June 10, 2002 | 11:29 AM

Recently I�ve been way too into junk-art.

Junk music. Junk movies. Junk TV. Junk books.

I�ve been listening to Madonna. Watching �The Breakfast Club�. Following �Dawson�s Creek�. And reading um, Vanity Faire�not the Thackery novel but the magazine.

I haven�t been reading any books lately.

The last book I read that wasn�t required for school was Good in Bed--a fun beachbook, to which I related enormously and liked very much, but hardly Great Literature.

There is nothing wrong with being a pop culture nut, as long as it�s a minor portion of your intellectual and academic interests. It�s like with food. There�s nothing wrong with eating hot fudge sundaes. However, if you eat them morning, noon, and night�well, you get the point.

So I am weaning myself off the stuff. My first step in recovery was to fill my CD carrying case with nothing but �Good Music�, by which I mean literati approved (snortle), challenging records. I put �Abba�s Greatest Hits�, Tears for Fears� �Songs From The Big Chair�, and Blondie�s �Parallel Lines� back in their cases. Duran Duran�s �Seven and the Ragged Tiger� up on a shelf. Relegated The Strokes to their former home on the mantle.

Here is what I stuffed my CD carrying case with today:

Mary Timony: Mountains
Tom Waits: Swordfish Trombones
Babes in Toyland: To Mother
Sonic Youth: Sister
Laurie Anderson: Big Science
Skip Spence: Oar
Cake Kitchen: World of Sand
Televison: Marquee Moon
Fugazi: 13 Songs
Sleater Kinney: All AHnds on the Bad One
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Radiohead: Kid A
Francoiz Breut: N/A
Frank Zappa: We�re Only in it for the Money
Big Star: Thid/Sister Lovers

I also am vowing to myself that over the summer I will read some non-contemporary fiction. �Jude The Obscure� has been on my reading list for the past ten years. I keep putting it off. Also, it wouldn�t hurt me to re-read �The Master and Marguerita�

When I move, I don�t think I will get cable. Instead I will buy a DVD player and join netflicks so I can have a steady stream of non-brain deadening programming chosen by me. Anyway, I�ll still have the WB for my teen drama fix once in awhile. Why should I pay 61 dollars a month to sit glassy eyed in front of the TV surfing between Skinamax softcore porn and episodes of �Sex and The City� that I�ve already seen?

Plus, that�s available on DVD anyway.

Right now I really wanna hear that A-ha song....

No. Must. Resist. Bad. Eighties. Culture...

(Take On Me....)

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!