Adweek: What's the first information you consume in the morning?
Eddie Kay Thomas: My email, and there usually isn't much there. Just a lot of advertisements and things I don't need.
Adweek: What do you read or watch or listen to at the breakfast table?
Thomas: It changes a lot. I just started trying to be classy and listening to the BBC in the morning, and that lasted about two weeks. Other than that, I'm a bit of an Internet slut with The Huffington Post and The New York Times.
Adweek: What occupies your mind in the car, on the subway, train, or bus?
Thomas: I've been working on The New York Times crossword puzzle on the subway. I can make it until about Wednesday. And over the summer, somebody loaded my iPad with about 75 books, so I just finished Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, and now I'm racing through Revolutionary Road. It's uplifting stuff.
Adweek: Are you a TV junkie, or on an airtime-restricted diet?
Thomas: I've been lucky enough to be too busy for TV because if I'm not, I'll get stuck in front of it.
Adweek: If you're a couch potato, what do you watch, and how: TV, laptop, or tablet?
Thomas: I raced through Game of Thrones a few weeks ago. The hurricane helped me with that. Lately I've been watching shows on my new computer—I haven't watched regular cable except for sports in a while. If I have the TV on, it's either a Mets game or SportsCenter.
Adweek: Before bed, do you bite into a novel, graze on Twitter, or fast until morning?
Thomas: For the past couple of weeks, I've been watching an episode or two of Louie before I go to sleep—I think it's the most amazing thing I've seen on TV in a while. Or I'll try to read.
Adweek: Which is more nutritious: print or Web?
Thomas: I read a lot of news online, but I like buying a paper because I'll read an article I wouldn't normally read. And more often than not, the articles that you don't expect to care about are the ones that grab you.
Adweek: Give us the skinny on your favorite app.
Thomas: GarageBand on the iPad is really amazing. It's scary how anyone can make a brilliant song on there.
Adweek: What's your biggest digital indulgence?
Thomas: I am a Facebook voyeur. I feel bad about it because I never put anything on there, but I find it fun to sit there and watch peoples' lives go by. Or whatever lives they're presenting.
Adweek: With such a bloated media universe, how do you cut out the fat?
Thomas: When you have an iPad and 75 books on it, it's so easy to go, "I'm bored, I'm just going to read something else." I like to challenge myself and say, "No, stick with it." I think it's my own responsibility not to get sucked into all the distractions. When we hop around, we miss so many beautiful details.
– Adweek
