to the last few days. we went our separate ways so that jay could go return a book to the used book store and i came to check email, etc. after this i plan to head to the used book store too, for my latest fix.
at breakfast, i realized that it’s been about 3 weeks since i’ve last watched tv. three weeks! this, coming from a girl who five weeks ago couldn’t live without her tivo. i was completely addicted to being able to fast-forward through commercials, and to being able to watch whatever i wanted, when i wanted it. but the downside to tivo is that it drastically shortened my attention span! i had no patience for commercials when visiting non-tivo households (like my dad’s). plus, with hours and hours of shows that i’d asked it to record, there was no excuse to say “there’s nothing on,” and to turn off the tv. i must confess, i spent wayyy more time than is healthy or desirable sitting in front of my tivo.
but now, here i am in chiang mai. reading BOOKS! good old-fashioned books! i love it. one of my goals on this trip was to read more, and to get back at least some semblance of the book-loving child that i once was. when i left honolulu, it was hard for me to read for long stretches, but now i’ve regained that love of reading thanks to the lack of tv! yes, granted i know that i have a lot more free time on my hands than most, but that makes it all the more perfect… i can spend hours curled up with a good book at a coffee shop or lying in the park here. and there are used book stores around every corner just waiting to take back my finished ones in exchange for new titles!
when i was sick in bangkok, i asked jess to bring me back a book from the market, and she told me there was no way she could have picked for me because my taste is so varied. here so far my reading list has included:
the spy came in from the cold by john le carre
the elephant vanishes by haruki murakami
la prisionniere by malika oufkir
indecision by benjamin kunkel
into thin air by jon krakauer
in cold blood by truman capote
and most recently…
more sand in my bra, a collection of travel stories by hilarious women…
i guess my taste is pretty varied… up next, i’m hoping to find siddhartha by herman hesse. or maybe i’ll jump on the bandwagon with that oprah book my mom and kim are reading. or maybe something non-fiction? hmmm…. this is a wonderful dilemma! =) any recommendations, people?
Tags: chiang mai (thailand), malia
malia
good post….what would we do without books?????
“TV Detox…” a truly wonderful thing!! I honestly lived without cable for years! Actually have a lot of other friends (Jess included) that live without TV too. Gives us so much more time to do other, better, things ya know? 🙂 Oh yeah, I read Hesse’s “Siddhartha” in an Asian History class in high school. Actually, I should say I was supposed to read it..but didn’t finish because I watched TV instead..
Good for the soul kind of book (with what your stories are echoing): “Tuesdays with Morrie”……and regarding meditation – “Wherever you go, there you are” by Jon Kabat-zinn 🙂 Tell Eric to bring it up for you;)