TV or Not TV: The Relationship Between Television and Reading

The women always wear their hair long, sometimes wrapped up in a bun on top of their heads They never wear makeup and always wear dresses. The men never wear beards, always have their hair cut short and always wear long sleeved shirts. Neither sex wears jewelry. These people are not Amish, nor Mennonite, but belong to a conservative Protestant sect called the Pilgrim Holiness Church.

The Pilgrim Holiness Church comes out of the Wesleyan tradition and is not quite as conservative as the Amish or Mennonites in the matter of dress. Unlike the Amish, they also embrace modern technology, with one significant exception--the television. For a bookseller like me, this is good news.

Of course, not having a television in the house doesn't guarantee that people will read books. There was plenty of illiteracy before the advent of the television. Nevertheless, the Pilgrim Holiness people are avid readers. I know because members of at least four different Pilgrim Holiness congregations buy books from me on a regular basis.

It's probably more than just the lack of television that pushes Pilgrim Holiness people toward books. They also frown on dancing, drinking, card playing, movie-going and several other forms of entertainment. Still, the lack of a television set most likely provides the primary impetus for reading.

I understand the Holiness people's appetite for books because I grew up in a similar environment. My father was a Baptist pastor. He too would not let us got to the movies, dance, drink, party or watch television. The first time I saw television was when President Kennedy was shot. My father took us to our next door neighbor's house to watch the funeral. The next time he permitted me to watch television was when the astronauts landed on the moon.

Without television, we were forced to read, especially on those long Sabbath days when we were not even permitted to go outdoors and play. But I really shouldn't say we were forced to read because I loved to read. I often read five or six books a week when I was a child.

When I grew up I resisted buying a television set until I was almost thirty. I then resisted cable for another four years. Lately, I've been considering getting rid of our television set because I believe it has affected my reading habits. It seems, however, that just when I am about to put it on the curb with the rest of the garbage, something happens that makes me change my mind--for awhile, anyway. A few weeks ago, I made my children watch Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop on PBS. They almost went on strike. They thought it unfair that I required they watch it with me. But they watched it anyway, and they loved it. Even my youngest enjoyed it.

I had a copy of The Old Curiosity Shop in stock, and now my oldest son is reading it. (I never read Dickens when I was his age. Maybe I would have if I had been exposed to television). When PBS aired Martin Chuzzlewit, I didn't even have to ask my children if they wanted to watch it. Now my son wants to read it as well.

My children's experience with Dickens has underscored for me the importance of selective television viewing. That doesn't mean, however, that television has completely redeemed itself. The problem with television is that even when there is nothing good on--and that happens quite often, even with 100 or more channels--it has a way of sucking you in once you turn it on. If you are tired, as so many of us are at night, it's much easier to flip through the channels with a remote than it is to flip through the pages of a book.

Even though I've given the television a temporary reprieve, I'm glad the Pilgrim Holiness Church does not allow television. I hope the denomination continues to adhere to that policy because right now Pilgrim Holiness churchgoers make up the single largest group of people who buy from me. They don't usually buy expensive books, but they buy a lot of books. In fact, during the last three days of this week, purchases by Pilgrim Holiness customers made up almost fifty percent of my revenue. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I just can't afford to lose these people to television.