Who has the time to write when there’s so much to read? And I’m not just talking about the updates to my favorite blogs or the 85, mostly Viagra-related, e-mails in my inbox when I returned.
I’m trying to revive a lost habit – reading books.
For some reason, Amrita’s laboring under the false impression that I’m actually erudite. Er … does reading agony aunt columns and the comics page while perched on the throne count? How about the ability to immediately spot the word “sex” in a sea of syntax?
Based on empirical research and observation of Generation Yers in my vicinity, it appears that reading seems to be a dying art - disappearing almost at the same rate as the endangered Bengal tiger.
On her recent flight to and from New Jersey, mom noticed that roughly three-quarters of her fellow passengers whipped out their laptops in the waiting area and as soon as they were airborne. The few people who weren’t fixated on a screen the next five hours were either fast asleep or trying hard to ignore Kuki’s singing - which could be heard well above the drone of the airplane engines.
Even the toddlers onboard had their own viewing devices with headsets. And the sight of two desi dudes sitting VERY close together, trying to concentrate on Tabu on a shared laptop while studiously ignoring looks from curious passengers, is forever etched in mom's mind.
“Good lord, don’t people read books anymore?” mouthed mom to dad, from across the aisle and over the heads of her two children.
Dad adjusted his headset and stared at her blankly.
That does it! I'm very tempted to put my wordsmith ambitions on indefinite hold.
If my book falls in a literary ocean, and no one is around to read it, will it still make a splash?
Monday, June 04, 2007
Man Booker Prize Can Wait
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22 comments:
Count me in - I'd love to be splashed by you...er...your book, though I might get a little sea-sick (or would that be ocean-sick?)
:D
ano
Just finished reading 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Amazing literary-crack! Brought back the love of reading :)
Still hooked on TV though!!
-Manav
So true! I still remember in one of my flights, my co-passenger leaned to me and said, "You know they are making Namesake as a movie". You can just wait for the movie to come out rather than labor to read the book.
I was awestruck! Don't anyone read now-a-days! I still remember reading LOTR after watching the first part, cause it was so fascinating.
Is this really coincidence? Just yesterday my husband and I made a pact that each of us will read one (complete) book every month for the next one year, just to get us out of the non-reading stupor we are falling into. And now your blog entry, somehow like an omen, justifying our pact.
If ever your masterpiece falls into the literary ocean, trust me, Terri, it will make more than a splash ! It would be a tsunami.
Lol, I never realized how many people had fallen out of the habit until I tagged them! And um, agony aunt columns don't count? Er... well, that's torn it for me. :)
i ask you, how is blog reading so different from book reading (other than the fact that you probably need an attention span of like five minutes rather than five hours)?
if you ask me, i would much rather lulufy a favourite blog or two (with permission of the authors, of course) than pick a new book by an unknown author (unless of course, you reveal mom's name, terri, or ghost write the book for her, in which case i will probably pick that book up!).
- s.b.
You can see my soda-glassed eyes and my upturned nose buried under a book anytime of the day. If I don't have a new book to devour, I am re-reading old ones for the zillionth time... Yes, I am that awful dreaded bug -- the kitabi keeda -- and, gasp! shall keep the banner flying for the rest of humanity if need be, bravely sacrificing my eyesight for the sake of the printed word. So, Terri, take heart!
Anitha, if anybody should be writing a book, that should be you :)
Manav, did you read the book on a plane somewhere? I hope not, especially if you were in the driver’s seat ;)
Pilgrim, movies usually cannot hold a candle to the original book. One of the few movies that I thought was better than the book was Bridges of Madison County. I completely blame Meryl Streep for it.
Lakshmi, what’s your excuse for not reading in a television-free household? Tsk, tsk, don't tell me it's blogging.
Amrita, you don’t say! I thought I was the only one who needs a refresher course.
s.b., I agree. Blog reading is like waiting for the newspaper the next morning so you can read your favorite columnist with the morning cuppa. Call me old fashioned, but books are somehow irreplaceable.
muser, you sound like mom, who packed a book to the delivery room, thinking she could lie back and read since she didn't have to deal with housework.
oooh, terri, your mom is a scream! did she really? i did too! what a joke!
It so will Terri, it so will..
Write away, readers follow! :)
Hmmm to the malady is spreading everywhere. My reading has dropped out too. To think that at 13, I was a precocious kid reading a faux Sidney Sheldon, Pavid Pavilion. I think the progression stopped at 17!
Now my only reading is on the throne. And I still managed to finish a long delayed reading of Life of Pi within 2 weeks!
Yeah Terri,
I too was once an avid reader. Now I take a book to bed, and I'm off into zzzzzland in no time. Now I take months to read a book.
If my book falls in a literary ocean, and no one is around to read it, will it still make a splash?
I didn't notice this in my first pass.
Tell mom to just take the plunge, she'll make a splash.
muser, I'm sure you'll do it again; right?
rads, visitor, thanks. Now if only one had a topic, one could start being serious.
anantha, what's a faux Sidney Sheldon? I began my literary journey with Sidney Sheldon also.
visitor, I used to devour books in my youth. I don't even finish reading the newspaper these days.
terri:
i think what anantha meant was that palid pavilion was/is a sidney sheldon ripoff.
my first sidney sheldon was 'if tomorrow comes' - fell in love with the heroine :-). and i have gotta say this here, a sidney sheldon novel (name escapes me) was the most recent single sitting/standing/eating/lying-down-in-bed book that i read.
if i have not recommended him on this blog before, - pardon my memory, or lack thereof - i urge you to read rex stout, dudes!
- s.b.
*chuckle*, obviously! though the next one's by c-section for sure!
"if you ask me, i would much rather lulufy a favourite blog ..."
just realized that at least one person has already done that ...
terri:
why don't you pass along a hint to dad, in time for the next big occasion - birthday or anniversary ...?
- s.b.
When you write a book I'll read it.
s.b., I don’t remember the name, but my first SS was about a newspaper editor making stories up to sell copy. I learned so many delicious new words and concepts from my first adult book.
Muser, all the best.
s.b., not even the mention of you and other admirers can drag dad to this blog. He’s so confident about my fidelity; tsk, tsk.
mg, thanks. The things you’ll do for me … donate to my farm, read my book, etc. Spoken like a true Leo.
My teenage years were filled with friends who competed on the number of books read. Partly that or just plain genes, I can't live without books. Luckily for me, married someone like that too. So, both my kids love to read, although the 4-year old is a little slow at it. It is tough for me to imagine how people can NOT read. So, you can rest assured that you will have some readers if not fans, chez moi, when you do take the plunge.
Was that meant to be an insult?!I know Leos are full of themselves but...
Mg, hello! How can one Leo insult another? Please refer to your birthday post.
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