Well in the space of 24 hours the net has been alive with two books stunts of course book stunts have been about for years , from Georges Simenon once wrote a book whilst sealed in a glass box .The stunts in last two days have seen the wonderful Nikesh Shukla doing a stunt by sending a tandoori lamb chop into space to promote his book Meat space which I reviewed and I still think is one best comic looks at the internet and how people interact with it in the modern age .A fun way to highlight a great book .
The second stunt is worrying as it sees James Patterson burning books to highlight the drop in reading in the US , now the cause is right like the UK people read fewer books than they once did , from my own knowledge the main problem in the US is diverse literature for kids , it is hard to identify with books if the people you read about aren’t the same as you , well I could say maybe more books from the Spanish-speaking world for kids translated may help and more African fiction .What got me is him burning good books , his own well I know people love him, but for me he has become the Andy Warhol of fiction , he has ideas gets others to write the book on the whole and then puts his name on the cover .I wish someone would do a stunt like this that gets the papers attention to translated fiction !! Maybe I need to think up some mad idea ?
How would you get people reading books , it is an eternal question how often do you see a book on tv shows ? Now libraries are closing here I worry how the next generation will get on .
Sarcastic me will say that I hope Patterson burned his own books, the world won’t miss them.
As for the next generation, we must not give up on them. I tend to buy books as presents to kids birthday parties for example.
My son is not a great reader but I keep on trying, softly. It seems to work these days: I expected him to put aside my latest attempt at making him read but he was actually pleased. Perhaps he’s not lost for the cause. -:)
It’s our responsibility to spread the news: reading is marvellous.
The book burning stunt didn’t work for me. I don’t think it was advisable to use an activity associated with Nazi Germany. And why the focus on American literature – isn’t the risk to all literature regardless of where it comes from