Watched any good books lately?

What are they reading in Mad Men, The Sopranos, True Blood and Skins - and what does it mean? We read between the lines

In the same way that Captain Kirk never took a loo break, the depiction of reading on TV has traditionally been considered anathema. Who turns on their telly to watch someone buried in a book? Remember that moment in Seinfeld when the characters pitch "Jerry", their (anti)-sitcom-within-a-sitcom to NBC? George stresses that one thing the characters will be doing a lot of is reading. "Reading?" shoots back the network exec in disbelief, as shocked as if George had suggested masturbating; reading is, after all, the very antithesis of drama, of getting out and doing stuff. It's an almost morbidly introspective thing for telly folk to be doing and not terribly exciting for the viewer, either, who might be tempted to switch over to the ten pin bowling.

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