External Factors

A few months ago I read a tale of modernity in The New York Times. It was giving its two cents about the electronic book/news phenomenon. To Kindle or not to Kindle? The author gave the usual arguments - I like to feel a book in my hands, smell the wonderful mildewy smell, know that my eyesight isn't being lost by squinting at a screen. I concur to all of the above. But then they gave the best argument of them all - how would we judge each other? When you are sitting across from someone on the bus, or next to them in the waiting room, or you visit their house and you meander to their bookshelf - how can you get a true sense of their character if not by judging the cover of the book they are reading?

I have found the Peace Corps equivalent - the almighty external hard drive. We swap music, movies, TV episodes, audio books, PDF books. But be careful! As soon as you hand over the contents of your precious external, your character will be judged. Sure you can slough it off to 'some random music that your brother gave you' or you were just acting as a 'middleman' because another PCV wanted that movie. But we all know the truth. Everyone has their guilty pleasures they'd rather keep hidden in the dark recesses of electronic circuits. So if your hard drive could say something about you, what would it be? and more importantly, are you ashamed?