I’m watching the series Shogun, a couple of episodes each night after the day’s work and cooking and cleaning and other activities.
There was an earlier television miniseries based on James Clavell’s novel of 17th century Japan. For the longest time I’ve remembered that I watched that during my first few nights on St. Croix—we had moved from Idaho to Frederiksted in late March 1983 (just before my 13th birthday) and I was allowed to join a neighbor to watch on a small black-and-white t.v. in the shared open-air courtyard. Over the next few years I read that novel and Clavell’s others (King Rat, Tai Pan, Whirlwind). I still have Clavell’s version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
But looking in Wikipedia to confirm this memory, I now understand that the miniseries playing in America that week in 1983 was actually The Thorn Birds. I’d eventually read that novel, too.
I was a voracious reader as a teen. We didn’t have a t.v. for much of my youth in Idaho, on St. Croix, and Illinois. Now I have subscriptions to multiple streaming services, though this year I have given myself time to enjoy reading once again (here and here).
© Anton Zuiker