From literary to contemporary

When I say gone are the high school days of sprinting home from school to get to the end of the 400-page book I started yesterday, I don’t mean it temporally. I have lost my ability to read print! Honestly, if it is not glowing at me from a celluloid screen or running at the bottom of a telly at the speed of light, I don’t seem to want to read it anymore.

Having just moved to Philly, there's not much in the way of celluloid in my apartment yet--- other than my desktop that sits lazily in the corner, thankful for the missing chord that should be able to give the old machine some life. So, while I'm awaiting the laptop from work and looking up tvs of all shapes and sizes, life-saving Borders and B&N are less than a mile away (in case you care-the unbeatable thing about borders: the ambience, that about B&N: Starbucks). Five years ago, two bookstores with practically every book under the sun (or roof, for that matter), and access to divine coffee would have represented incomparable bliss.

Now, all I can do is browse the front and back covers of 50 trashy political paperbacks, as opposed to reading 500 pages out of a single classic. Well, you can hardly blame me---that's the only thing that comes close to the "text-book" definition of surfing a hundred channels on the small screen. If only books had commercials (or Sean Hannity, for that matter), I'd know when to skip and go to the next one.

If people can sue McDonald's for makin them fat, I am filing a suit against B&N for making me daft. They should stop having rows upon rows of the current New York times bestsellers, the past New York times bestsellers, new in paperback, new in hardcover and ‘Our staff recommends’ that make up the unavoidable maze before you finally get to "Literature--arranged alphabetically by author" (figuring out if Capra begins with a C or a K is task enough).

This is the literary equivalent of TBS announcing all the new reality shows that are premiering this season, while I am watching a marathon of friends. Okay, that sure sounds interesting, but will you get on with it already?

And its unavoidable too; if I see a new book by Tom Friedman and I watched him talk about it on the Daily show, I have to glance at it before I can move on. (Same reason why that kid has to buy the cheese burger cos it only costs a dollar, in case you are wondering.)

If boosting the tv's morale by sitting glued to it 24/7 for four years, gradually losing your other interests in life (food exclusive) and now literally going nuts without it isn't a measure of fidelity, I don’t know what is. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. Isn't it easier to put your faith on an inanimate object ;) The touch of a button (at least in a country with unlimited power supply) comes easier than waiting for that much-craved phone call...And getting a new one, should the old one fail doesn't involve folder upon folder of legal briefs or heckling over an alimony settlement...

Paraphrasing Carrie Bradshaw (apt to draw wisdom from one of the very reasons I sit glued to it in the first place), "Some things like a broken TV can be repaired; others like a broken heart cannot."

If I'm rambling, it's cos I have been enjoying my wedded bliss (quite unwittingly) so far. And believe me, the separation is hard....I'll come around.....I just need a new hubby...