The decline of books.

Recently, I have noticed something rather worrisome about what is on the bookshelves of modern bookshops. It is not what you might think. I am not concerned about violence, or explicitness...for they are in no more generous supply than they ever used to be – no, what concerns me is just what kind of books are available. If you look at the teen section of a bookshop, or, indeed, the science fiction/fantasy section of many bookshops, you might be as disturbed as I was to note that almost every book seems to be about vampires or werewolves, or other supernatural phenomenon. 

It is really very boring.

In fact, that is just what Ainan said recently, looking at the selection of books available, in the bookshop we were in: “How boring.” Now, this is from a young boy, who has read much less than me – yet even he is tired of the repetitiousness of the offerings available.

This is a very real problem – one of a lack of imagination, and creativity in publishing. It seems that just because Harry Potter and The Twilight Series have done so well, that publishers want to copy these two series, hoping for similar success – so they “greenlight” anything about the supernatural, particularly vampires and werewolves – and refuse to publish anything about anything new, for that might be seen as “untried” and “risky”. The result is bookshelves heaving with vampires and werewolves – and nothing else. It is unutterably dull. I, for one, couldn’t find a single book on those shelves that I would want to buy and read. So, I didn’t. Neither  did my son. We left empty handed – because there really was no choice, every book was basically telling the same story – a love story around vampires and werewolves – in different words. How crass.

Modern publishing is at risk of killing itself off, ironically, through the avoidance of risk. By not trying to bring new works to the market, with novel ideas, styles or perspectives, but repeatedly pushing the same limited kinds of works, they are creating a market without any real choice. If there is no choice, eventually there will be no readers.

Now, I can’t be sure that this is just a publisher's problem. Perhaps the bookshops are being selective in what they order and are targeting werewolves and vampires and the like...yet somehow I doubt it. You see, when I was a teenager there were no stories about werewolves and vampires – apart from Bram Stoker and the shelves seemed to have much greater variety. Modern publishing has become a business in which everyone is trying to do and sell the same product. They are “playing safe” to the point of self-destruction.

I don’t really buy books anymore, from my local bookshops. Well, I do...but only very rarely. Certainly, the fiction shelves are not as interesting as they were when I was a child. Looking at them, you would swear there was only one story and one writer in the whole world – because every book is much the same. There is no longer any reason to read anymore, because there is no longer anything new to read, being presented to us. I do hope this is just a publishing problem and not because every writer on Earth thinks it clever to write about vampires and werewolves. In fact, the problem has become so obvious that it really is dishonest to call the sections in the bookshops “Teen” or “Science Fiction and Fantasy”...they should just be called “Vampires and Werewolves” – because that is basically all that is on offer.

It is no surprise to me that bookshops are closing down. Readers no longer have interesting books to buy. They just have the same old same old. So why should they buy anything in these moribund bookshops? As long as publishers compete to be the same as each other, producing the same products, by different authors (who might as well have the same name), then readers will no longer have anything worthwhile to read, or any reason to frequent a bookshop.

Publishing will only thrive if there is true diversity. Once publishers start behaving in a herd like manner, that is the end of the road for them. Unfortunately, they became a herd long ago...so I don’t see much future for them, unless they change soon.

Let us have bookshelves teeming with variety. Let vampires and werewolves become a rarity again – because, frankly, I am beyond bored with them. If you are writing a vampire and werewolf book, please stop writing now. The world has more than enough of them. In fact, why don’t the world’s publishers start UNpublishing vampire and werewolf books? That would be progress, because then they would have to publish something else.

Future eras will laugh at the “culture” we produced over the last decade or so. They will laugh at the advent of idiocy so revealed. In fact, we might one day be known as the time of vampires and werewolves. It might be one of the most obvious facts about our culture in this time. How stupid is that?

Everyone reading this can do something to encourage more variety in the books stocked on bookstore shelves – simply stop buying vampire and werewolf stories. Eventually publishers will get the message and start publishing something else....hopefully lots of different things. As for me, I have only bought myself two fiction books in the last year. The first turned out to be rather unreadable, and ineptly written. The second I have yet to try.  I will comment more later.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

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If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

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Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Philica: an important online journal.

Philica is an online journal, for the publishing of research papers. It is also, I believe, a very important step forward in academic publishing. I shall explain.

Academic publishing has long suffered from a number of problems. Indeed, some of them are listed on the Philica website and are quoted below:

"Unnecessarily lengthy review periods
Papers rejected for trivial reasons
Reviewers not reading work properly owing to time pressures
Publication blocked because a reviewer is working on something similar
Reviewers reacting unprofessionally to criticism of their work
Tendency for reviewers to be established authors, with subsequent bias against novel ideas and methodologies
Good reviews, followed by, “However, I’m not sure it is right for this journal — why not submit to X instead?” "

In short there are an abundance of reasons why a paper might not be published, or might be delayed, that have nothing to do with the quality of the work. The whole process is so slow that it can take YEARS for an academic paper to finally be published after it has been sent to a journal for evaluation. The result is that the whole scientific and academic enterprise is slowed down and made inefficient. Philica, however, provides a solution.

As long as a researcher has an affiliation to an academic institution (meaning they work with one), or other research institution such as a government or industrial body, then a writer may upload their article onto Philica IMMEDIATELY. This establishes priority at once and allows the researcher to communicate their work at once, speeding up intellectual progress. The peer review process occurs online and in the open, as articles are reviewed over time, by other professional researchers.

Philica has several important advantages, therefore, over traditional publishing. One big one is that there is no blockade on ideas which the Old Guard might try to stall, because they challenge the status quo. Thus, Philica provides an outlet for work with a difference, that could make a difference.

Philica is an open access journal. The work is available online to be read by all. This is in strong contrast to traditional journals, which have limited circulation and cost a fortune in subscription charges. Philica, however, is free to all authors - and readers. The work uploaded is hosted permanently. However, they have running costs and do need financial support, which comes from donations. So, if you feel that freeing up academic publishing is an important thing to do...please visit http://www.philica.com/ and make any donation that you feel able to. Even a small one will be a help. You would be furthering intellectual progress should you support Philica.

I should point out that I have no personal involvement in Philica. I just thought I would write a blog post to try to help an admirable enterprise. It was founded by two British psychologists, Dr. Nigel Holt and Dr. Ian Walker. So, all credit for this innovation in publishing, should go to them!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

On having readers.

It is a privilege to have readers. That is something that is easily forgotten. I am fortunate to have readers from all over the world. Some are dedicated readers who visit every day. Others pop by once in a while, and perhaps leave a comment. Then there are those who stumble upon my blog, read the one or two articles that exactly fit their interest, then move on. For all of them, I am grateful, for having a reader allows one to communicate thoughts.

What I find most interesting about readers in the Internet age is that they are all voluntary. They are voluntary in a very special way: they CHOOSE to be on a particular web page. Most of my traffic arrives through the search engines. The searcher is looking for material on particular terms and the only reason they are directed to my page, is that my page is relevant to those search terms: I have written something relating to their search. I find that amazing. We live in a time in which only the most relevant material to our concerns is brought to our attention. That means that we only get to read what we really want to read. Thus, though I may not have the number of readers that a newspaper attracts, at least each of my readers has specifically decided to read the particular web page they find themselves on. That is the not the case with a newspaper, in which a random selection of stories is served up, many of which will not be of real interest to the reader.

We thus live in an age in which the right reader finds it easy to find the right writer. Whatever I write will appeal to a small segment of the world's population - but that small segment is now able to find what I write, should they so wish. That is most refreshing.

Since I started this blog over two years ago, I have had almost 183,000 readers. That may not sound much, to some people, compared to the millions that might read a daily newspaper, but it is a lot when you consider that each of those readers is a relevant reader: they are reading precisely because they want to read the particular post I have written.

I am grateful that the Internet connects the right writers with the right readers in this way. It means that whatever I write will one day find the exact people who might wish to read it. Now, that may only be a small number of people compared to the world's population - but it will be those who actually would appreciate a particular piece of writing so, in that sense, those readers are the only important ones. The others, the vast majority of others, don't search using the right terms and never find my web pages, precisely because their content doesn't match their interests. It is best, therefore, that my words don't trouble them - I would rather be found only by those who are likely to appreciate what I have expressed.

It is clear, therefore, that the Internet age provides an ideal medium for the distribution of the written word. In it the right thoughts go to those most receptive to them. No-one's time is wasted reading material that is irrelevant and writers are actually enabled to find the few readers who will appreciate their own particular brand of thought.

If you have read this page, you have done so because, in some way, it fits your interests. Thank you, therefore, for stopping by and taking the time to read what I have written. It is possible that other posts, here, will prove of interest, too...so have a look around.

Cheers.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)