My Weird Addictions

This was about a month ago; I was having one my usual bitching sessions with my office-gossip-partner VR. He was one of the normal ones in my office with whom I can hold a conversation longer than a minute without trying hara-kiri. Our day generally starts with a cuppa coffee where we start our bitchathon, me about my very own Miranda Priestly sans the wardrobe and he about his current tormentor. We had many an argument ranging from how to cook chicken true Andhra style to Chinese economy. VR all of a sudden epiphany that day, he decided that we (him and I) have a true addiction, which we have been trying to fight unsuccessfully: Binge-watching TV Shows

I tried to reason with him that this is not hampering my life. I have friends, I have hobbies. I am not addicted. But then he made me list the number of series that I was watching at that time and well, I lost the battle (I was embarrassed to admit that my total series number is much much higher than his). And then I watched this:

So, I decided that I have to take action. I am going to get rid of this addiction if I die trying (the timing did help, it was the fag end of the fall season and the summer series would take some more time to start in full swing)

I stopped live streaming any more series. It took me a while but I never gave up a series mid-season but I had a point to make, dammit. I said good-bye to all of them. I was no longer counting the minutes after 6 in the evening to get back home because I had to know what was happening in all those alternate universes. All of a sudden I had free time, free time that I had scheduled to unwind after working my ass off the whole day. I started picking at my meager book collection, but it was not working and I could see the typical withdrawal symptoms. I was going on metacritic in office, trying to read the reviews. If I was not watching them, at least I could read about them was my theory. It was like a chain smoker who quit cold turkey lingering around smoking rooms. That’s when the plot changes.

Note: The following paragraphs will probably make you think that I might have an IQ of 50. But, I am going out of the limb to come clean so, bear with me.

I had a proclivity towards everything paranormal (I am still called the Vampire girl in some circles, but it’s a secret I would take to my grave); I am still into the whole shebang but it’s very difficult to find a good series because nobody absolutely nobody would admit to reading these. I power read my way through many series before long I exhausted the whole Amazon recommends section. That’s when I found my soul sister on the other side of the Atlantic. She had the balls to review every single one of them and rate them on a scale which she herself has calibrated on a number of things (I think I should not go into the mechanics). So, all of a sudden I had a place where I could go on and run through her recommendations and presto I had myself a reading list.

This was even worse than my binge-watching. Instead of a half hour series now I am actually up all night trying to finish my latest book. I read on my way to work and if I am early I hide in one of the conference rooms to complete another chapter. I read in the elevator. Last Sunday at around 2 in the morning I finished a book and went back to my favorite website to read about her thoughts when I stumbled on another reading list that went, if you enjoying ABC you would enjoy these. By the end of the day I had my power reading best so far, 6 books in around 18 hours!

You could technically say that I replaced one addiction with another but I realized all through my life, there was never a time when I was not addicted to something. My range of addictions ran from Tinkles, Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, 90s TV series, Weird Asian Movies, Russian Movies, Good old American Movies, Studio Ghibli, Murakami, Kundera, Hornby, Anime, Manga, Death Metal, TV Series, Wang Kar Woi, Entertainment Quizzing, French Movies, French Music, Solving Crosswords, Sorkin, Jazz, Black Keys, The Civil Wars and finally my latest obsession Avett Brothers.

I guess there is no cure for my affliction :D