For the readers and the lost ones.

What happened to all the books? Did someone lose them? What the hell ever happened to people reading for recreation? I have a friend who is surrounded by culture, class, and all those things needed for spiritual and mental growth. She claims people still read. In fact she is a voracious reader. I read, or try to when my work is not sucking away my life and soul. I remember having friends that read when I was a wee sprout and a teenager. Many of my close friends devour knowledge in book form every day. So what has happened to all of these books? Is it no longer fashionable to read? Perhaps it is the fact that reading is a very personal thing. One has to actively think about what they want to invest the time into reading. It isn't chosen by a board of CEO's running some damned record label or TV media titan. Some fake prancy chic' for the popularity designer bastard isn't telling you that it's okay to read a certain book because he/she has stuck his or her clothing label on it. No one makes choices anymore. Ask a person what music they listen to and you will get the same answers the majority of the time. "Oh you know,......everything." It's a sad damned day when the sum of all music can be clumped and encompassed by that one simple moronic line. I HATE THAT LINE! There is so much more out there than, "oh you know everything." what about jazz?! What about opera?! What about weird ass spoken word by some drugged up hippie who can't remember what his own name is or where he was born. Much less the fact that he was ever even born. What about that guy? Do you listen to that? Is that everything? Charles Manson put out a CD, I own it. It sucks but I own it. When you tell me everything are you telling me that you would like nothing more than to sit and listen to Charley Manson sing about how our ego is either in the back or the front? Oh but you do like R&B, country, hip hop, and a little bit of rock. As long as MTV, Fox broadcasting or whoever owns TV now, and Hollywood movies says that it's okay to like this particular thing. And if it's a little edgy or, "freakish" then that's okay. As long as it is marketable and consumable as freakish. But if it starts to provoke a true personal identity that may lead to independent thought then it's just a little too weird. Why? Because that can lead to choosing what you really want, what really makes you into a person. Not just which designer label you choose to follow. But what you would like to read, or what you would really like to wear if no labels were sewn on. People need to understand that there is a whole wide world out there. There is more in life than what the radio plays, what Hollywood shows, and what Opera and Anne rice says to read. I understand that this has become a rant, but sift through it all and you'll find a point. And that's just what life is like. Sift through all the dirt and the gravel and you'll find a point. We just need to stop letting other people choose our filters. And letting those same people tell us that the dirt is a diamond. There is also something said for good taste. But please show me what happened to the readers.