"What would possess a gifted young man recently graduated from college to literally walk away from his life?" *
Read this book, then shoot me an email and tell me what you think. I'd like to know what you're feeling at the end, and if there's anything you found interesting or troubling while learning about his decisions and how Planning impacted his life. Not a trick question; really I'd like to find out. How's that for a quick review.
Now can you find time to sit down and do it ... or just wait till next year, when the movie comes out on DVD?
Even before the arrival of online retailers like Amazon.com, Paris had more bookstores lining its streets than the US could count in all fifty states combined. But since I can't read or speak French, so what?
Back in 2004, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reported that literary reading had dropped in every age group, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups. Fewer than half of American adults are now reading literature. (1)
The survey also points to an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002 (that's 20 million potential readers). Unfortunately, the rate of decline is increasing and has nearly tripled in the last ten years ... from 5 to 14 percent since 1992. "This report documents a national crisis" and "reflects a general collapse in advanced literacy."
But while reading may have declined, "the number of people doing creative writing increased by 30 percent, from 11 million in 1982 to more than 14 million in 2002." However, "The number of people who reported having taken a creative writing class or lesson decreased by 2.2 million during the same time period."
OK, big deal. So what's all that mean, anyway?
Well, if DVD rentals, Ipod, home computer, plasma TV screens and video game sales have exploded during the same period, the survey might at least suggest that more American adults are interested in entertaining, distracting, expressing and tickling themselves than they are in learning HOW to express themselves ... or in discovering and exploring anything that's not already situated between their ears.
Most of us are convinced we aren't Morons and already know pretty much everything about life worth knowing; that our life experiences and our personal relationships are more valuable, intense and interesting than anyone else's [doesn't nearly everybody who knows what the word means have their own blog by now? 2].
So with little in life left for us to learn or appreciate (and without an audience of eager readers or listeners around to entertain), what's left for us to do with our time ... but sit back and be entertained ourselves?
One excuse is that reading is too slow and takes too much time! If we see a 90-minute DVD (or a challenging new video game) side-by-side on a shelf with a thick book, picking up the book and taking time to read it looks like too much work and requires too much dedication compared to sinking back in an armchair chair and punching PLAY.
Our time is more precious than ever, and all we're asking for is immediate gratification and an entertaining distraction from our hectic lifestyle. And make that the sooner the better. So we plunge our heads to the shoulders into the snack food bag and start chowing down ... when what our minds crave might be something unfamiliar and nutritious. Like a sit-down brain meal with a good book.
Whether we spend two hours watching an action thriller (for the sixth time), downloading playlists for our Ipods or reading a thick best-seller doesn't alter the fact that two hours is still two hours: what we do with the balance of our time doesn't change that the amount being withdrawn and subtracted from our account's still the same.
Learning is almost always hard (especially for me) and many of us try to avoid it whenever we can. Learning makes us uncomfortable when Learning means being confronted with the possibility that we actually didn't know nearly as much as we thought we did. Or even as much as the next guy, and just look at him ... but haven't we been told from the beginning that life's supposed to be All About Me, after all?
Learning something about ourselves that we didn't already know can also hint that up until now we've been merrily waltzing through life, smug and happy keeping up with the music, without once noticing we forgot to put pants on before leaving the house between our ears.
And is there anything in the world more embarrassing than being embarrassed?
Sources:
* Amazon.com editorial review
1. NEA Newsroom
2. estimated 60 million bloggers worldwide. Blog Herald
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