If books were illegal, would we read more?

Just watched this and found it to be of some interest. I thought I would show it to you guys to see if you too, can find interest in it.

Then maybe maybe discuss it's posed message?

Not me, I hate reading, that's why I watch movies

Yeah, if I wanted to read, I'd hit the subtitles button on the DVD remote

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If books were illegal, JayDee would be BANNED from here.

Can JayDee read?


He posts mainly pictures these days

Good question. I think a few more would read.

I didn't like to read when I was younger (except for comic books).
Now it's one of my most favorite things - probably because it's a way to rationalize being lazy.

I pretty much only read in bed - I read horizontally and have a shelf behind me that is part of my bed frame, the shelf has a lamp on it so it is conveniently positioned over my right shoulder. I also find that I must read each night before going to sleep as part of my bedtime ritual.

I spend a lot of time these days in doctor's waiting rooms - I always bring a book, but am dismayed that almost all of them have a TV blaring. I've never been able to read with TV or radio playing unless it is wordless symphony music.

On the same token as the OP: what if some books could only be given by prescription? Would people doctor shop, coming up with illnesses that might gain them a particular type of book? And would books be divided by categories (like Schedule 1, 2, 3, etc.) based on their potency and addictive qualities?

What an interesting idea. It sounds like a weird movie.

Yeah, like if the Nazis won WW II... you'd go to your general practitioner, Dr. Mengele, and he would prescribe taking two Mein Kaumfs and one viewing of Triumph of the Will, then call him in the morning.

(This post dedicated to BLM: Brazilian Lives Matter).

Could you overdose on prescription books? Which ones?

The porno ones!
(And Stephen King!)

Torturing inmates with phone books?

Books will never become obsolete (at least I hope they won't).

Books have one advantage over all other entertainment media - they are still the most interactive form of media...

The author writes the story, but the reader creates all the imagery in their mind - the way the settings look, how the characters look, the sounds of their voices, all the sights, sounds, colors, smells, temperatures and feel of everything (including all the emotions) in the story. This is why reading a book is unique compared to all other media. A reader can become so lost in a book because the entire tableau is being created by their own mind.

And best of all, there are no commercials (the breaks for which become longer the further into the book you get), nothing you have to sit through or fast-forward through, no pop-up ads covering up the lower third of each page, no scrolls you can't turn off, the story doesn't get edited, cut up or cut off to fit into a time slot, and the credits don't get shrunk at the end so they can tell you what book is coming on next.

You read as long as you like and take breaks when you like, and all you need is light to read them by - even if there's no electricity you can still read a book by sunlight in the daytime or by oil lamp or by candle light.

This actually happened historically in Poland and, I assume, in other Nazi-occupied (and later USSR-influenced) countries. Not all books were banned. You were allowed to read what the occupants wanted you to read and they wanted you to read two kinds of books: propaganda-filled ones, so that you would assimilate into their ideology and ones that won't teach you anything of importance, because it's much easier to rule a stupid nation.

For purposes of learning and teaching you need good coursebooks and world-class literature. That's why underground schools and universities were formed in Poland in which people secretly met to read and study. Books became an important commodity, carefully guarded.

The young people of that era weren't all that different from the young generation of today. They also preferred to party and procrastinate rather than study but boy, did they rebel when the things they thought they didn't want to do became illegal for them to do.

Really makes you think... Maybe we should ban reading and learning so that youngsters actually begin learning and reading on their own, in secret, as an act of rebellion?

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Check out my blog: Yasashii's Retro Game Playground

Probably yeah, the forbidden fruit tastes so much sweeter.

I regret spending so much time with a remote in my hand instead of a good book.

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