Out of Style?

WARNING: This post is about books. Judging from the people at the book store, this means that 99.9% of you will walk away in disgust.

Seriously. I was in Border's (a book shop- Its closer than my personal favorite, Barns and Noble's) using it like a big library. I am poor. I will gladly buy all the books I read.

Someday.
Maybe.
Ok, only the good ones.

On with the story! So, I was in Borders books a while back, telling myself that I was going to study for my Computer Science final but really going to read Ender's Shadow.

Normally I'd recommend such a fantastic book, but it would appear that reading is so rare these days that such a point would be totally missed entirely by my readers.

I had three, THREE separate people congratulate me on "Being so absorbed in a book". Including a sweet (I assume, she seemed to be sweet for the three seconds we interacted) old lady who also added that "I should never loose that fantastic gift- the ability to get so into a book".

In the immortal words of my wind band conductor, "huh?"

Since when did getting absorbed in a good book count as a "gift"? Anyone should be able to find a book that they really enjoy and get lost in it, its not some special power that the gods gave me after a quest or some great gift I was born with.

Able to enjoy a book != (that's not equals for all you not Computer Science nerds) artistic genus. Seriously?

Have we moved so far from the written word as a culture that it is now considered "special" to be able to really enjoy a written work? Are we that dependent on motion picture/music?

huh?

I know, I know, I shouldn't get so into three people telling me something. Just because it happened three times doesn't mean anything. I understand how probability works. It wasn't exactly an improbable occurrence. I was reading for a couple hours, I'm sure many people came and went in the book store.

And maybe I get really, really absorbed into a book. I wouldn't know my own "interest rate" in a book vs the average, because questions like that are creepy.

Relimited: "So, like, when you read, like, how deep do you get into it?"

Ranks right under "I want to talk to you about Jesus" please-go-away-faster-you-really-creepy-guy type questions.

Still, moral of this blog post: If you are part of my generation, READ MORE.