That's right, I'm unofficially declaring March to be book reading month, despite the fact that it is already American Red Cross month, Colorectal Cancer Awareness month, Women's history month, and (only in the Philippines) Fire Prevention month. Thank you Wikipedia.
The fact is, I really like reading books. This morning I didn't get out of bed before I finished Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw. Today I'm going to restart Leon Uris's Trinity. I have The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. And those are just the books that are sitting within 3 feet of me right now. I'm going to the library in a couple of hours to drop off Mr. Gladwell, and I'll have to walk out without looking too hard, for fear of finding something to check out.
I just like books a lot. Sometimes I wonder if reading books all day is really that much better than watching a show on TV (maybe not...I just read that Tom Hanks has a new HBO show about WWII in the Pacific, a la Band of Brothers...it ought to be really good!), or even sitting around playing games on my computer.
Actually, if I get too far into this argument I start thinking about the value of ALL the things I'm doing on a daily basis. I'd rather not delve too deeply into that existential-crisis-waiting-to-happen right now, though it is a good thing to think about.
I'd like to think that reading books forces me to think, but they don't always. Books give me all kinds of new ideas, but so do TV shows. You can learn new vocabulary from books and TV alike. Come to think of it, after hours of reading, my eyes are just as buggy as after hours of watching TV, so what's the real difference? I suppose it's in the purpose. TV is all about attracting the most viewers, no matter how they do it. There are a limited number of time slots on TV, so TV producers always go with the show that garners the most attention. Anybody who has something to say can figure out how to get a book published, and once it's published it's put up to public scrutiny and its fate is decided by the New York Times book reviewers.
You hear about books. You are told about shows. People write articles about books. People write advertisements about shows. Maybe that's it. The people who want you to read a book often have very different motivations than those who want you to watch a show.
So read books, I guess. But don't hate on TV. Contrary to what some people will say, it isn't the great Satan of our time. It probably isn't even in the top 10.
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Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia
2 days ago
I keep agreeing with you! I'm toward the end of my second read-through of Lewis' Four loves, so my brain is inside-out at the moment. Can't recommend it highly enough.
ReplyDeletei like how your post about "go read books in march" sort of just ended up being a post about "hey, give tv a break."
ReplyDeletebut here's to books! i've just started reading east of eden, and i was told that people in your crew would appreciate that fact. also, i read the time machine back in sixth grade, (because i was the kid reading all manner of wells and bradbury). of all the different descriptions of the sensory experience of time travel out there, i like his the best.
Ooh. Good thought!
ReplyDeleteBut, I have to stick with my knee-jerk reaction that a day spent reading has to be more healthy than a day spent in front of the TV. I mean, you don't get Ford commercials between chapters.
You could make the case that reading is a much more solitary event than watching TV or movies. A group reading session really is just a handful of people doing their own thing whereas a group of people could laugh/cry/enjoy at a movie together.
But, think of a conversation about a movie or a TV show. How often does it extend beyond, "Did you see X?", "Wasn't it funny when Y happened?" Whereas books are so much more open to interpretation that conversing about them has a lot more facets.
Okay, I'm done hijacking your blog. I'll have to write a response of my own. ;D
Yeah, I guess this stems from my tendency to criticize black and white statements. Someone says "TV is bad" and I say, "Hmm....but is it REALLY?" which, I have also found, is REALLY annoying. Sorry everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs for the conversation, Justin, I find that though I may read many similar books as my friends, I still have more conversations about what we watch on TV. Maybe it's because when we watch TV it's more of a shared experience, whereas with reading a book you kind of have to make sure you're on the same page (literally and figuratively). Of course that doesn't say anything about the quality of the conversations either....annnnd cue the endlessly tangential discussion.
Scott: Yes, it's amazing how often these posts end up in a completely different (and sometimes contradictory) place than where they started. As you can see, I process by writing.
Also, East of Eden is probably my new favorite book. I want to be Samuel Hamilton.