Rating: - Should be required reading
This book is important for anyone who is concerned about the proliferation of television in our society. Actually, it should be read by everyone, if only to make people think about what television means to our society. He compares American TV to Huxley's Brave New World, and it's been a while since I read that (may have to go pick it up again), but I get it. His point is that we don't have anything to fear from an Orwellian "everything is monitored and prohibited", but that we are overwhelmed by meaninglessness through TV and therefore cannot have a meaningful discussion about anything. Everything is conscripted to sound bites and visual stimulation. Everything is trivialized. And it's true -- when I was reading this, I found it difficult to concentrate and would take breaks, check the internet, etc. We just don't have that attention span, and I agree with him that it's in large part because of television.

This book was written in 1985, and I found myself wondering what he would have made of the internet -- like television, we're able to click something off if it's not instantly entertaining. I also wonder what he would say about the 100 channels we can now watch, instead of the three he was speaking of when he wrote this. Things are even worse now.

In short: it's a great book.