Reminders and Follow Ups
Reminder: Tomorrow night at 6:30 at the Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia) in Chicago, I'll be part of Mark Bazer's amazing live talk show. It's five bucks. Also, as promised, I will buy any librarians who come one (1) drink.
Follow Up: Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful comments to my last post. As I write in the post, goodreads is a profoundly flawed metric for evaluating reader appeal--but so are our current metrics.
Also, please let me state for the record that novels are not popularity contests. Writers who want to reach the most people should prostitute their meager talents to Hollywood like Holden's gigolo of a brother.
As I said in yesterday's post, you can't measure the success of a book merely in how many copies it sells, or even in how much readers report having enjoyed it. (Moby Dick is better than Paper Towns, no matter what the goodreads ratings say.) Books aren't widgets, and they aren't toys, and in that sense, quantification is impossible.
But that won't stop publishers from trying to quantify the value and appeal of a book. And the way they're doing it now, frankly, does not reflect the intelligence and sophistication of contemporary teen readers. So here's to people smarter than I finding a way to give 17-year-olds the credit they deserve as readers.
posted by John Green @ Thursday, February 05, 2009
15 Comments
15 Comments:
I often think they only do it because they want to find The Next J.K. Rowling (or insert other monetarily successful writer here) to market "properly." That way, they can stop publishing books that don't make them mountains of money that they can swim around in a la Scrooge McDuck. (which never seemed like a comfortable way to swim, anyway)
I found with my students that it usually just took one book to get them hooked on the idea of reading -- to teach them that the act of reading itself was pleasurable. With my cousin, it was The Golden Compass. With some kids, it's Captain Underpants. The trick is finding that one book. If there were a magic switch for that, kids would be set.
"Writers who want to reach the most people should prostitute their meager talents to Hollywood like Holden's gigolo of a brother."
LOL
i didn't comment on the other post, but thank you. I feel like you actually take teen readers seriously, and as one I appreciate it.
I've been thinking about this for nigh on two days, now.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about the whole statistical measurement of enjoyment. I mean, does it matter? Shouldn’t the focus be on why a book was enjoyed, not how many enjoyed it?
I guess I’m more concerned with putting books they will read into teenager’s hands more than I’m concerned with putting a book that’s “really great!”. I think that, in some cases, it matters very little how many people rated Paper Towns a 5 on a website. What matters more, in my opinion, is whether or not a teenager is going to actually come away from the book with something (be it knowledge, insight, a general feeling of goodness, hell… I’ll take anything).
Maybe I’m missing some great insight into the value of quantification – and if I am, please tell me! I think that the WHY of enjoyment is much more interesting than the HOW MANY.
But then again, why is really hard to quantify.
I'd just like to thank you John, for believing in the teenager.
I think that it means a lot to all of us that there is at least one adult we respect who doesn't underestimate us.
Also, something goodreads underestimates is how much teens lend books to each other. If I tell my friend i love a book, she'll ask me to lend it to her, she won't go out and buy it. and also, I would like to say that almost everyone in my grade has read LFA now. This is great because my grade is mostly made up of the Beccas, Laceys and Katrinas of the world. Girls who never talk to me have come up and told me how much they loved it. It's insane. Thank you.
Slightly off topic, ok, completely off topic...
Did you see the ad for the next 'Office' ep?
I'm dreading the resurgence of TEAM KAREN (!).
I hope it's not an effect to divide Jim & Pam for the sake of cliche tv drama. If we've learned anything from 'The Nanny', and I like to think we have, it won't work.
I really love it when you suggest books, especially YA books. I seem to have read pretty much all of the YA books at my library in the past five years or so... So it's really helpful when you post books that you thought were interesting. :)
Thank you for not underestimating teen readers, we appreciate it a lot, it's very nice to be not included in the stereotype that no teenagers can comprehend complex things.
I wish that when I was in middle and high school, I had the resources available to teens now. I might have, but I sure wasn't aware of them, because they weren't being broadcast to youth by people as approachable.
Speaking of being approachable... Or perhaps not...
Since you I think lived for a while in Chicago, you may have be familiar with the late night show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. If you've not, you should definitely see it while you are in Chicago.
I am a huge fan of both you, and TML, and to unite these things would be miraculous.
I agree with Three Left Hands. I'm a middle school/high school English teacher, and whenever a kid tells me they don't like to read, my response is always the same, "Of course you like to read! You just haven't found anything you like yet!"
I search and search and search to find something for that kid, and often, it just takes that one magical book. Back in the day, every kid was reading Goosebumps, and truthfully, I couldn't stand those books, but it got kids reading, and once we read that, we moved on to something else, trying to keep them hooked.
After that, it was Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings coming back. Right now, it's really exciting because YA literature is booming, and once they read Looking For Alaska, they read everything else by John Green. Then they check out your blog, and they run off to pick up Maureen Johnson or E. Lockhart, and the cycle continues. If you're a teacher and are passionate about reading and writing, it truly is a great time to be a teacher right now because the stuff out there for kids and teens is amazing. I love reading it, and I love getting kids hooked on it.
I also like your thoughts on Goodreads, John. I love the site and have fun chatting with my friends in my group. I also like the stats and get many good suggestions from the website and other readers. It is a great place for people to see what others are reading and what they have to say about it, and I especially enjoy that it doesn't seem to be a place where many people choose to bash authors and books. I enjoy the occasional Amazon review as well, but often, it's a bashfest, which isn't particularly helpful.
And finally, thanks John, as always, for thinking about teachers, librarians, and your readers. I love that you understand that kids are smart and can handle great literature, good writing, tough content, and authentic stories that don't cut corners or sugarcoat the reality of adolescence. Kids appreciate that too, and I like that you recognize that teachers and librarians do work hard to bring this material to their kids. :)
--Lesley
Thanks John.
Just thanks.
I like how the article calls you a "co-star" of your video blog. Mr. Green, you have to face it now, you're a "star."
Redworn - the googly-eyed smile Red Skelton often wore to solicit laughter from an audience.
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You've inspired me to become a librarian. And I can't wait.
I hope that when I graduate from Graduate School in something along the lines of 7 years, the offer for a drink still stands.
"...should prostitute their meager talents to Hollywood like Holden's gigolo of a brother."
HAHAHA. I just finished Catcher in the Rye and found myself laughing when I read that line. [I loved the carousel scene in the end, by the way.]
Thank you for not underestimating teenagers. We're really not stupid, disrespectful, and unambitious as most people would like to think. We're intelligent, well-mannered (well, some of us are), and more ambitious than Holden Caulfield when he's drunk :D
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