The title is totally misleading, Nick actually
asked all of his readers these questions but I am one of his readers so there. Why am I turning this into a blog post? Well because I look for anything that I can turn into a blog post because I'm a blogger and that's kind of what we do. Plus when Nick was giving people the choice of how to answer the questions, either in the comments, Facebook or email he made the mistake of saying "anything goes." When I was in college doing my senior thes
is: A Phenomenological View of Internet Chat Rooms, my professor made the same mistake when asked if we had to write the paper in MLA or AP style. He said he didn't care, we could write it in any style we wanted. Then I asked if that meant we could write it in free verse poetry (because I almost had enough poetry classes to get a minor in writing) and he said yes. So I did (at least part of it because some stuff had to still be presented in a more factual way). So here I am responding to Nick's questions in a blog post.
And because I still haven't done a review of Nicks amazingly awesome book I wanted to plug Nick to the handful of readers here and
really encourage you to get his book.
The Questions:
1. Who are you? I don’t mean your name, I mean how do you see yourself?
Work(ish): Social Media Anthropologist. Digital Phenomenologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie.
Life(ish): Husband
of Jen. Father of 3. Gen X,
indie rock, mountain biker.
Blogger:
New Comm Biz,
Hyper Bored,
Wall Notes,
/tacanderson.
2. How did you find out about The Gone-Away World?
I was in this amazing downtown Seattle bookstore,
The Elliot Bay Book Company, and I saw The Gone-Away World. The cover (more later) caught my attention and because I'm a total geek I always do a search on my iPhone for the author to see what comes up. Literally whatever, reviews, blogs, Twitter accounts. The only time I'm discouraged by what I find is when I find nothing.
I loved the fact that you had a blog and were on Twitter. You are my same age so I always feel a sense of resentment for authors my age because I (not so) secretly wish I was an author. Then I read some reviews and how your dad was this famous author (who I didn't know) and the interviews of you that read gave me this wonderful sense of what the British version of American Generation X was like. (Do Brits have the same generation labels we do?)
By this point people were obviously annoyed with me that I was standing in the isle blocking their way reading my phone and not a book so I grabbed the book.
3. What else do you read?
Way to many blogs (seriously I subscribe to over 400). Then a ton of business books. I could say that this is all occupational hazard but really I'm in the occupation I am because I enjoy what I do. Daniel Pink's book
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
, and John Hagel's
The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion are my two favorite right now.
As far as real books (aka fiction) I love cyperpunk,
steampunk
and dystopian. Basically dark alternate reality/future. On my reading shelf (yes I read multiple books at the same time):
- Seattle author Cherie Priest's Boneshaker
(steampunk)
- Scott Westerfield's Leviathan (steampunk)
- I'm really excited to read Paolo Bacigalupi's the The Windup Girl
but for some reason I feel compelled to read his collection of short stories, Pump Six first. His work was pitched to me as steampunk but I think he's kind of genre bending (much like you).
4. Do you / would you read books on an ebook reader?
Do I? No. Would I? Yes.
I've had this strange conflicted desire to get a Kindle. I love books and have proclaimed my
love for hard back 1st editions here before. I love books but can totally see the benefit of an e-reader, especially when it comes to the many business books I have for reference. I wasn't so sure about them until John Hagel gave me an advance copy of his new book, The Power of Pull as a PDF and I read it on my netbook. I loved having my favorite note taking software right at hand to take notes as they came to me. But I don't know how much I'll like that on an e-reader device.
I liked the idea that one of your other commentors had about buying the book and getting the electronic copy first. Bloc Party did that with the release of Intimacy. You got a digital copy for free when you bought the CD. I'd totally do that with books as long as it was in an open format. (Stupid proprietary e-reader formats.)
5. Jacket designs and blurbs… Did you like the jacket on the edition of TGAW you read? Which one was it? Did it suck you in or did you have to overcome it? Same with the cover copy, the blurb: was it any good? What would you have said about the book?
I got the soft cover beige-ish one with the ripped looking cover. But when I found out about the super cool pink and green hard cover, I had to order that one too. I think they were all very cool. The blurb caught my attention. Ninja's, mimes, post-apocalyptic, what wasn't to like. I did think though that most people would like a little more meat to the description but maybe this book wasn't for most people.
6. I’m thinking of making up some tea towels and stuff with “the tree of nonsense is watered with error and from its branches swing the pumpkins of disaster” on them. Does that sound like fun, or is it just a totally dumb idea?
Okay, I'm a stupid American and I have no idea what a tea towel is. But sarcastic merch is always a good idea.
7. TGAW spinoff comic or something: fun? Dull? Sellout garbage?
A comic would be a great idea. My wife was a lit major. Brit lit to be exact. If they weren't old, dead and British she had no interest in reading it. She got around that rule by reading really cool youth and teen fiction to our kids. That is until Twilight came out. Yes my wife was one of the millions of women who fell victim to the Twilight Saga.
As a previously hard core Brit lit reader (did I mention our daughter's name was Emma because of Jane Austin) my wife also despised comic books and video games. Again until Twilight came out, then they recently released a Twilight graphic novel that done in a kind of Manga style (something my wife really hated). Now she's reading and enjoying a comic book.
My point is everyone should appreciate comics and maybe your comic will help someone else like comics, although your readers probably already like comics. You should do it anyway.
8. What should I have asked you?
I liked the suggestion of what city we live in so you can come and do a book tour. Seattle.
Have you recommended TGAW to friends? Yes, even bought one for a friend.
