LogOFF!

I have a wonderful photo of my mom when she was about 11 or 12 years old. She's laying on her stomach in the middle of a blanket spread out in the yard, chin propped on her hands, feet in the air behind her head, reading the book laid out flat in front of her. In those days she would go to the library once a week, check out 5 or 6 books, read them all and then do the same thing the next week. How fabulous is that?

My mom would have been a bibliophile (book snob) if she had been a kid in any decade, but in 1950s Ozark, Arkansas it might have been easier to be one. Nobody had even dreamed up something like the internet or Facebook or blogging. She wasn't texting her friends or playing video games. If she wanted an adventure there were only three ways to have one: go to the movies, read a book, or climb the mountain behind the house. She did all three. When my mom was a teenager she could shoot a pistol as accurately as any boy (still can, by the way), drive the stick shift farm truck all over creation, climb an Ozark mountain, ride a horse bareback, set up her own tent, bait her own hook, and tell you all about the 7 books she read that week. What can your kid do? ;)

I started thinking about these things as I was sitting in my living room flipping channels on the television while there was a really great book waiting to be read laying on my bed. Why am I watching this box? Why am I writing this blog?? One of my favorite authors (Mary Alice Monroe) has a story to tell me and I'm in here giving this insanity my attention. Has technology ruined my attention span?

I often wonder if my niece and nephew (Dani and Nicholas) will love books as much as I did. Dani is just learning to read and she loves it - so far. Nicholas always asks to read a book before bed - but he might be trying to stay awake as long as possible. They'll certainly have a tougher time being book snobs because there are so many other distractions. Faster moving pictures, louder sounds. I wonder if Dani will be able to read Anne of Green Gables and imagine having a friend like Diana Barry to sit with beside the Lake of Shining Waters before someone texts her about setting up a "play date" for a Wii marathon.

I don't usually make new year's resolutions, but I think it's time for this one. Even a Book Snob like me can get distracted by all this technology. I resolve to spend more time with my nose in a real book and less time staring at some kind of screen. Even if I can't drive a stick shift, ride a horse bareback or bait my own hook, I can do all these things and more on the pages that are just waiting for me to logoff. After all, if I don't read more books, I won't have anything to blog about!!

Read on, Snobs!