Dream diary, 1/18/12: The blood test for books

I dreamed that the government had created new medical technology where they could test your blood and find out what books you’d been reading. I was upset about the invasion of privacy this represented, but mostly I was embarrassed and annoyed that my recent reading list hadn’t been serious enough and had so much escapist junk on it, and now everyone would know.

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Dream diary, 1/18/12: The blood test for books
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8 thoughts on “Dream diary, 1/18/12: The blood test for books

  1. 2

    When I read a science, classic,or philosophy book on my Kindle, it stays, but I delete the fluff soon after it is read. When I show off the reader, it makes me seem serious, but I mention that I delete the fluff, so I also come across as honest and open. Thus, my Kindle makes me seem to be the person that I want to be.

  2. 4

    I have no shame whatsoever about anything I have read. The only books I keep now are the ones that I think I may want to read again someday. The others I give away in the hope that someone else may enjoy a little bit of escapism as much as I do.

    But then, I am not an American. I used to own a bookstore, and I had US citizens on vacation think about buying Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifasto, but deciding not to as they were unsure about returning across the border carrying it. These are books that the government might find to be ‘interesting’ to add to your permanent record.

    I don’t worry much about my e-reader, as I don’t expect to still have any of those in 20 years.

  3. 5

    This may come true! I found out this semester that the library account at my campus reminds you that the list of books you check out can be accessed by the Government in accordance with the Patriot Act…

  4. 7

    I woke up this morning from a dream where I was at what seemed to be a high school or college baseball game. As the pitcher began the wind-up, I was surprised to see the batter not holding a baseball bat but instead leafing through the pages of a bible. He stopped at a point, held his hand on the book and with his eyes closed, began mumbling some sort of prayer. I clearly recall my shock in what I can only describe as a “WTF?” moment. The batter then walked away from the plate toward a group of people, and they began talking among themselves. I approached the group intending to find out what was going on and why the game was being interrupted by this ridiculous behavior. Other people began milling about on the field as the game became suspended in a chaotic, unexpected time-out. All of a sudden, the erstwhile batter pointed toward the crowd and yelled, “The devil is in this crowd!” Fed up, I immediately yelled back with seething frustration, “There is no goddamned devil!” The crowd hushed; I felt the distinct sensation that some people agreed with me while most of the crowd thought that I must be the devil! Then I woke up. (I know that such people exist, but the only time I ever engaged one was when I once had a brief and frustrating conversation on an on-line forum with a fellow who maintained that the problem in the world is that there is an actual, real, incarnate devil that goes around messing up people’s shit.)

    I recently got a smart phone that can hold PDFs and ebooks. So far I’ve re-read Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World,” Hitchens’s “God Is Not Great,” and I’m in the middle of re-reading Dawkins’s “Unweaving the Rainbow.” (I like to re-read books that I enjoyed reading before.) Do books influence dreams?

    Thanks, Greta. I visit your blog all the time, but this is my first comment. Freethoughtblogs is one of my daily staples. Cheers!

  5. 8

    Ha! That could actually be a very cool premise for a Philip K Dick-esque sci-fi novel.

    Bwahaha! I’ll make millions! (Just kidding I’m too lazy to read much less write.)

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