I’m curious as to whether people actually watch book trailers. Obviously some people watch book trailers, but I’m wondering if you watch book trailers. Yes, you.

Because I don’t watch book trailers, I had to ask myself, What is the point of book trailers? Where would I see a book trailer? If a book looks like something that might pique my interest, You Tube is not my first source of information (nor is it my second, third, or fourth). So how would I end up watching a book trailer?

From what I’ve seen in the (admittedly) few book trailers I’ve see, they don’t even come close to a) doing the book justice or b) making me want to read the book.

Here’s why book trailers don’t work for me: they use one media to try to get me to use another media. Movie trailers work! Because they’re showing me clips of the movie to get me to watch the movie. Book trailers fall flat for me because they can’t show clips of the book like they can with movies. Rather, they have to create clips of the book.

It’s not that I’m opposed to mixing media, it’s just that I don’t see how book trailers get people to read a particular book. But perhaps that is precisely the flaw in my reasoning: I am not the reader book trailers target. Perhaps book trailers are targeting readers who aren’t as involved in books and who are more inclined to watch a movie? I still can’t imagine what kind of impact a book trailer would have on a quasi- or non-reader, though.

So what do you think? Is there something I don’t know? Do you watch book trailers? Has watching a book trailer ever made you want to buy a book that you were previously undecided on? Was a book trailer the first exposure you ever had to a particular book?

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Do you use curse words?

I was raised very religious, though my parents weren’t religious at all (loooong story), and my dad was very adamant in the language we used at home. Curse words were in no way, shape, or form allowed out of our mouths. I don’t know what my dad would have done had I used a curse word, but the hint of punishment was enough for my rule-following self.

I’m not just talking about the f-word or the b-word or the sh-word. We WERE NOT ALLOWED to say fart. “I farted” was NOT FUNNY. At least not to my parents. If we farted, we had to say, “Excuse me. I committed a faux pas.”

To this day, I still think farting is funny.

When I was religious, it came as a shock to me that some people thought “bastard” was a bad word. Why is bastard such a bad word? To me, it means a jerk, and Dictionary.com shows the slang meaning as:

Slang. a) a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person: Some bastard slashed the tires on my car.
b) a person, esp. a man: The poor bastard broke his leg.

Yet I was shushed and reprimanded by many a person when “bastard” slipped through my lips. Why would calling someone a bastard be worse than calling them a jerk?

I really really try not to curse. I don’t think it’s appropriate in most instances, and certainly not in mixed company. But I don’t mind if other people do it, and I have this friend who CURSES LIKE A SAILOR and it cracks me up, because she can switch off the bad language like a light switch. She can be charming and deferential, or she can be crass. Her crass-ness is priceless, though.

BUT MY KIDS! What will I teach my kids?! I know parents who won’t let their kids use the words dumb or stupid, but how do I censor MYSELF? How do you figure out which words your three-year-old can or can’t say? What words do you teach your child to use when they’re angry? Is *fart* such a bad word? What about *toot*? What about *stupid*? Aren’t there times that using the word stupid is appropriate? Why do we not teach our children that there are things/people/behavior that are stupid? Or do we not want our children to use words that seem too adult for their little mouths?

HOW DO YOU FIGURE THIS OUT?

After writing this, I found a post where many parents (I assume) weighed in on the word stupid. I don’t think that stupid is a bad word…it’s all in the way your kid uses it, right? Scribbit posted her opinion on children using the word stupid, and she voices what I believed in my gut but couldn’t quite get it to sound right when I wrote it down. Since I don’t have kids (and I’m not pregnant!), I’m not saying how I would raise my own kids, only that I’m thinking about it now and wondering how other people handle this.

Disclaimer: this post is not a request for you to tell me how wonderful I am (though that’s ALWAYS welcome). Rather, this post is intended to name some feelings I’ve had (whether now and in the past) in the hopes that others will relate and gain something from what I have to say.

A while ago I read a blog post on a non-book blog about how blogging reminds her of high school and all of the insecurities she felt: wanting to be accepted, wanting to be part of the “cool crowd”, etc. I wish I’d kept the link, but I didn’t.

So then I was reading at one of my favorite non-book blogs, Smoothpebble, and SHE had a post about blogging and high school and feelings of inadequacy.

And then just today, Bethany from B&b ex libris posted about whether the book blogging community has a cool and uncool group, and her post was the impetus I needed to finally publish this draft that’s been collecting dust.

I think feelings of inadequacy are more prominent in creative blogs (I have a friend who’s really creative and I’ve tried to convince her to start a blog, but she doesn’t want to because she’s not as good as the bloggers she reads), but I can’t imagine that I’m the only book blogger who sometimes feels like they’re back in high school. Let me explain.

In high school, I wasn’t an outcast but I certainly wasn’t popular. I was pretty quiet and generally kept to myself except with my circle of friends. I was usually in the advanced classes, so I was with all the other “nerds” anyway, so I never felt particularly nerdy myself. I don’t think the word “cool” would have described me at that time. I was nice to everyone, so I was never picked on. But having graduated more than 10 years ago, I’d be surprised if anyone other than my circle of friends remembers me.

But now, with blogging, I have a lot of the same feelings I had in high school. I wonder if people like me. I wonder if I’m nice enough. I wonder if my posts are good enough (even though I was in the advanced classes, I was never the smartest. In English, my teacher never held up my paper and said, “THIS is good writing.” like she did for another student (that happened to be struggling with anorexia….but I digress.)). What does this translate to? What does all this angst really spill over as? This:

Why don’t I get linked to more often?

Why aren’t my stats as good as so-and-so’s?

Why don’t publishers send me more books?

Why don’t I get as many comments as so-and-so?

Why doesn’t so-and-so like me?

Why aren’t I as funny as so-and-so?

Why can’t I be as chummy with authors as so-and-so? (erm…that might have something to do with my amazing ability to stuff both feet in my mouth at the same time and still talk)

Perhaps all of this has to do with my Type A personality, my drive to do better, do more, and do it all perfectly. I really want to do a good job.

Here’s a quote from Blue Yonder:

On the other hand, blog surfing can be, well, kind if intimidating. It can make you feel pretty inadequate. You can start to think that “So and so would handle this so much better than me” or “SHE would probably never raise her voice” or “That person would never forget about the birthday party and buy some plastic noise making junk to wrap in the car on the way over. Oh no, SHE would make something beautiful, something that would be treasured into the birthday boy’s retirement.” or “I’ll bet SHE never has piles of unfolded laundry on her couch for days.”

When I peruse the blogosphere, I often have to remind myself that I’m looking at someone’s life through a pinhole. I’m only seeing the wee-est little bit. If I knew them in “real life” I would see all the rest, and it would probably look as messy as my life.

I love this quote because while I struggle with feelings of inadequacy about my blog, I remind myself that I’m not someone else. I certainly don’t begrudge blogger’s their success! But it’s hard not to compare myself to others, so I have to remember that my life is what it is. I have a husband. I have a full time job and a part time job. I enjoy knitting. I have (however few) real life friends that I hang out with. And in the end, not everyone has the same circumstances and it’s not fair to compare myself to someone else, because it’s comparing apples and oranges.

I can only compare myself to me. Is my writing getting better? Are my insights into books getting more thoughtful? Is the traffic to my blog, which is tangible, growing each month?

But I think what might sum up this whole post is what Marta said on Twitter when talking about Bethany’s post:

I think whether you feel like you’re in or not depends on hormones and your chocolate supply also.

I’m thinking I need an extra supply of chocolate.

I want to reiterate that this is not a request for you to tell me how wonderful I am. Rather, this post is intended to name some feelings I’ve had (whether now and in the past) in the hopes that others will relate and gain something from what I have to say.

This is a fun thing to do…check the search terms that brings people to your blog. I used to call it How Did You Get Here, but then I changed it to What Are You Doing Here (and Part 2!), because, frankly, I don’t know what the heck many of my visitors are doing at my blog.

sexy lady pooping farting – I poop and fart, but I’ve never thought it was sexy. Neither does Dave, even though I try to convince him otherwise.

is the story confessions of max tivoli t – I’m going to guess the whole search engine term was this: “is the story confessions of max tivoli true?” I believe Max Tivoli is a similar story to The Curious Case Benjamin Button (person is born old and dies young), in which case, if you have to ask if the story is true, I have a bridge to sell you.

pay it forward, inspiration – Aww!! I’m so glad you stopped by, but I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about what might inspire you to pay it forward, or to whom you might be inspired to pay it forward to. I’ll think about that and get back to you.

trish olderwomen.com – Hmm…I did say recently I like older women, but it was in a like-to-hang-out-with-them kind of way, not in an attracted-to-them kind of way. I won’t be putting the olderwomen.com in the address bar for fear of what will show up. Anyone braver than me? Let me know what’s there via the comments!

the poopy diaper game – I think I’ll sit this one out.

hey ladie watcha reading – Should I be sad this person can’t spell or glad they were looking for my website?

what are we teaching asian kids? – I dunno. Good math skills?

how to stay up for 24 hours straight – That is a dang good question! Especially since the 24-Hour Read-a-thon is coming up. I think my best answer, though, is you have to be a teenager. At least, that was the last time I was able to stay up for 24 hours.

james marsters as spike – HE’S TOTALLY HOT. How about a little picture? Hm?

does electrolysis scar? – If you pick at the scabs it will. I mean, the scabs are so freaking tiny that I don’t know why you couldn’t ignore them for the few days it takes them to fall off, but whatever.

hey julie look what they’re doing to me – Huh.

hey lady! – Hi! *waves*

An article from the New York Times entitled Fiction Reading Increases for Adults really got me thinking. In particular, it was this paragraph:

Instead he attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the “Big Read,” Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the huge popularity of book series like “Harry Potter” and Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create “a buzz around literature that’s getting people to read more in whatever medium.”

“The individual efforts.” Yes, librarians, and I would even say booksellers, are able to reach more people than I am. I’m not a parent, so I can’t influence my own children. I can, however, buy books for my niece and nephew and my friend’s daughter. This will be especially influential as they get older and I can pick out books that almost everyone remembers reading when they were young: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and the Boxcar Children are just a few that come to mind.

Who else can I influence, though? Certainly a well thought out gift in the form of a book to a non- or semi-reader would be a step in the right direction. You never know when a love of reading will spark. On the other hand, one of my hesitations in buying books as gifts is I hate to see a book languish at someone’s house, unopened, unread, and unloved.

I like to think that being in a book group helps inspire more reading. We talk about books other than the ones we pick to discuss, and I hope that members will seek out books that are especially loved and praised by various members. Anyone who expresses any kind of interest in reading is always welcome at my book group.

When I’m reading a fantastic book (such as The Help or The Hunger Games), I talk about that book to whoever will listen, readers and non-readers alike. Maybe, just maybe, my enthusiasm will rub off.

My blog could be considered a way to reach people, but it’s not the same as doing it in person. Besides, I’d bet that most people who read my blog enjoy reading anyway, if not to the same degree that I do.

All of this talk about how to influence people to read more makes me wish I worked in my local bookstore.

Speaking of local bookstores…guess what program my local bookstore has? Okay, well, it’s not my closest local bookstore, because I’m rather disappointed in my closest local bookstore after seeing what this other local bookstore does, but I still consider it a local bookstore since it’s only 40 minutes away. Local in California is relative.

ANYWAY, blabber mouth that I am, this local bookstore, Book Passage, has a program called the Aunt Lydia Book Club. Here’s how they describe it:

It began when a favorite customer gave her favorite aunt a special gift—one book, every month, for a year.

Rather than picking, packing,and shipping the books herself, she arranged for us to do it. We picked books she would like and sent them to her. That inspired our Aunt Lydia Personal Book Club.
1. We send a certificate telling the recipients about the books they’ll be receiving.
2. We’ll discuss with you what books the recipient likes. Then we watch for just the right new books.
4. We’ll charge you for the books when they are shipped.
5. All books will be shipped with complementary gift wrap and a gift card.
6. All books are fully returnable (but most “Aunt Lydias” are usually very satisfied with their gifts).

Here’s How it Works:

You can personalize your Aunt Lydia gift to fit the gift recipient. People who love to travel can be given the gift of a new work of travel literature every month or two months. Fiction lovers can be sent fiction, mystery lovers the latest thrillers, and history buffs the finest of new historical writing.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

Unfortunately, I can’t afford to do this for anyone right now, but I’m totally keeping this in mind for the future. A handpicked book sent as a gift once a month?! Talk about thoughtful.

So friends! What kinds of individual efforts do you do to encourage reading? Do you read to your kids? Buy books as gifts even if you know the book may languish on a shelf? Got any good ideas for me?