I read this good post on Man vs. Debt about ditching your TV and Adam Baker’s 11 reasons for doing it.
I agree whole heartedly. Our house went from 3 sets to 1 recently and we moved the remaining set out of the family room. It has been great to have a family room centered around … family.
I have to admit we still watch sometimes (more than we should), but the redecoration has cut viewing time by at least 70% family wide.
I woould like to add #12 to Adam’s list:
12. TV makes you boring – Ever noticed that everyone in the coffee room at work will only talk about the show they saw last night – and that most of them watched the same thing? How much better would it be if everyone was reading a different book or went dancing or went on a hike through the park and then talked about that?
A tip for putting short bursts of spare time to good use
I recently acquired an Android smart phone. I really like this phone and use it quite a bit for work and for other productive tasks. I noticed though that it is easy to waste a lot of time surfing the web or playing games on the device.
I have decided to quit wasting the short, fleeting bits of time that are now being filled with dumb games.
I already own a Kindle
It has been a goal of mine for a few years to read 40 books in a year. I fail every year – I think I made it to 25 once – including audio versions. By using the otherwise wasted time in my day, I think I can get to the goal.
What will I read? Mostly non-fiction, but I really just want interesting, well-written books.
I read Crush It!
I downloaded Zen To Done
Anyone have any book recommendations? Post them here.
The Bible. Really. I don’t care if you are Christian or not. Read Proverbs (good general advice about living). There are 31 chapters so you can read one chapter a day in a month. If you have a bad day, read Job. Nobody’s day get’s worse than that especially when your own wife tells you to “curse God and die”. Get a translation you like, some of them are kind of hard to read. biblegateway.net has all of them so you don’t even have to buy it.
The Bible is a good one – try the new translation of the New Testament – Common English Bible – costs less than $5. For fiction, try “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. For non fiction and in support of a simpler life, try “Enough” by Adam Hamilton. Both are available in paper, perhaps for your Kindle. As an aside – I don’t really understand Kindle. I like the whole “book” idea – the inky smell, the heft of the volume, the sight on the bookshelf – all that physical stuff about books.
The attraction of the Kindle for me is convenience. I can buy a book anytime anywhere. I can carry several books with me at a time without the extra weight and bulk. I can also use the Kindle app on my Android phone to read the same books as I have on the actual Kindle if I leave it at home. When I return to the Kindle, the device automatically syncs to the last page read. I think the Kindle is easier to hold and easier on my eyes than paper.
However, we all read for our own reasons. The most important thing is to be reading, I suppose the medium is less important than the act itself.
By the way – I left off the TV more than 5 years ago and haven’t missed it for a minute yet.
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