Positive Press

I grew up reading and watching all genres of books, TV and movies. My main book fare was mysteries. Nowadays, mystery, thriller and true crime seem to comprise a lot of the airwaves and pages.

It seems people are always coming up with innovative ideas for plots and scripts, great dialogue crackles, production designers create great sets, props and find great locations.

I have seen some very original shows on television lately, but what I noticed is that the writers feel the need to shock and surprise audiences. And why not? Isn’t that what people want? To be fascinated by their dramas?

But the problem I’m having is this. The shows are dark, gloomy, morose, cynical and filled with sex, drugs, violence, hopelessness and abomination. And the same is true for a lot of the books I once liked and movies I used to go to.

So when I get a new book from an author I admire, and it has less content that another, I try it out and give it a chance, but the closer I get to God (praise Him!) the less I can tolerate.

I recently won a book giveaway, a sequel, so I checked the first in the series out of the library. It had too much content, and I returned it. The giveaway hasn’t arrived yet, and it has been weeks since it was promised. I’m not upset it hasn’t come and I think I’ll donate it when it does, if that is even okay. I enjoy other books by this author, but this series is not the best (to me).

Then I got another book out with less content, but even that book had a cynical and corrupt theme. So I’m re-reading All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (the audiobook is free on Libby and is great!), as it is pretty innocent. I am also reading biographies and autobiographies and more Christian nonfiction.

Sometimes the better books are hugely entertaining, and sometimes they are not, but I want to retrain my mind to favor more edifying media. I know God will reward me for doing so, and that I’ll feel closer to Him as a result.

I don’t want to drop all my secular reading and television, but most of it is not going to do me any good; a lot of it might do me harm.