A couple of years ago I disconnected my TV cable. The customer service guy asked me why I was cancelling my cable? Well, I hadn't turned on my TV for 2 months. The guy didn't find a rebuttal for that in his script and had to let me go.
Freedom. No more rushing home to catch House or SYTYCD. No more stressing over getting home in time (I had no will ti pay extra for the PVR). No more losing hours upon hours glued to the blue screen. No more getting frustrated with the season end (or season break for sports or xmas).
My freedom didn't last long. I got sucked right back into another - similar - addiction. Book sagas.
I read sagas before, of course. But the Harry Potter books I read as they got published, consuming each within 3-4 days of their release - once in a couple of years. Hardly an addiction (even if I reread them in-between, I'll admit).
The Twilight saga. That took a bit longer, but I swallowed all four and a half of them in a row. The important thing was that I returned back to normal life fairly quickly.
The Twilight saga. That took a bit longer, but I swallowed all four and a half of them in a row. The important thing was that I returned back to normal life fairly quickly.
And then last May I got introduced to the Diana Gabaldon's Outlander saga. Now this was serious.
Book one - 1,000 pages. Book two - 1,200 pages. And so on. I read in subway and buses, in airports and hotels, in bed and at the dinner table, in Canada, Russia, and U.S... I spent almost a whole year reading all the books currently in existence in the series. I even enjoyed staying home, sick - for I had so much time to read! Feeling happy at the end of each book that I didn't need to wait until the next one was out.
Yesterday, I finished book number seven. The last one. And the next one won't be out until 2012 - at the earliest. And this seventh book ended almost in midsentence. This is evil and cruel! I already have withdrawal pains. I miss Jamie and Claire, Brianna and Roger, and all the others...
I am seeking something else to feed my addiction.
At the same time wondering if I should just go back to spending more time in MY life, and not somebody else's?..
Book one - 1,000 pages. Book two - 1,200 pages. And so on. I read in subway and buses, in airports and hotels, in bed and at the dinner table, in Canada, Russia, and U.S... I spent almost a whole year reading all the books currently in existence in the series. I even enjoyed staying home, sick - for I had so much time to read! Feeling happy at the end of each book that I didn't need to wait until the next one was out.
Yesterday, I finished book number seven. The last one. And the next one won't be out until 2012 - at the earliest. And this seventh book ended almost in midsentence. This is evil and cruel! I already have withdrawal pains. I miss Jamie and Claire, Brianna and Roger, and all the others...
I am seeking something else to feed my addiction.
At the same time wondering if I should just go back to spending more time in MY life, and not somebody else's?..
PS The 'piece of art' is mine. The newspaper pieces are in 3 languages :)
wish I had your addiction, LOL )) reading is not that easy for me, its not like having a dyslexia, but something similar.. most of the times I am never "swallen" by the book and force myself to read it (especially when it comes to professional articles, what a torture!)
ReplyDeletethe last book I read in "one breath" was "king solomns mines" (nothing in common with a crappy movie)..
TV antenna at our place costs now 125roubles a month (which is still a lot for what they offer) but I like discovery channel - most of the times my tv is "off" (and I still have the oldfashioned one classical sony from 1985, wouldnt bother for flatscreen), when its "on" its either "top gear" or that part where they tell about how things are made (indeed, discovery..)
in Canada, the most basic TV package is over 30 bucks - no discovery there :)
ReplyDeleteI find reading in English much easier: I get lost in 4-5 syllable loooooong Russian words and I find it hard to read, too - I wouldn't even try reading professional literature in Russian, what I nightmare :)