I smugly celebrate week three without TV. Okay, so I’m on two medications for bronchitis and need to keep moving so I don’t cough myself sick, but still. Week three. The family is placing bets on how long I’ll last. I fantasize about binge-watching all the stuff recorded on the DVR, and stock-piling a seasons’ worth of episodes from Netflix for next January. Hubby insisted that we go to a movie once in a while, so since it isn’t television, that’s a go.
Nonetheless, I am smug because so far this year I’ve read: Gifted Hands by Ben Carson, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, and I’m partway through The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, and How to Make a Living as a Writer by James Scott Bell. Since I make a living as a writer, the last book is more about becoming familiar with Mr. Bell, who is speaking at a writer’s workshop in Charleston in a few weekends. I look forward to meeting him there. His books on writing nail their topics.
To celebrate my birthday this weekend, hubby is taking me out to a movie then the next day my daughter and son-in-law will go with us to American Sniper. This could easily tide me over for the week without television. Perhaps what I miss most about television is the stories: crime, fantasy, comedy, romance.
Falling back into books has filled that need for story and I believe reading is a more intimate thread between the author and the reader because books can easily dive deeper into a character’s thoughts and emotions than any movie can. Voice overs that speak the character’s thoughts in movies come off as artificial as stage asides. Rarely does a narrated voice in a movie work for me without breaking the magic because it is a reminder of being outside the story. Books entice the reader to climb into the stories more to explore new perspectives, cultures, worlds, and ideas. Books offer far more depth and scope to the stories than movie adaptations can. Sometimes the adaptations baffle me. Take for instance the Lord of the Rings series. The larger books were made into movies, but the smallest book was made into two movies. Same with the Harry Potter series. The last Harry Potter book stretched into two movies, one slooooow and one blazing fast. Irritating money-driven decisions perhaps to milk the enterprise.
The other upside of reading over television is my friendships with my book club. We love to debate stories over a meal. Goodreads.com is another reader’s paradise where diverse readers share their reviews of books. I have a Goodreads Page with my favorites listed.
What was the last book you read? And how long ago was that?