Self-help Books on iTunes... a Shrink on an iPod

I did a search on Limewire (don't judge me... I still buy CDs all the time) for "audiobooks". I was about to take a road trip home and was hoping for an audio version of Harry Potter or a Narnia book. Instead, I came across several Anthony Robbins books and a few copies of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus." You can imagine my surprise. So, I did what anyone would do in a situation like this. I downloaded them. I then spent the next two of the four hours in the car on my way home listening to why men an women need to change their views of each other in order to get along. I have never felt more sad in all my life.

Books-on-iTunes, as I like to call them, are a kind of digital narrative that has put a caring yet somewhat famous (Hello, Anthony Robbins) in your pocket, care of your iPod. I sat in my car that day with my iPod-car converter plugged in, listening to the high-pitched voice of a middle-aged man telling me that we women have the wrong picture of men. We see them like us, yet they are extremely different. Though most of the two hours it was on was spent with the volume all the way down while I talked on the phone, I thought to myself for a moment, "Who the hell really listens to this? When would you listen to this?" I pictured a 30something spinster at work with her headphones in. Someone would walk in and say "Hey, whatcha listening to?" She would then hurry to think of a song she had heard on the radio while slyly edge her iPod closer to her so the intruder could not see the screen.

Thought to be a fad of the 80s and 90s, self-help books have come back with a vengeance. Don't have room in your purse for that Chicken Soup book? No problem. Just load it up on your iPod, and some lady or man will read it to you as you feed the cats.

Video "for the next couple of days:"
Okay so this one was a little sooner than "a couple of days." This show was one of my favorites. It was on the Disney Channel before it came on regular cable. For the few of us who were priveleged with the "exclusive Disney Channel" days... this one is for you. :)