Some one else’s head

Sometimes I worry that I watch too much movies and read too many books. Should I worry about this? For the stories give me much satisfaction and inspiration. So much so, that I become addicted to them. When I am alone with nothing on my hands, more often than not I watch a movie or read a book. 

 I remember the harsh words by philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

 ‘Reading is thinking with someone else’s head instead of ones own. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammelled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes.’

 And how about these, by Franz Kafka:

 ‘Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for the time being only superficially) and is ready to release what lies deeper. When I am wilfully alone, a slight ordering of my interior begins to take place and I need nothing more.’

 These gentlemen make me feel slightly guilty.