A Thought Or Two On Writing (And Reading)

Something amazes me, that probably shouldn't. But first a bit of background: I wrote a book in the past year that you may have read about here, on occasion - I called it The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile). You may, in fact, have even read the book itself... and if you have, then you have the thanks of a grateful author.

So the thing that amazes me (but probably shouldn't) is this: some people who have a copy of my book (for free or paid for) have never read it! I'm here today to tell you why that amazes me (but probably shouldn't).

You see, if someone who I knew wrote a book, I'd be desperate to read it! I'd be so intrigued by the novelty of the idea that I almost wouldn't be able to stop myself. Now, if the book in question was terrible, then I might start it and then never be able to slog all the way through on account of it being... well, unreadable. And for all I know, some might consider my own book unreadable... but wouldn't that imply that they at least tried to read it?!

I suppose that I must love the act of reading more than some people, and maybe that's all there is to this thing that amazes me (but probably shouldn't). After all, if someone I knew recorded a music CD - and that's happened, more than once - then I certainly wouldn't be as likely to get into it as I would a book. Music isn't as big a part of my life as reading is, so maybe that's why book-writing - producing literature, if you want to get all high-faluting about it - seems so impressive to me. But clearly not everyone feels that way.

In other news, today I re-read The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan for the first time since publishing it. Despite encountering entirely too many typos for my liking, I found it a very entertaining and humourous read. I wish that more people I knew wrote books like it...