The Chub Rock's Blog

I enjoy reading books, sometimes. I think many people do. But sometimes it seems that these books are cataloged in libraries, bookstores and of course the internet purely for our enjoyment, entertainment and education. Rarely do I think or recognize that these books are written by real people, just like us. But in my defense, I don't acknowledge or personalize the hard work of authors because I DON'T KNOW ANY.

According to the New York Times, there's a new book published in the United States every half an hour, and - wait for it - that's just fiction. RR Bowker, the company that compiles the Books in Print database in the USA, has calculated that no fewer than 175,000 new titles were published in 2003. That's one book roughly every 20 seconds.

Granted, as you get older, your exposure to different types of people, and more specifically, other peoples' careers diminishes. You get lost in your profession, your family, your sports teams, your movies or just yourself. Sure, you may hear about an author speaking at a local bookstore and you may even sit in if you're interested, but in my experience, I have never heard "Oh, Dean, he is such a jerk. When we grew up together, he used to tell lies about me so the other kids wouldn't like me," or "Oh, Agatha is such a sweetheart. We were hanging out the other day and she stopped and had a 10 minute conversation with a homeless person." I don't know where I just made up those two quotes, but the point is hopefully clear.

I mean, I don't think I even have a friend who knows an author personally. I cannot say, "Oh, my friend Mike is friends with Neil Strauss," or something like that. Now, I may just live in a sheltered world, but I'd love to hear anyone's comments about their personal experience or relationship with a published author - fiction, non-fiction, hell, I'll even take text book authors. For the amount of published material out there, you'd think I (or we) could do better.

And by the way, Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon.com graduated from my high school in the late '70's and was the valedictorian.