As part of what has now become my official “social capital” phase, I just started reading Ethan Watters’ Urban Tribes. So I’m two pages into the first chapter when, on reading the following, I let out a loud laugh that startles the cat and pierces the otherwise peaceful, late-night quiet of my dining room:

Karas was simply stating God’s honest truth about the nonfiction book industry — especially the diet, self-help, and trend/lifestyle categories. I already knew that such books were sold to publishers based on short proposals that usually become the introductions. Those introductions are the only piece of the book that gets read, because it’s the only part that is readable — the rest in endless variations on a single theme. Karas understood and was at ease with the fact that these books were packaged, promoted, and marketed to be bought but seldom read — certainly not cover to cover.

“Diet, self-help, and trend/lifestyle categories”… Lacking widespread appeal, I’m guessing that Watters’ editor redlined for removal “academic publications.”

Note to self: don’t ever write a book whose subtitle could be “endless variations on a single theme.”

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