http://writingyourfeelings.wordpress.com/
Cause some people eat their feelings, and other people write ‘em. It’s going to be a blog about the book industry, about writing, about all that jazz along with a little more of my flair. Still unsure as to whether this blog will be permanent or not.
Posted in Culture
Lately I’ve been watching The Jersey Shore, and if you’ve ever watched that show or similarly disconcerting reality show imitations, then I’m sure you’ve also despaired for humanity, and realized that maybe the reason why no one is reading books is because too many of ‘those people’ exist in the world. And yet…that doesn’t seem quite right. There are plenty of educated people in the U.S., not as many as there should be but all the same enough to fill colleges and to rack up viewer stats on blogs.
Then I started thinking…do I buy books? Sure there are books I need for school, but how about on my own spare time, in those moments when I can actually read for pleasure, do I read a spanking new hardcover? Nope. I usually buy secondhand or maybe drag myself off the couch and borrow a book from the library (though honestly, I don’t think I’ve borrowed a book from a library for years), but usually I buy secondhand. The truth is, I’m able to completely satiate my reading gut simply by walking into vintage bookstores or waiting for the inevitable rectangular shaped package come Xmas or my birthday. Honestly, the only time I enter a bookstore to buy that shiny new hardcover is when I’m forced to via giftcard. And I can’t even claim that I go to an independent bookstore—my lazy hypocritical self frequents Barnes and Nobles and the independent chain’s arch nemesis: Amazon.com.
I’ve been thinking about why I don’t buy ‘firsthand’ and why I don’t buy independent and honestly, it’s because I’m cheap as hell. $10 bucks is a good amount of money to be carrying around in my pocket, and I’m not prepared to buy a book anyway when the smell of halal food is wafting from a nearby street cart (yes, I really am so easily manipulated).
And I found out that I’m not alone. “Only 40 percent of books that are read are paid for, and only 28 percent are purchased new,” it said in a NY Times article on the rise of book theft in stores. This means that many people don’t even buy secondhand; they borrow from friends, give books away, even steal them. And really, for most books, why would you buy them brand-new? Unless they’re just released, well sought after, unless your school says “do this or else,” are you really buying so many books? The reason why the book industry is suffering isn’t because fewer people are reading, since certainly we know the internet has expanded the ability for the average person to read and write, but rather that because of the economy, because of environmental activism even (where secondhand=twice as good), we’re becoming more conscious of our spending habits. A duh, I’m sure, but still semi-reassuring. Maybe the publishing business is plummeting, but at least we’re being thrifty, or environmentally friendly, or both. Does this mean I should buy e-books now? Is that the next logical step? But that would involve buying an expensive e-reader, or worse, losing the lovely feel of dead trees between by fingers, the lovely waft of late night reading in my nose.
Problem is, us aspiring authors don’t really care about the environment when faced with the lovely utopia of published pages devoted to our own writing. Is that a problem? Probably. What do you think?
I read a lot of blogs. Specifically book blogs. I read agents and authors and publishers, I read articles on querying and book sales even though I haven’t even finished editing my currently gorgeous novel (but beware, said gorgeous novel/manuscript is also sometimes referred to as crappy and terrible and sending me through bi-polar bouts of euphoria and depression). And if there’s one thing I know, us aspiring authors have to start the marketing shtick early, aka, now, and writing lots of personal posts that even I pretty much care nothing about isn’t really going to help the situation. So I decided a revamping is in order and, since New Year’s is rolling around the bend, now seems a good time to start hoping that I haven’t set myself up to fail.
On that note, look forward to this blog being not only an aspiring author’s personal journey into the scary world of trying to write a frickin BOOK in these hard economic times, but also as a weekly or biweekly digest of what’s going on in the publishing world. This could mean me talking about how I have too much pride and too little $$$ to ever buy a kindle, or half laughing myself silly/worrying myself over the fact that apparently book promoting is for writers too, which means you actually have to step out into the world (NO!) and frickin market yourself, maybe even by yourself (bleh….) Where hath the day goneth when a writer could type away in her hovel of a working space without being subjected to anyone?
So yes, all I want for 2010 (doesn’t that seem like such a magical number, as if everything should change and stop being so poor and pessimistic?) is diligence, diligence, diligence. That’s the only way a crazy student like me can expect to write all of these lovely posties and edit her oh-my-god-will-never-be-able-to-finish-this manuscript. Sigh. And I have to apply to college? NO FAIR.
Best of luck for all of you trying to make resolutions that you really really hope (and secretly doubt/don’t want to doubt just in case that jinxes it) you’ll be able to keep 
I always think I never read, and then somebody asks me hey, how many books do you think you read and then I realize HOLY #^%T&, maybe I’m not an illiterate after all! I suppose must of the reason why I feel as if I never read anything is because most of the stuff I read is for school, and it doesn’t matter how enjoyable I find it, it’s still your job to read it, so it almost doesn’t count. Also, I’m a big proponent of reading modern literature, of supporting the newbies and debuts and all that good stuff, but then I make a list and realize I might as well have been a proponent of name something cool and insidious here, because apparently it didn’t matter a little dinky bit. So okay, here goes, my list for 2009 in no particular order, and who knows, I’ll update you if I manage to squeeze in one more:
Books I Read For 2009
So, what books did you read this year? Are you as disappointed by the results (and number) as I am? Well why don’t you tell me and, while you’re at it, promise you won’t ever read a book my Edith Wharton? I swear, the woman kills brain cells. BRAIN CELLS. And believe me, I like my brain cells.
Posted in More About Me
I think that everyone in the world is too focused on the nonimportant things. As if the whole point of life is for undeveleoped countries to become developed, not so that they can afford food on their plate, but so they have more spending power, not so that they can have a stable government, but so that there’s hope to democratize them, not because they can become literate and get an education and thus have the opportunity to pursue their dreams, but so that they can go to college. Perhaps this is all a far stretch from what I’ve been thinking about lately, but I’ve always been of the mindset that not everyone should go to college. That it would best serve society if people accepted that some people should be plumbers or electricians, that some people should take year off and live in a foriegn country, to expand their horizons, surely, but to do it in their own individual way.
I think the reason why the U.S. has been successful for so long is because we are a nation of creative-thinking individuals. We are a nation that defined specialization, we are a growing service industry that continues to advance by honing our skills. If education is a lung, it is pertinent that air reaches all the branches of it and that we particuarly focus on the ends of those branches, where the oxygen is delivered to the blood. That means we need some people to study biochemical engineering, others to study auto mechanics. We need both of these individuals to have had a basic education with one another, so that each can understand the other, and then we need them to at some point branch off. But to say that they should both take the same path, that indeed, one path is better than the other, that is a flaw of the system. It is typical in our society to admire the lawyers and doctors, but not the English major or the Sociology major, who is studying a ‘softer’ field (English professors are typically payed less than their science and math counterparts, largely because those professors produce research that earns bigger $$$–do you think that’s fair? Let me know). We discredit the electricians of the world simply because the position doesn’t hold the same prestige, and seems to require less ‘work,’ less ‘brilliance.’
I believe everything I’ve said, yet I often feel like a hypocrite. I’m one of those girls, raised with the expectation that college is the only option. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, except for the only option part. College might be the path I need to take; if I decided to be a carpenter I know I’d have little success. I think the important thing is to have some sort of an education but not have that be limited to college, or, in the close-minded, liberal, upper-echelon of society, to be limited to a ‘good’ college—community or state colleges are a viable, affordable option. The important thing is to keep learning, keep growing, to not limit students who aren’t good at Calculas (ahem, me) but who are good with their hands (ahem, not me) to persue something else. That means if you’re in a band, give it a shot. If you’re a mechanic, ditto. High schools should offer other options besides reading riting and rithmitic because an education isn’t just about grades, it’s about knowledge. And knowledge is learning what you’re passionate about, not something that’s being forced down your throat.
