Assignment #2: Life without books

Around the time we read Fahrenheit 451 he handed us this little essay to write. I just thought it was funny and wanted to include it in this collection.

His instructions: What would your life be likes [sic] if you were no longer allowed to read books?  Don't write about how society would be changed, write about how your own life would be changed.

Grade: 10/10

Well, if I couldn't read books, my brain cells would atrophy.  They would become sluggish and dulled, like muscles you don't exercise.  My mind would degenerate to the point of idiocy; I would become a drooling fool, living only for the daily fix of sugar-coated stimulation provided by the TV.  I would watch game shows, talk shows, soap operas,--gasp--sitcoms. I would argue vehemently with my friends at the lunch table over the minute details of Home Improvement, behind-the-scenes information being supplied by network-sponsored pulp fanzines, full of cheery exclamation points and poor editing. When Roseanne was finally canceled we would be enraged, our superficial worlds disrupted past the point of comprehension by our shallow minds.  We would sputter and agree that SOMETHING must be done and might even grab a pen and piece of paper with which to voice our anger at the network but would stop, twisted with frustration, unable to do more than scrawl some misspelled, unintelligible remarks sideways across the page, only to be crumpled up and tossed away as we decide to find another show to watch instead.