The other day, I was writing a sentence in which I used the term “Indian style” to describe a way someone sat. I haven’t used the term in years. Then a little voice inside my head said, Wait a minute, Chris. You may want to go online and check this out, because things have changed since you were a boy. ‘Indian style’ may be offensive nowadays.

Many of us are guilty of it.

Going to bed, but not really going to bed; there’s always that last-minute check on your phone or tablet, whether it’s to browse Facebook, check an email, or scan the news headlines one more time. And it never ends well.

When it comes to books and movies, most people (who read) generally agree the “book is better than the movie.” That’s because it’s amazingly difficult to trim an 80,000-110,000-word novel down to a 90-120-page screenplay without losing the story’s oomph. And while I generally subscribe to the idea that books are better than their big-screen adaptations, I’ve found it’s not always the case.