I recently did something I hadn’t done in a long time: I bought a magazine to read on a long trip. This happened in a bookshop at the Karlsruhe train station before I had to catch a train to the Frankfurt airport, where I would take a flight back to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi.

I bought a food magazine. There were quite a few English-language options, and I was divided between Donna Hay and Delicious, whose Instagram accounts I follow. I had read neither of the magazines, however. While both had beautiful recipes that I wanted to try, I went with the October issue of Delicious because they had a bunch of articles I wanted to read, not just mouthwatering recipes.

I read food magazines’ websites all the time, but the pleasure of reading a print magazine is something else. You can sink into it the same way you sink into a book. And I love that feeling. It’s a completely different feeling from being addicted to reading articles or watching videos on the Internet. On the Internet, you constantly crave for more; your mind bounces from one point to another, endlessly. Reading a good book or magazine is a focused kind of pleasure. You have everything you need for the present moment right there in your two hands.

The trouble with magazines and books, but magazines especially, is that they pile up in your room. And I often find it hard to throw magazines away. When my room gets messy enough, however, I sometimes surprise myself by becoming very cold-blooded with magazines I had held so dear in my heart months or years earlier. That’s why moderation is important in media consumption. It’s so hard to pull off in this day and age. I just have to remind myself that it’s impossible to know everything there is to know. Might as well relax, stop reading articles that you’re not enjoying but feel are important to read, and throw a few magazines away once in a while.