We got cable t.v. again this morning. I know, I know… If I purport to love books so much I should be heaping my disdain for television on the couch potato masses instead of shamelessly drooling over the food channel. I am aware that t.v. rots your brain and turns your muscles to mush, but I love it anyway.
I blame my mother for my addiction to television. My family didn’t even own a t.v. until I was thirteen and even then I had to drag it into my room and watch “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Saturday Night Live” with the sound down really low and a blanket over me and the t.v. so that no one saw any light under my door. I was horribly deprived. While my friends had the joy of watching “The Simpson’s” and “The Goonies” (on HBO trial weekends) I was relegated to reading The Grapes of Wrath and Sun magazine.
Okay. Mom was right.
But I still love t.v. and I’m not going to set any hard and fast limits because that only ends in failure and tears. I’ll just try to limit myself on a day-to-day basis. Don’t watch too much and don’t watch too much trash.
I should read The Grapes of Wrath again. And I’m planning on reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest this summer (infinitesummer.org) I’ve also got two or three other books that I’ve been reading bit by bit.
Hey, if I read a lot will it cancel out my t.v. watching? I hope so because I’m still going to watch too much “Law & Order”.
