If you are reading this, you are not the average reader
I kind of said this on Twitter already, but I can elaborate better here:
American Gods is a terrible choice for the One Book, One Twitter project. Now, I didn't even hear about this until... well, today, but choosing American Gods is just so groan-worthy.
The book is long. It can be dense, and obtuse at times. The ending can be disappointing. A lot of people don't like the book, and a lot of people won't like the book. It's quite likely a lot of the people who start this project won't finish.
Even Neil feels a bit iffy about the choice because the book is so divisive.
It's just that so many Gaiman fans love the book, and they assume everyone will simply love the book if they just give it a try, regardless of their personal background or reading habits. Like it's just some magical tonic that will magically transform anyone into a hardcore Gaiman fan.
Which kind of makes me feel like Gaiman fans are a bunch of morons. Because this has happened before, when Harper Collins agreed to put the entirety of one of his books up for free, and the fans chose American Gods, even though if you're trying to get people into Gaiman it's probably better to start with a short story collection since that's more like a "sampler pack" of his different styles and genres. Especially since it was only available online, and a lot of people still find it hard to real an entire novel online.
Sigh. To be fair to Gaiman fans, I don't think it's them specifically (and I guess technically I still am one of them), I think it's just typical of the self-involved myopia that pervades certain corners of the Internet, where you're either brilliant and wonderful and creative and everything you do is pure gold and everyone is full of peace love and understanding... or you're a cretin (aka, Sarah Palin's "Real America"; anyone the Daily Show makes fun of; people who buy Madden games). They kind of forget about that middle ground, which is the place most of us make our home and we're not all bad.
Anyway, I've got plenty of other things to be reading this summer. Novels. Comics. Non-fiction! It's gonna be a long way home...
American Gods is a terrible choice for the One Book, One Twitter project. Now, I didn't even hear about this until... well, today, but choosing American Gods is just so groan-worthy.
The book is long. It can be dense, and obtuse at times. The ending can be disappointing. A lot of people don't like the book, and a lot of people won't like the book. It's quite likely a lot of the people who start this project won't finish.
Even Neil feels a bit iffy about the choice because the book is so divisive.
It's just that so many Gaiman fans love the book, and they assume everyone will simply love the book if they just give it a try, regardless of their personal background or reading habits. Like it's just some magical tonic that will magically transform anyone into a hardcore Gaiman fan.
Which kind of makes me feel like Gaiman fans are a bunch of morons. Because this has happened before, when Harper Collins agreed to put the entirety of one of his books up for free, and the fans chose American Gods, even though if you're trying to get people into Gaiman it's probably better to start with a short story collection since that's more like a "sampler pack" of his different styles and genres. Especially since it was only available online, and a lot of people still find it hard to real an entire novel online.
Sigh. To be fair to Gaiman fans, I don't think it's them specifically (and I guess technically I still am one of them), I think it's just typical of the self-involved myopia that pervades certain corners of the Internet, where you're either brilliant and wonderful and creative and everything you do is pure gold and everyone is full of peace love and understanding... or you're a cretin (aka, Sarah Palin's "Real America"; anyone the Daily Show makes fun of; people who buy Madden games). They kind of forget about that middle ground, which is the place most of us make our home and we're not all bad.
Anyway, I've got plenty of other things to be reading this summer. Novels. Comics. Non-fiction! It's gonna be a long way home...