No, not my blog, wisenheimers. Those stupid "novels" celebrities are supposedly writing.
That's my question.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
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WELCOME TO MY SECRET LAIR ON SKULLCRUSHER MOUNTAIN
Followers
About Me
- Lt. Cccyxx
- Male, mid 30s, living in DC. Trained as a scientist, but struggled with breadth/depth issues in academia. Now works in policy, where the balance seems a better fit. Simultaneously wants to take over the world and run screaming from it, knows neither can happen. Currently seeking agency representation for my first novel, revising my second, contemplating my third. I blog about books and writing, my life and family, and other assorted subjects...but rarely about science or politics. I usually post once or twice a week and welcome all followers and commenters.
Books I've Read in 2011
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- [UNPUBLISHED]
- Saints At The River by Ron Rash
- Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
- Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
- The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
- Brief Interviews With Hideous Men By David Foster Wallace
- [UNPUBLISHED]
- The Fire In Fiction by Donald Maass
- Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov
- Personal Finance For Dummies by Eric Tyson
- A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- Inspired Sleep by Robert Cohen
- Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
- Lamb by Christopher Moore
- Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
- The House On Crash Corner by Mindy Greenstein
- [UNPUBLISHED]
- Room by Emma Donoghue
- Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
- [UNPUBLISHED]
- Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
- The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin by Richard Lourie
- Between Parent And Child by Haim G. Ginott
- Johannes Cabal The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- The Neighbors Are Watching by Debra Ginsberg
11 comments:
And how do y'all like my abbreviated "Travener-style" post? (As opposed to the usual Lt. style of taking at least 750 words to say anything?)
You mean like the Palin ghostwriten book? You got me, man. And yes I like Travener style posts. I think I'll try it some time.
Good question. Even the board I lurk on turns up their noses at these. And you know how I feel about what they typically read.
So, in sum: I dunno.
Celebs can publish anything. Life isn't fair, you know? You'd think someone would've told us.
Travs - My high school health teacher told our class that over and over. I thought it was incredibly patronizing of him.
I guess my (less facetious than the actual post) question is in two parts:
1) do these books really make money? i mean, do they sell enough or draw enough attention to be net positives for the publisher? ('cause if so, I say more power to them if they keep publishers afloat and let them publish real books...but the business model eludes me because I would be skeptical that most fans of Snooki and the Kardashians read)
2) especially if they do make money, who in the fuck buys these books? Forget the publishers. Who are the freaking consumers? Yikes!
I think we should have a "Post Like Trav" week at some point.
Of course I'll just tell you right now that my post would simply be:
"WTF? Discuss."
And in answer to your question, who the eff knows?
This pisses me off. Maybe I should embark on an acting career and then pursue my writing career.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/l03novel.html
An only slightly more honorable variant of the trend.
I'm down with the whole range of "post like" weeks. We could have contests to see who can do the best imitations of various people.
And agora, I feel like I've heard more than once some variant of, "You're a lot more likely to be published because you're famous than famous because you're published."
oh shit, one more thought: it's the celebrity *NOVELS* that perplex me. Memoirs, etc. not so much.
90 percent of selling a book is getting people to take notice of it among the millions of other books out there, so having a celebrity name, getting yourself on the TV circuit plugging it -- that's got to be good for lots of sales. I bought a novel by Jimmy Buffet once. It sucked.
I don't know about the celebrity novels, but I tweeted today about how tired I am of hearing about the latest celebrity memoir. First it was Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, then Keith Richards, and most recently Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy and Carole King! When does it end??
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