Can We Save Writing and Reading?

If not, then we should at least form our own little underground book bootlegging club once the written word has been banned for good.

You would be surprised by how many people out there think that books should no longer exist--educated people, I might add. I'm not talking about just printed books either, but e-books too. I once had an acquaintance of mine say that books were the lowest form of entertainment next to television. His choices for the top two?

1. Video games
2. The Internet

I must agree with him, because we all know how smart and stimulating people on the Internet are. If there was a sarcasm font I would be using it in bold right now.

It absolutely baffles me to see people all around me claiming to be intellectuals and stating that books are beneath intelligent people.

I hate to break it to you geniuses, but you have the same opinion as Kanye West. That's right. In my mind, you are a clone of the epitome of ignorance and intolerance that is Mr. West, regardless of how many degrees you have.

Any avid reader knows that real life (if there is such a thing) would be nothing without the stories that shape it. Think about it.

How differently would you perceive things--how many events in your life would have been affected---had you never read Harry Potter? Or Animal Farm? What about Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World?

I don't think that Bradbury's world of book censorship will come to pass like we expect it to. Maybe people will just stop reading books because there aren't any pictures that move, and start watching movies that are mostly pretty lights and fireworks with no plots because there is nothing more dangerous than the opportunity to think. If human  beings think, they come to two terrible and frightening realizations: they have the ability to create things and they can't always control what they create. Whether it be a paranoia turned reality or an entire world springing to life in the wake of a moving cursor, we fear what we create because it come from us and yet is not of us. It's bigger and greater.

Writers do not conquer this fear. We merely learn to embrace it and thrive on it.

Image via Wikipedia

I would let Kanye finish, but for the sake of future generations I have decided to drown him out with  Florence and the Machine.

Image via WikipediaChances are that if you're alive, you've heard of the Amazon Kindle (or some other sort of e-reader). What you may not have heard, however, is the changes that many believe it is causing in the ways people read, write, and publish their books.

Okay, let's get real here. You've probably heard. But what does it mean for you as a writer? What about you as a reader?

It's hard to tell at this point, but I think the results will be quite favorable to writers. As a writer you are presented with a wonderful opportunity to get your book out there without going through a publisher. It's a great way to get some valuable experience on what people actually like to read without sinking too much money into self publishing in print, which can quite literally cost you an arm and a leg. Well, if that's the type of currency they take, that is. In that case, I would probably become suspicious.

Not to mention all of the trees you save. And if you decide not to do the indie thing anymore in the future, it might help quite a bit if an editor knows you as, "that chick or dude who wrote that book that was in the top ten on Amazon Kindle for a year straight" instead of just a no-name right off the streets.

Not to mention, of course, well...this. I can only imagine the toes I'm going to step on by linking that one.

KDP (that's Kindle Direct Publishing, not Kurdistan Democratic Party) isn't just a boon for writers, however. Can you imagine a world with no book trailers hyping up terrible books to the point where you actually find yourself buying them when you know they're going to be terrible? How about world in which a book gains merit by impressing its readers alone and is hailed as a classic, while less well written and executed novels sink to the bottom of the barrel where they belong? Ladies and gentlemen, such is the world I've seen come into existence while browsing book reviews at the Kindle Store. Well, not always of course...there are those authors who ask their friends to leave incredibly favorable reviews of their products. In fact, you'll more than likely notice that all of the reviews for books that have just been added are usually five stars. The one star reviews don't start coming in until later when, obviously, other people have started buying and reading the book.

Then again, I have also seen people give low ratings to a book just because it "contained swear words", so I'm not saying that this is wonderful for writers and readers just yet. I'm just saying that, at the moment, it seems like it will have a pretty positive outcome.

I wrote this thing in a room full of screaming, cackling, tongue clicking people. I'm one of those people who requires absolute silence to write anything worth reading, so I apoligize if this post isn't...well, if it isn't worth reading.

Gah. This is one of the reasons why writing a novel takes me so long. Has anyone ever had absolute quite in their homes when they weren't home alone (which I never am anymore -.-).

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