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book trends, February
Feb. 19th, 2007 12:59 pmcredit to the almighty New York Times Book Review, of course.
* Harlequin, purveyor of cheap romance, has started efforts to attract a new demographic - Nascar fans - with stories about mild-mannered kindergarten teachers and actuarians who fall in love with the wild lifestyle of the Nascar driver. I suppose they're geared toward feather-brained women in the Bible Belt trying to find something in common with their couch potato husbands.
* Thrillers have been terrorizing the bestseller lists for the past 30 years, to the dismay of the mainstream or literary writers who just can't come up with sexy or deadly titles with covers including the White House, crosshairs, or drops of blood on white lace. Luckily for the literary writers, they will always continue to get the book prizes.
* The newest genre to be invented by an author's runaway overhype hit is the historical/religious thriller, invented by Dan Brown and spawning such throwaways as The Alexandria Link, The Archimedes Codex, Napoleon's Pyramids, The Machiavelli Covenant, and Brown's own The Solomon Key. Must involve torture, Greece, ancient texts, and mindblowing secrets.
Ha ha ha... I am so fucked. I dream about getting on the bestseller list, because (I think) I'm a Leo, and I like the spotlight, and I have one of those incorrect assumptions that fame will validate me. However, I'm not very good at keeping up with and changing myself to stay in tune with publishing trends, and I don't think my writing is actually good enough to be considered literary. It's a curse, man. Writing is a curse. I'd stop if I could. I wonder if there's rehab for people born to write.
They say that you wouldn't do something unless you get something out of it. But what do I get out of writing? Nothing. All I get is some lessening of the pounding in my brain that demands I regurgitate words. I write because I have to, not because I want to. And clearly it's not because I have the mad talent to support it. I feel like I should just give up now. It would free up a lot of time for me. Maybe I could learn to levitate objects with the extra mental capacity.
she dreams in digital, cuz it's better than nothing
now that control is gone, it seems unreal
* Harlequin, purveyor of cheap romance, has started efforts to attract a new demographic - Nascar fans - with stories about mild-mannered kindergarten teachers and actuarians who fall in love with the wild lifestyle of the Nascar driver. I suppose they're geared toward feather-brained women in the Bible Belt trying to find something in common with their couch potato husbands.
* Thrillers have been terrorizing the bestseller lists for the past 30 years, to the dismay of the mainstream or literary writers who just can't come up with sexy or deadly titles with covers including the White House, crosshairs, or drops of blood on white lace. Luckily for the literary writers, they will always continue to get the book prizes.
* The newest genre to be invented by an author's runaway overhype hit is the historical/religious thriller, invented by Dan Brown and spawning such throwaways as The Alexandria Link, The Archimedes Codex, Napoleon's Pyramids, The Machiavelli Covenant, and Brown's own The Solomon Key. Must involve torture, Greece, ancient texts, and mindblowing secrets.
Ha ha ha... I am so fucked. I dream about getting on the bestseller list, because (I think) I'm a Leo, and I like the spotlight, and I have one of those incorrect assumptions that fame will validate me. However, I'm not very good at keeping up with and changing myself to stay in tune with publishing trends, and I don't think my writing is actually good enough to be considered literary. It's a curse, man. Writing is a curse. I'd stop if I could. I wonder if there's rehab for people born to write.
They say that you wouldn't do something unless you get something out of it. But what do I get out of writing? Nothing. All I get is some lessening of the pounding in my brain that demands I regurgitate words. I write because I have to, not because I want to. And clearly it's not because I have the mad talent to support it. I feel like I should just give up now. It would free up a lot of time for me. Maybe I could learn to levitate objects with the extra mental capacity.
she dreams in digital, cuz it's better than nothing
now that control is gone, it seems unreal
