I guess i have heard this kind of argument before. In the movie book "Around the world in 80 days". Its not possible or you can't do travel all around the globe in 80 days. Still someone did it, sooner or later someone will do it, and see it takes us nearly 24 hours to make a complete rotation around the earth. Some day we will even reach to Proxima Cetauri.
IMHO books are one place where you can reflect yourself, extend your imagination and look beyond the obvious. You learn a lot about life, and things that make you what you are.
But books aren't something where you can understand what goes around you. Also books are not the best preachers, though there are exceptions to this one. Book can be a mirror but not a light.
Now comes the case of understanding the present. When things are so damn fast, when you can do what not by just a click of button, i doubt book can even catch up with it.
You might have often heard undergrads saying that the books are heavily outdated, as technology is much advanced now a days. This is in fact true. If you want to learn whats happening now in present, and want to be informed, or want to read something interesting, i would suggest that you read blogs, go through the forums, reddit, see some suggested pages that you like on stumbleupon.
Its just that what you read totally and completely depends on what you want to read.
I think you should give Openbox or Fluxbox or LXDE a try. A lot many features to customize, and initially it will be pain in the ass, but eventually you will be satisfied.
I very much hope that this will become standard practice across all of free software, because in my view the future of free software is no longer just about inner beauty (architecture, performance, efficiency) it’s also about usability and style.
+1