Perhaps it's a reflection of my peripatetic lifestyle, but whenever I'm in Washington DC, I'm a creature of habit. And it's my habit on a Saturday to meet friends for lunch at the city's finest Greek diner (Plato's Palate, if you're ever in the vicinity, "Home of the OuzoBurger"). After lunch, I usually wander into the book-shop next door to see what new titles tickle my interest.

This weekend, you could scarcely get into the bookshop for the wealth of new tomes about the events of last September 11th. So many books have been published in the run-up to the 12 month anniversary of the attacks on America, that the New York Times restricted itself to reviewing no more than 4 new titles each day ahead of the ceremonies that will mark the 1-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The country's publishers, together with most of its other media outlets, have decided that the country - and, indeed the world - has a visceral need to relive the events of last September 11th. As one network anchorman, NBC's Tom Brokaw put it - "there has been a kind of drifting away…. emotionally and intellectually, even from the events of that day."

And so, on September 11th, Mr. Brokaw and his competitors at ABC, CBS and this country's so-called "all news" channels - a phrase that is today is of questionable accuracy - will devote hour-after-hour to live coverage of the ceremonies due to take place at the Pentagon and Ground Zero.

Special broadcasts began airing as long ago as mid-August, as the networks sought to establish their "anniversary" credentials. They will continue through until the end of September, and possibly beyond. Supermarket checkout lines are now awash with "special editions" of the country's news magazines.

With respect to Mr. Brokaw, I think he's got it all wrong. I don't detect any "drifting away", emotionally or intellectually from the events of what will forever be known here as "nine-eleven".

If anything, my neighbors in Washington and friends elsewhere tell me that the events of September 11th are so fresh in their minds that they have no intention of involving themselves in the media's saturation coverage that is now underway here.

If the events of last September feel like they happened only yesterday, then perhaps that's because in a sense they did. The USA - and the wider world - has been dealing with the consequences of the attacks since the very moment they occurred. Hours of airtime, miles of newsprint, gallons of ink have - quite correctly - been spilled covering 9/11 and its aftermath.

The Washington Post's cultural critic Tom Shales has written of the "9/11 merchandising orbit" that is overpowering America and much of the wider world. "It seems inevitable", he wrote, "that the line between commemorating and, implicitly, celebrating will be blurred".

He's right, and that's a shame. September 11th should be a day for remembrance and contemplation. Most of us can only accomplish that quietly, peacefully and privately, unmolested by the barrage of media images that are about to assault us.