It’s no secret that the world is going through a recession right now.  (Or at least the media tells us that an uncountable number of times a day.)  However, it appears that the movie-going public isn’t aware of this.  The Los Angles Times reports that:

Audiences seeking an escape have bolstered the industry’s U.S. box-office revenue to $1.8 billion this year, up more than 17% from the same period last year.

The same day I heard this news, I read in the April 2009 issue of The Writer that the book publishing industry has been hit so hard that some publishers are even suspending new acquisitions (Leddy, Chuck. “Economy dampens publishing.” The Writer Apr. 2009: 8-9.).  More here from Publisher’s Weekly.

So, to get this straight, people will pay $10US or  more (over $15CAN) to watch an hour and a half long movie that is probably only so-so, instead of spending $9.99 or less on a paperback book that will last them a week or more and (horror of horrors!) allows them to use their imagination.  Amazing.

Go out and buy a book.  Keep writers in business.  Read to your kids.  Buy them books.  Literacy is important.

This is a message from your friendly, neighbourhood bookworm.  Now maybe I should go put in an order to Chapters…  Any recommendations?

Guess They Liked the Movie Better is a post from Reflections in the Pond

I have a very small circle of friends, a good size group of acquaintances, and one really good friend.  Oh, and Baby Man.  According anthropologist Robin Dunbar (see BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What’s the ideal number of friends?), most people have an average of 150 friends.

I think, depending on your definition of friends, this is believable.  With sites like Facebook and MySpace, we are growing our circle of friends so quickly and easily now.  But I think we need to a bit more clear about the label of friend.  Merriam-Webster defines friend as ” a favored companion”.  A lot of people use it when “acquaintance” might be more appropriate.  For example, I quite liked some of the people I worked with.  And while I think there may have been a possibility for friendship to grow, I still consider them acquaintances since we never really got a chance to know each other outside of work.

Admittedly, the point of the article isn’t that we should try to have as many friends as possible (although the lead in about it boasting your income is pretty tempting).  The point is that while we may be able to have up to 150 “friends”, there is a core group of about 5 that are true 3-am-phone-call friends.  Those are the most important, the most precious, and the ones that we need to spend our time with.

I have 44 friends on Facebook. Truthfully, many of them I haven’t seen in years, and there are a couple that I have never met in person. Are all these people really true friends? No, but I like them anyway.

Quantity or Quality? is a post from Reflections in the Pond