The two books I’m currently reading couldn’t be more different, but they represent, each in its own way, what I hope to get out of reading. In other words, one is simple and sentimental, while the other is challenging and intense. I don’t always want to be challenged by what I read, but I also don’t want every book to be undemanding and straightforward.

The thing is, I’m enjoying both of these recent novels just about equally. One will take me longer to finish, but the other kept me reading straight through from beginning to end. (I actually just finished it this afternoon.) I like the way emotions are laid out on the page in this kind of book, but I also like how feelings are explored in more depth in the other kind.

It’s a good thing both kinds exist, I suppose.

Ordinarily I expect movies to challenge me more than television shows. When I’m watching TV in the evenings, most of the time I’m happy with the one-hour dramas that the medium provides. Maybe it’s because there are so few shows with the complexity and ambiguity of Lost (or, in an earlier time, The Prisoner) that I’m so easily satisfied. Or maybe the sameness that runs through so much of television makes those shows stand out.

Either way, I’m frankly just as happy to watch a well-edited reality show as I am to watch a layered, stimulating drama. And I say that with all due apologies to writers, actors and others.

The kind of challenge I expect from a movie is a little like what I expect from my job. I don’t want it to be so easy it’s boring, but I don’t really want to have to work all that hard at it. I don’t mind if it’s a little like a crossword puzzle, where you know there are going to be answers, even if it’s not clear right away what they are. Every time I attempt the impossible, at work or at the movies, I’m disappointed. So mostly I don’t bother.