What's happening?

I'm afraid that my posts may seem repetitive since I can only write about literature or movies, but today I'll try to talk about an impression I've been having for a while and I want to share it.
I like reading best sellers and I'm a huge fan of the greatest of them - Harry Potter, obviously. LOL
I have absolutely nothing against reading, buying, downloading, sharing and loving best sellers. And I also enjoy blockbuster movies. No, I haven't watched an Woody Allen movie yet and yes, I really enjoyed watching Iron Man. What's the big deal?
Nothing, really.
I don't judge people by the books they read or the movies they watch (although I believe that the sentence "The books you read are often a guide to your character" is a great one- but that's something to be discussed in another post) but I can't understand when someone says he doens't like reading or hates watching movies. I've already heard: "I hate watching movies with subtitles". Spooky hun? But it can get spookier ;)

On one hand, I believe that Brazilian people have been through a weird and good process recently. People are reading more, watching more movies, going more to the theater and that's pretty good. On the other hand, there's a strange thing happening in Brazil that I'm curious to know if it's common in other countries in the world as well. Maybe some day I'll find out.
It seems to me that Brazilian people only work under the pressure of something which is fashionable.
A couple of years ago, The Kite Runner was a best seller in Brazil. Ok, so then we only read literature on Afghanistan way of life. Have you read The daVinci Code? And how many other similar books have you read as well? Books on religion, symbols, destroying the image of the church... Have you watched "Caminho das Indias"? No? Well even though you haven't watched, I think that the first bookstore you come across you'll be able to find several books on India. Weird.Maybe not.
This nowadays phenomenon is kind unusual. It's extremely cool to like Vampires. They are everywhere- they are late though, the wizards came first and rocked our worlds =)
I don't know if this is a good thing or not, if it really doesn't matter why we are reading more- the important thing is that we're reading. But to my mind, if we keep on following these certain tendencies we may not find new horizons which can contribute so much more to our lives. If we keep only reading about Vampires we will never get the chance to read a classic, because we're not used to it. Language is different, plots are different, time is always different and that's why reading is so much fun =)

Reading does not only transport you to Hogwarts or Afghanistan. Literature can take you everywhere any time you want. You just have to open your eyes to it =)


By Carol Colaneri, evening group