My turn: Real life is definitely more interesting

It would be disingenuous to pretend that I'm never shallow.

When the Cowboys are not on "Monday Night Football," I watch "How I Met Your Mother," "2 Broke Girls" and "Two and One-Half Men."

But then I get irritated at how attractive, witty and well-paid everyone is — so I pick up a book.

Reading about others' tragic lives and deaths, and sarcastic comments, cheers me up.

Examples:

"If you could put the Mount Wilson telescope inside the Mount Palomar telescope, you still couldn't detect my interest in your problem."— George S. Kaufman

Vincent van Gogh cut off an ear, entered a mental hospital, then killed himself.

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of others." — Mark Twain

Virginia Woolf 's home was destroyed by Nazi bombs. At 59, she drowned herself.

"Why should we take advice on sex from the Pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't." — George Bernard Shaw

Jezebel was thrown out a window, where her body was torn apart by dogs.

"No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend." — Groucho Marx

After city leaders got sick of his incessant questioning, Socrates was forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock.

It's odd that I find the sad lives of real people in books more uplifting than the shiny, happy people on TV.

Wendel Sloan has more books than years left. Contact him at [email protected].