Almost a month without TV: Asterix, Alain de Botton's Joys and Sorrows of Work and Vietnam

Alain de Botton writes pompously,but he had me in a meeting today looking around the room, the table, the telephone, the light-globes a neighboring building, and he got me thinking that someone built all this stuff, and put it in, and put it up. In the Pleasures and Sorrows of Work he has so far told me about biscuits and logistics. My favourite bit so far has been about the Greek Logistakas (or something like that) who did logistics fro the Greek army. A shame the Greek economy is now not benefitting from the same prudent allocation of resources. I am not sure if Alain would ever invite me over for a barbecue, or weather (should that be whether - Alain would know) he would be into porterhouse steaks and salad nicoise (which I used to think was pronounced nickoise), or whether he would need something fancier or vegetarian. I think if he was just called Alan, and was from Bangladesh, rather than some fancy English town where his parents obviously brought him up on Aristotle, I might be in with a better chance (of getting him to come to my barbecue). Indeed if he liked L.S.D and listening to Jimmi Hendrix at barbecues- which would never happen at my barbecue, but I would enjoy having someone who would like to do that at a barbecue come to my barbecue - I may stand a better chance of having him attend one of my do's (a fancy name for a barbecue in Australia). I am not having a barbecue, I am just saying that for all the insight Alan brings to the world, he may not be the type of person who would like to come over for a barbie (an informal barbecue in Australia).
I'm sure Alan would admire the Lupins in my front garden as they would probably remind him of a 15th century Dutch masterpiece, where the lupins beguile the juxtaposition between the windmills and the plentiful supply of spinach in those parts, given he seems to know a lot about art. The next thing I liked about Joys and Sorrows, were the pictures, especially the one about the warehouse, here I realise I am writing like a 5th grader giving a book report and not at all like the cultured likes of Alan the Philosopher.
With no TV for almost a month (skipping ahead past the weekend to next Tuesday) I have started many books - Bulleen's War, Mattahorn (looks crap so perhaps won't read anymore) Ham's Vietnam, good bit about French colonisation of Vietnam and Alan's book about work where I am up to career counseling. I have a job and it gives me money, what else would you want in life, money, food, sex, and when I am older, spiritual enlightenment. Alan points out that whatever I do in the world, be it write novels like Proust did, or wash dishes, or implement energy efficiency measures in office buildings for government (spy) agencies, or play wicked guitar on L.S.D like Jimmi, I am equally valuable to society.
Another fine set of works I have read are Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and the Secret Weapon. I like them because they are not as long as Proust and they have more colourful pictures than Alan's book - which has very nice pictures as I mentioned, and they are also very artistic, I believe each pictures tells a story about man's disconnection from the things that are around him, especially the ones where Asterix lashes out at the Romans because he feels threatened by 'civilization' when the tomatoes come in tins from Italy and no one knows the name of the guy who put the light-globe in, nor how it got from the factory in Hunan, to the ceiling above your meeting. The world is full of magic potion, of the sort Getafix brews, but we never take the time to look at it for what it is, an amazing place full of shit that other people put there for us to use.
I think with no TV and all of this reading I will one day become as eloquent as Alan and be able to fully appreciate pictures of windmills.