In defense of reading

When I was a kid, the adults of my world worried about the rise of Communism and decline of literacy. Actually they feared the complete decline of Western Civilization but saw TV as another thing that rotted children's brains and kept them away from books. One of my favorite gateways into literature was Classic Illustrated comic books where you can read Moby Dick in 50 action packed pages. Honestly I did like Classic Illustrated's version of War Of Worlds but a comic book can only do so much as a watered down representation of a good story. At least I'm proud to say I never used a Classic Illustrated for a book report.

For me both reading and writing are laborious tasks but they are also very rewarding and therefore essential. When I lived in South Jersey, before and just after casino gambling came to Atlantic City, I did a lot seasonal work or worked the overnight shifts. This gave me time to read. Nothing was more luxurious than sitting in front of the big picture window at my old address spending the afternoon with a book. There were few distractions there, for a long time we did own a phone or TV and being about a couple of hundred yards from the WOND broadcast tower -we only had one radio station.

Within a select group of friends we would trade books back and forth. After any of us would read a book it was common to sign our names inside it before passing it on. I remember being really excited to start East Of Eden when I saw over twenty other people (more than half of them I knew) had read that very same book. One of the most popular titles was On The Road which sparked my interest in the Beat Generation. The Beats had their short comings but I like the idea that there might be more to life than birth, work, family and death -and that the only way you could find out for sure was to explore the possibilities some where out on fringe; that living a life with curiosity was a voyage of discovery and that the risk of failure was better than an existence of quite desperation. William Burroughs became one of my literary heroes -though I have to admit I found Naked Lunch was unreadable and repulsive. Burroughs book Junkie might someday be seen as a classic and even if it has to be reduced down into a Classic Illustrated comic book it should still be required reading for every middle school student. As a cautionary first person narrative on addiction it brings home the point that drugs are worth avoiding. Without any moralistic preaching Burroughs makes drugs boring and uncool.

Right now I'm looking for a copy of The Adding Machine: Select Essays by William Burroughs to borrow. I read the Hippos Where Boiled In Their Tanks a few years ago, another book I can recommend for anybody interested in the Beat Generation. It takes elements of a trashy pulp fiction novel and mixes that in with some if the inside gossip of the Beat celebrities.

I know that people read more today than ever before but most of what they read is online and with so called social media. I hope that more people take time to read things don't need an emoticon to reveal its true meaning. :)