So, I’m reading a new paperback and what do you think pulls me from my immersion in another world? A commercial. In the book! A cardstock postcard advertising something for someone that I obviously need to have.

I’m accustomed to ads interrupting television. I’m even accustomed to them online, though I still don’t like them. But one place, I doubt I will ever get accustomed to ads is in the ‘middle’ of a book. At the beginning or the end would be acceptable. In fact, it would be much like going to the theatre for a movie. But to stop that movie or book, both of which allow the watcher or reader to slip into another world until the end or, hopefully, an interruption created only by that individual, is in bad taste.

I will, in the future, be forced to either pay closer attention and not buy books with such dream world alarm clocks or rip them out before I even start reading. Of course, now that I’ve typed the words in that previous sentence, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to avoid potential ads. But the question is: should I even have to?