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/lit/ - Literature

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14850671 No.14850671 [Reply] [Original]

>81 percent of Americans feel that they have a book in them — and should write it. That’s approximately 200 million people who aspire to authorship.
how is this possible when not even 80% of americans READ books?
https://publishingperspectives.com/2011/05/200-million-americans-want-to-publish-books/

>> No.14850689
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14850689

>According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll asking 1,000 U.S. adults about their reading habits, 41 percent of respondents had not read a fiction book in the past year; 42 percent had not read a nonfiction book.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-read-book-poll_n_4045937

Why the fuck does everyone want to write a book when they don't even read books?

>> No.14850693

narrator: they didn’t have a book in them

>> No.14850714

>>14850671
>>14850689
I know some people who unironically believe they have the genius of a writer and only if they had time they would write their masterpiece. The greatest part is that they don't even read. I sincerely doubt they have read more than 5 books (even if that much) in their entire life. How can people be so deluded?

>> No.14850718

>>14850671
narcissism.

>> No.14850721

My dad doesn't read but he wrote a memoirs, it was pretty well written although he had some help

You dont need to read to write a normal book, not everything has to be a masterpiece

>> No.14850757

>>14850671
People are infatuated with the idea of being a writer; the romantic image of "the writer", or the status of being an author. Of course, that's where the infatuation ends. They obviously don't enjoy the process or reality of writing, and so they don't.

This is true for many things. It's true for professions such as medicine, as well as with gIrL-cOdErS and STEM!!!!XD!!!! in general. Girls don't care about coding. Many modern doctors don't care about being healers. They care about the status of being a coder, the status of being a doctor.

>> No.14850765

>>14850689
This also means around 60% did read a book that year. There is good chance the other 40% read a lot before.

I don't get where this "writers have to read constantly" meme is coming from. I read 500ish book in my life but like 2-3 in the last five years. Not finding anything new I'd want to read is one of the reasons I became a fucking writer. Why would you even start writing if you have a constant flood of books you want to read? When do you do the writing?

>>14850693
It's likely they do. Most lives could be packaged in an entertaining way with some skill and effort. If I recall the stats right, like 10% of the people who wanted to read a book even start. Of these who started only 3% finish it as in first draft. Most just don't have the will or time to go further.

>> No.14850787

>>14850671
life experience make interesting perspectives and stories but terrible writers
example: Bolaño

>> No.14850807

>>14850689
>60% of people claim to have read a book in last year

lol bullshit. Most of those people are either lying or they're in school and don't have a choice.

>> No.14850812

>>14850671
being raised with a "everyone is special mindset" in a Hollywood culture is a possible reason.
But on the other hand they might just mean it in a throwaway fashion, not that they have a masterpiece of fiction within them but that there is objectively enough life experience to make a story and if someone is mildy opinionated or maybe has a bit of wisdom they could inject some worthwhile narrative into it. I've often joked that I could write a sitcom based around the people I've met and some of my old workplaces - I don't think it would be some prime time, blockbuster which changes the zeitgiest but it would be pretty funny

>> No.14850870

>>14850714
>>14850718
Probably narcissism. I'm deeply ashamed of my father. His life is a mess, he has nothing, he is miserable, he is an alcoholic and a poor man, all his relationships ended in failure, his own family won't talk to him, he is constantly fired from jobs, he has no love for anything at all. His life is dwelling in a dark pit in misery. He hasn't read a book in 30 years, and not many before that. He does nothing with his days but drink himself to sleep every night while watching television shows he hates.

Yet he bragged near and far that he was going to write THE book, (paraphrased in my words) a book that had all the wisdom on earth contained in it, a gestalt philosophical composition, a book that would solve every problem and cure anyone who read it of all flaws of character.

He sits alone in a trash strewn slum in utter misery every day, angry and bitter. He has not written the book.

>> No.14850884

>>14850870
he stil has time though

>> No.14850917

>>14850884
as much so as can a 70 year old spring up from a sofa 180 pounds overweight and become a marathon runner.

>> No.14850987

the primary motive for authorship is to make a shitty woke book that generates enough buzz to get a netflix deal.

if you aren't writing for that reason most publishers don't give a shit. fuck this guy, he's sowing the seeds of his own irrelevance. how many twink vampire/"brit lit but with BLACKS" books has he pushed out in his career?

>> No.14851123

>>14850671
>how is this possible when not even 80% of americans READ books?
>implying it's difficult
>wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_Donald_Trump

>> No.14851266

>>14850689
They don't like what they have read and think that they can do better

>> No.14851271

>>14850987
>the primary motive for authorship is to make a shitty woke book that generates enough buzz to get a netflix deal.

Pretty much this. The only reason books still exist is because screenwriting is too difficult to break into.

>> No.14851510

>>14850917
so yes

>> No.14851518

>>14850671
Socrates didn't read books, yet had several in him.

>> No.14851533

>>14851518
Reader-fags eternally BTFO.

>> No.14851535

>>14850689
>>14850714
If you're really that clueless about "why" or "how"? Do you want an answer?

>> No.14851569
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14851569

>>14851518
Socrates did read though?

>> No.14851580

>>14851518
he read some faggot presocratic that talked about mind, it's in one of the dialogues

>> No.14851581

>>14850870
You should love him and forgive him for his failings nevertheless.

>> No.14851591

>>14850671
They're delusional. It's not just about Americans, though. Every average Joe thinks his boring and regular life is somehow special, that his words should be listened to, and that he is SUCH A TROOPER for facing all the incredible problems he faced, such as the loss of a loved one or getting fired.
Unfortunately, I think this narcissistic delusion is the natural coping mechanism to stop regular people from going crazy. People romanticise their own lives so that "I am a frustrated professional stuck working for a boss that I hate and earning less than 30k for it, my wife cheated on me multiple times, and I achieved none of my dreams" turns into "Against all the odds, I managed to get a job that allows me to provide for my family. My family is everything to me. Despite having issues with my wife, we forgave each other. I also had to make sacrifices, and learned to let things go to care for what is the most important thing in my life: my children"
In the end, all these people end up believing they're special.

>> No.14851674

>>14851581
No.

>> No.14851700

>>14850671
Americans are fucking idiots. I have seen one fat American woman in a barbershop telling the old Sicilian barber that because her son's hair was cut a little too short (like 2 weeks worth of growth, and it wasn't a bad job just a little shorter than she wanted) that it was the worst day of her life.

>> No.14851762

>>14851700
you haven't seen nothing. i worked as a barista during college. this one woman came, ordered her special snowflake sugary abomination, i made it to exact specifications. she leaves. comes back five minutes later and throws a storm that it's wrong and tastes different than normal. has my coworker remake it, and i watch over their shoulder, the exact same way i made it. then the cunt gets her godforsaken coffee and says it meets her expectations that try and leaves.

imagine.

>> No.14851951

I plan to write a book and then leave copies of the manuscript all over the country in random public places with no attribution in an attempt to force myself to write for the right reasons, not because of any status or adulation it might gain me

>> No.14852219

>>14850671
People who don't do anything think they can do everything.

>> No.14852410

>>14851951
>I plan to write a book
why haven't you fucking written it already? you're already over here jacking yourself off with your high horse nobility and you haven't done jack shit.

>> No.14852470

>>14851951
>for the right reasons, not because of any status or adulation
There is literally no problem in wanting recognition and there are no particularly """""good""""" reasons for anything.

>> No.14852691

Upon reading the article and doing some further digging, I’m seeing a lot of citations of this Epstein person claiming “a survey found 81% of Americans believe they have a book in them” but I can’t find the actual survey anywhere so I’m suspicious and I’m sure it in no way is representative of the entire American population to any legitimate degree. That said, we’re talking about the same people who will tell you how they could’ve went pro if they didn’t hurt their knee in junior high football here so take whatever Americans think they can do with a grain of salt. They suffer from American dream syndrome where everyone can be a rich muscular professional athlete intellectual...if they just tried.