An Unexpected Distraction

I used to be such an intense lover of video games. I still like them, but I don't think they have the same lure for me that they once did. Last year I think I came to the conclusion that although I like video games, I'm not particularly good at them. Maybe it's because the new generation of high definition, intense action games are likely to give me motion sickness more often than entertain me.

It used to be I would buy a new game and stay up all night playing it. Now I kind of check out after a couple of hours... I actually start getting drowsy. A shame really - I just got a Wii for my birthday not too long ago. Not that it's going to waste... I've found that the Wii has a moderate appeal to my wife, who never caught on the the game thing (she and I are part of the generation where mostly boys played video games. She got as far as Ms. Pac-Man). But then, that's been the strength of the Wii.. appeal to every-day people, not just the hard-core gamers. She kicks my ass regularly at Wii bowling.

But here I am on extended break from my job and rather than spend hours in front of my newly acquired Wii games, I recently reverted to a more respectable, ancient pastime. I started reading again. Maybe it was because it was the only thing I had to turn to after tuning out of my Wii games... after I thoroughly cleaning the apartment and reorganized my sock drawer. Maybe it was because I recently allowed my optometrist to sell me my first pair of (overpriced) reading glasses. Maybe it was because I let slip to my sister that I hadn't yet seen the Da Vinci Code movie because I hadn't yet read the book (which has been sitting on my night stand for two years... a fact that my wife teases me about)... and she immediately loaned me the DVD. Probably a combination of all of them. Anyway, yesterday I devoted nearly a whole day to The Da Vinci Code. After breakfast I showered, got into my comfiest pair of pajamas and wool socks, piped some light classical through my iPod and curled up on the couch with the hardcover copy I got three Christmases ago.

I haven't read for pleasure regularly since I was a kid. Even then, I could sit still only for a couple chapters before finding some other distraction. My perception of how long it takes to get through a book is kind of skewed. Aside from the Harry Potter books (which are easy reads) the only other books I've really attacked in the last couple decades were jargon-ladent texts for my Master's degree and the Lord of the Rings (and kids... as cool as Tolkein is... we all know how laborious he can be). So part of my hesitation to pick up a book comes from memories, old and recent, of taking weeks, months sometimes to finnish one. I was a little surprised when I was half-way done by the time my wife came home from work. Then again... Brown isn't a difficult read, and the chapters are reaaaaally short.

I don't know... Maybe it's too soon to tell if I'm really turning away (somewhat) from my electronic toys and going back to books. It was only one day. Maybe I'm growing up. Then again... the fact that my Season 3 of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Godzilla: Tokyo SOS" DVDs are supposed to show up in the mail today answers that question right there.