Beach Reading

Why is it that all these parents are working hard to keep their kids away from TV? It’s books that distort our reality. I mean yes, they distort our reality while stimulating the brain and exercising the imagination. I’m not saying reading is bad. I just never realized that it creates an even more real fantasy land to distort our word view than television ever has.

The books are always better than the movies made out of them after all. I make all the characters perfect in my head of course. If I had read Cinderella before seeing the movie (it’s possible that it was read to me; I just remember the movie more) I would probably still be waiting on Prince Charming. I don’t know why I think I’m not waiting on him, but I like to believe that I know it’s a fantasy.

Maybe I’ve just forgotten how a good book impacts me. I guess I’ve been too busy reading CPA review books and accounting standards (those don’t really create the fantasy I desire). To lose yourself in a good book is truly amazing.  But what struck me the most when I was reading yesterday was how much more real it seemed to me than anything I see on TV. This could be because I’m a 26 year old watching shows on the CW made for teenagers, but still.

So the book I was reading, written by a man, created a grown up fantasy. I just don’t see how this man can write for women so well. I picture him probably being like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets - a totally detached and unsociable man who just happens to be able to create the illusions that women crave.

My book starts with a 32-year-old man putting a hot tub in place on the deck of his house. His house that is located on an ocean inlet with a boat dock where we can keep his jet ski’s. I got the impression that he kept his two boats at the marina because the inlet was not much bigger than a creek. But he could just take his jet ski’s up to the marina and hop on his ski boat or his other boat (which I picture being more like a pontoon boat, but fast enough to work with his parasail). Or maybe he could take his jet ski’s over to the ocean-front lot that he purchases to build his dream house on whenever he gets a family.

The man is already perfect enough. Of course in my head he’s amazingly attractive, not so much so that all women would have flocked to him. We don’t want him to be too arrogant of course. His friends come over - all young couples with kids. Of course the kids all love him and he’s the favorite “uncle.”

I’m already in love with this man when we discover he’s the town vet. Really? A great job too? You see how the books are ruining reality? As if all this isn’t bad enough. He starts a romance with his new neighbor. They fall madly in love in one weekend of course.

Forget the boy next door. This is the MAN next door! A grown up fantasy for every 26-year-old single woman. I need to buy a house!

This wasn’t even one of those really cheesy romance novels. I mean it had it moments, but it brought in a little reality in part two. I won’t give it all away. Maybe today’s book will have some woman meeting her “Prince Charming” on a beach vacation. Then I can really relive all my childhood fantasies.