Member-only story
I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Words
First off, this is not a paid promotion for Reader’s Digest. Secondly, no words were harmed in the making of this article.
September 2023
“Every time I spoke to their virtual versions, it struck me that I could have been talking to my real parents instead.”
I arrive at the library early. It is my new safe haven for work, thinking, and all things productive. It is also the place where I work on my story ideas and execute strategies for my newly launched real estate business. Typically, when I settle into one of the nooks in the adult reading section of the library, I plug in my computer, power it up, and get to work. But today, I paused to look around, and one of the library shelves caught my attention. It contained the recent edition of local and national newspaper publications along with business and lifestyle magazines and other periodicals. The Reader’s Digest — small, barely noticeable to the unfamiliar eye popped at me in red lettering on white and a half-page with the title THE NICEST PLACES IN AMERICA written in the retro-light-sign graphic of motels and neo-burlesque theatres.
Then and Now
“People only read it when they’re waiting to see the dentist.”
