"Never before in the history of the known universe has there been so much information available to us humans. And never before has it been so difficult to process all the information we receive. Some consultant recently told me that the average American is bombarded with 4000 messages a day (fact-checkers, back me up on this.) Those of us who are informationalists—people who work with information professionally—must be assaulted more often. The toughest challenge, I find, is wading out of the cresting information river to experience media for frivolity’s sake or simply escaping the churning waters altogether for a few moments. If I manage to do either, it's usually after tending to the dishes in the kitchen late at night. Then I head to bed, look at that stack of books, feel a pang of guilt, and shut out the light. I do miss reading. Nowadays, we absorb."-Mother Jones Washington bureau chief and Politics Daily columnist David Corn
So true. I've got my own bedroom stack of about seven or eight books that friends have recommended or about which I've read favorable reviews. In it are the "The Looming Tower," about the roots of Al Qaida; a biography of jazz great Thenlonius Monk; a novelette titled "The Fat Guy From Greenwich," written by a personal friend; "The Snowball," a biography of Warren Buffett; a couple of self-help books; and a business book or two.
ReplyDeleteAnd all that is before I can even think of my growing pile of New Yorker magazines, lying there and taunting me for paying to subscribe for 50 issues, three or four of which I read each year at the beach or during Thanksgiving weekend.
Of course, at my age there are many more things than my "to read" stacks over which I feel pangs of guilt. So at least, you know, I've got that going for me.
Cheers,
Gene Grabowski