Upgrade Your Living Room

Buy an LCD TV . . .
if your room has lots of light. “LCD screens are very glare-resistant and bright compared with a plasma’s glass,” says Steve Kindig, senior home audio-video editor at crutchfieldadvisor.com. LCDs resist burn-in better and are lighter and therefore easier to hang.

Buy a plasma TV . . .
if you love movies or video games. “Though the gap is closing, plasma televisions offer better contrast and black levels,” says Kindig. For gaming, their pixels update quickly to keep fast-moving screen images clear. True benefits of plasma kick in above 42 inches, but the room needs to be dark for you to see the difference.

Save the world with a switch
Forty percent of all electricity that powers TVs, DVD players, and other home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off but not unplugged. Plug everything into a power strip and switch it off at night. While you’re at it, trade your desktop computer for a laptop, which will use 50 to 75 percent less energy.

Boost your brainpower with games
Habitual players of first-person video games have stronger visual skills and make decisions 85 percent faster than nongamers. “You can read the newspaper, recognize a scene, or pick out facial features in a photograph faster,” says Daphne Bavelier, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester. Our current addictions: Halo 3 ($60, xbox.com) for the Xbox 360, Killzone 2 (available in February) for the PlayStation 3, and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles ($50, nintendo.com) for the Nintendo Wii.

Understand everything
During the week, read a weekly news magazine (Time or Newsweek) and a monthly, like Harper’s, the Atlantic, or Vanity Fair. Check a daily online roundup (like Slate’s “Today’s Papers”). Watch BBC World News for a different perspective. On Friday, read the Wall Street Journal, particularly the editorials, says Jack Shafer, media critic for Slate. On Sunday, spend 1 hour with the Sunday New York Times: 15 minutes with the “Week in Review”; 15 minutes with the magazine, because that will be the discussion topic tomorrow; 15 minutes with the book reviews, because they’ll be the topics in 2 weeks; and 5 to 15 minutes with the business section for trends. Saturdays are for contemplation.

Corral the cords
Use carabiners to manage the wires of your entertainment system or home office. Unlike zip ties, they accommodate new cords as needed. $5.50.

Treat your iPod with dignity
The last thing your den needs is another black box with a cord. The Vers 2x’s handcrafted cherry-veneer cabinets bring a touch of class to the room, while two 3-inch speakers provide plenty of hi-fi mood music. $180. versaudio.com


Keep dust off the set
Gently wipe down your television set with a clean dryer sheet to banish dust. The antistatic properties of the sheet prevent the static cling that attracts dust in the first place.

Improve your picture instantly
Ambient natural light washes out a TV’s picture. Cellular shades, like the Levolor Evening Star Blackout, can block out 99 percent of sunlight while insulating the room. 24”x24”, $100. levolor.com

Cut the cords
It’s difficult to hang a plasma television without its cabled guts spilling down the wall. Samsung’s 94 Series Wireless 1080p plasma uses Wi-Fi to receive audio/video connections, leaving only the 50-inch set’s power cord to contend with. $3,600. samsung.com

Cut corners confidently
HDMI cables are digital, so either they work or they don’t—there’s no fuzzy-picture middle ground. Save yourself a small fortune and buy online; that’s how we picked up the XtremeMac HDMI cable from the Apple Store. $20. apple.com

Declare a no-eating zone
University of Massachusetts scientists found that people who watch TV during a meal consume, on average, 288 more calories than those who don’t chew while changing channels.

Revive your floorboards
Erase pockmarks in your floor in three easy steps: (1) Poke all over the indentation with a safety pin a dozen times. (2) Wet with a few beads of water, which bloats the wood into shape. (3) Cover with a damp rag and run a hot iron over the dinged spot to lock the fix in place.

Clean spills quicker
If you’ve spilled wine on the carpet, cover it with shaving cream, let it set for a few minutes, then sponge off with cold water.

9 essential reference books
Swiss researchers found that men who recited poetry for half an hour a day lowered their heart rates significantly, reducing their stress levels and possibly their heart-disease risk. You don’t need to go all Emily Dickinson; just try reading aloud to your wife or kids. Or to yourself. (But not on the subway.)

Food
The Professional Chef, Culinary Institute of America ($40)
Eat your way through this book and learn the curriculum of the preeminent cooking school in the country.

Wine
The Oxford Companion to Wine ($40)
Filled with heavy aromas of expertise, guidance, and trivia. Consume responsibly.

Atlas
National Geographic Atlas of the World ($100)
The world, at your fingertips.

Design
Phaidon Design Classics ($110)
Nine hundred ninety-nine of history’s most impressive objects, a design marvel in itself.

Dictionary
Flip Dictionary ($14)
Articulate what you’ve always meant to say with this “reverse,” um, what’s the word for it . . . the place you look up words for their definitions: dictionary.

Music
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll ($20)
The Rosetta stone to decoding the tangled roots of rock.

Movies
The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made ($17)

Manliness
The Alphabet of Manliness ($11)

Everything else
Schott’s Original Miscellany ($10)