East Carolinian

Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Opinion

During his career, George Orwell, author of "1984" and "Animal Farm," wrote an essay exploring the consumer spending of the British in 1946. He speculated that the people of the time were probably more likely to spend money on cigarettes and alcohol than they would on books and other reading material.

According to a recent consumer report on the spending statistics of Americans, his observation, like many others, is still prevalent. From what has been gathered from government statistics and New York Times research, the average consumer spending on reading has decreased in recent years and is outdone by the spending on alcohol and entertainment. But why?

Practically and honestly, a six-pack of Rolling Rock will always be cheaper than the next installment in Terry Pratchett's series of fantasy novels. Books can be expensive, especially if you want a fresh copy.

There are several Web sites that have full texts of some of the more well-known classical authors. In fact, I just found a site that has everything by Orwell. Knowing this three years earlier would have saved me around $50. Then again, I, like some other people, enjoy holding a book over burning my eyes out reading a computer monitor. But the Internet is very text based. I don't need to buy major newspapers when I can find the same articles, and all the ones archived, just by paying my Internet bill.

Besides the plain and obvious, books do not receive the same kind of attention as alcohol or other forms of recreation and entertainment. How often do you see advertisements for books or magazines on television or the radio? I hardly see any advertisement banners on the Internet about reading material, and the only place to commonly find advertising for literature is in magazines or newspapers.

Overall, the culture has finally outrun the book. Nothing takes time to process. Mail is either instant or overnight delivery. Televisions have become bigger and easier to fit into houses with the recent flat screen craze. Everything is portable and we are all interconnected. And if this is not enough, then phones become all consumer electronics in one device. If a person needs something, it is available whenever and wherever from devices like iPhones and Blackberries. I guess the fifth grade lesson on how to research with a printed encyclopedia has become wasted time.

All of our instant gratifications are at exponential growth. Video games, music, television, news, movies and downloads are now readily available at hand so that we have more time in the day. Reading a book or listening to a vinyl record from start to finish seems almost like counter-culture.

Then again, who really needs to make the effort for anything when a few keystrokes set machines and microprocessors to fetch things for us?



This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.

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