but i am an engineer...
so i'm doing these signings in bookstores all over town. i put out a bowl of chocolate and i ask people if they want chocolate. when they say 'yes', i ask them if they could at least glance at my book and go through the motions of checking it out.
totally works.
but, it doesn't work everytime. some people want the chocolate, and they don't like the book. which is cool. it happens.
but, the weird things people say when they try to explain why the don't want the book are amazing.
Apparently many folks take pride in their illiteracy. seemingly intelligent folk explain why they would never read a fantasy novel.
"But, you see, i am an Engineer," they say. they hand me back the book.
do you think it's scary that the people who design the interfaces and tools of the future often pride themselves in a lack of imagination?
***
also, my parents have a new puppy. she's cute as a button. however, the "five second rule" no longer applies at my parent's house. FYI.
![](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597802158?ie=UTF8&tag=httpjmmcdtrip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1597802158"><img border="0" src="61QLxt9GgCL._SL160_.jpg"></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpjmmcdtrip-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1597802158)
4 comments:
What I hate when I recommend books is, "Is it going to be made into a movie?" or something akin the question. I usually stop talking after that. Gaiman pointed out in his blog how 1 out of 4 people don't read books at all, and if they do it's about 5 books. Most of the book readers however are college grads or people over 50. I'm surprised it isn't 1 out of 4 people read books for pleasure. But I live in south Texas where teenage pregnancy is our favorite past time.
It's sad.
Don't be so hard on teen pregnancy. Kids make mistakes. Heck, adults make the same mistakes but no moralists makes us a dangerous statistic.
It isn't the mistakes that measure a person, but what people do after the mistake.
What's really amazing is how many of these functionally illiterate people are in bookstores. What are they doing in a bookstore if they don't like books?
Amazing.
Coffee and magazines.
Not fiction magazines, though. ;)
These engineers... have they heard of Arthur C. Clarke? Isaac Asimov?
Sadly, probably not.
"Is it going to be made into a movie" isn't a question I hear, but I got out of SE Texas a while ago.
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