Just call me “Jill-ohnny Come Lately.”
I finally got around to reading Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” and I loved it. The copyright date is 2013 and it’s been made into “A Major Motion Picture,” as my second-hand, thrift store copy announces from the cover.
It takes time to make major motion pictures, and while I’ve heard of the movie, I haven’t yet seen it. I wonder if I will like it as much as the book?
The book and movie aren’t the only things I’ve missed. Kevin Kwan has written two more books in this series, “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems,” and I want to read those, too.
I feel so behind the times in terms of consuming popular culture. When I was in high school, I was better able to keep up with the latest books, music, movies, and TV shows. Of course, we didn’t have the internet then, so that wasn’t an additional cultural venue we had to keep up with.
The additional obligations of age, which tend to start mounting as soon as you’re out of high school and head to college or get a job, are also not conducive to staying on top of the latest cultural trends.
Which leads me quite naturally to the book I am currently reading: “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman.
I’ve always enjoyed Burkeman’s take on life because it doesn’t typically follow the accepted, public thought patterns of the day. Burkeman is a self-described “productivity geek,” who has tried all sorts of techniques for maximizing his productivity in order to get the most out of life. He’s found they don’t work that well and tend to leave people feeling even less productive than if they hadn’t tried them at all.
Burkeman’s argument in the book is that it is impossible to do more than you can realistically do at a time or within a lifetime and that if you learn to accept that and work with the inherent restrictions of the situation, you will be more productive and content in the long run.
So, my not imbibing in cultural trends as they are breaking is not a bad thing; it’s that I choose to use that time for other things. And if I eventually explore books, movies, music, or other cultural products after their point of popularity, that’s okay, too.
I can live with being a Jill-ohnny Come Lately.
Although, I did happen to pre-order Burkeman’s book prior to release, so once in a while I’m actually a Jill-ohnny Come Early.