The News has wrapped up its production schedule for the summer. Besides freeing both of us from the grips of our paper edition for a few weeks, from now until Labor Day students throughout Huntington Avenue have a chance to catch up on other reading.
Perhaps we should start with the books we’ve already said we’ve read.
According to “The Great American Facebook Survey,” conducted by CollegeHumor.com, 4 percent of women have not read all the books they list as a favorite on Facebook. Of course, this same 4 percent wasn’t sly enough to lie when the survey served to set them straight. But statistically speaking, their male counterparts have even more catching up to do after 9 percent came clean in the same category.
We’ve all read “Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” But how many of us can honestly say we enjoy reading books or that, when it comes to our old dusty hardcovers, we love to learn as we learn to love?
These next few weeks can provide a chance for those of us who spend too much time on Facebook to realize the wonder of words around us. After all, of the 26,000 students who participated in the survey, 68 percent of females and 62 percent of males have reportedly sat around with friends, judging others based on a quick glance at their profile. And yet, while we are quick to judge others on Facebook, many of us can be awfully impolite ourselves, as about 77 percent of all users have given the go-ahead to an event they knew they would not attend. Maybe these glib communications have a cause: Nearly three-quarters of these social networks admitted to having been drunk while using the website.
On the other hand, picking up a book can sometimes be more exciting than thumbing through your friend’s latest photo album. Look at Ernest Hemingway, for example. A big-time reader and a manic writer, Hemingway lived an adventurous life. During World War I, he romanced with the love of his life through letters in between his work as a writer, collecting bodies and helping the injured as an ambulance driver. It would be difficult to duplicate that kind of experience on your own before intercession ends, but you always have the option of reliving his or other authors’.
So let’s stray away from Facebook for a few days, go to the beach, get a healthy tan and bring along a good book – or, like 37 percent of students surveyed, you could choose to jump ship on the social networking website altogether. It’s your call either way, just don’t forget to wear sunscreen.
