And There’s More…

The one thing I am missing more than anything is real-time interaction. These posts are going to be appearing, and I have no way of gauging the reaction to any of the surprises I am throwing out there. Viewing indie publishing as the seventh of the Big Six, which is not as revolutionary a notion as you might think, probably comes closest to a game-breaker, but I am already ahead of the curve in considering this.

There is a chance, for those reading yesterday’s post, that some people are already working out ways to game the system – to get links to their books with the least possible effort so they can get as much out of it as possible. Here’s where I step in with a little thing called Balancing (Wikia) – if you are considering what I have already put forth, I suggest learning about balancing and (please, I’m begging you) take into account the way it works.

Somewhere online there used to be a fantastic quote about balancing – I think it was about MechWarrior or a similar game. It basically laid out the fact that it was possible to have an immensely overpowered playable character while keeping the entire game from revolving around the acquisition of more firepower. You don’t have to understand any of that to get a good understanding though. I’ll break down the principle as it applies here.

Reciprocal links between titles are a bad thing. It shunts the reader back and forth between a tightly-centered community of writers, limiting the opportunity for a reader to discover new, exciting works, and isolates those outside of the community which is heavily promoting their material. It is, if you like, a part of the balancing process. Links are not something to be traded, but something to be offered (without the expectation of same) because a title is worth promoting.

And where, the cries undoubtedly come, do these links go? Ah, that’s the best part. After the text of course. You have the standard “other titles by this author” bit, where people who have enjoyed the title can go find more books, then you have “by this publisher” for titles that are from the same publisher. Right after these, there needs to be a “Recommended Reading” section, where the good stuff you love and want to highlight goes. This is the special little section which guaranteed you a place in the hearts and minds of authors and readers.

But wait – what if someone does all this, then starts acting like a dick? There’s a solution for every problem, and this one is especially simple. You don’t simply start removing links to an author who is using fake reviews, or slamming others on their blog, or… Whatever the flavor of the day for bad behavior is. We need to cultivate the respect of our audiences, and that comes with a cost. The cost, in this case, isn’t financial. We need patience with those who are, perhaps, a little looser in their concept of respect and wisdom.

We need a naughty step.

A reference, I am certain, which needs no explaining to a large number of people reading this. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it is a “time out” for people behaving badly.

Which brings us to another problem – who determines what is bad behavior? I, certainly, have neither the time nor the patience to go through thousands of authors’ blogs and websites to vet the ideas which might be considered inappropriate, and I wouldn’t want to even if I had the time. That ain’t my job. It’s something the writing community needs to have a long discussion about.

Okay, so that’s two serious posts in a row.

For the moment, while this is still something on paper rather than an all-out attack on the stability of the overwhelming forces at play in publishing, lets decompress – here are three cool things everyone can undertake in the next week.

1. A Recommended Reading page on your blog or website, highlighting at least ten indie books you feel deserve wider recognition. Leave links in the comments – when I get back online I’ll okay any which have been held up in the spam filter.
2. Reach out to your fellow authors and talk. No ‘buy my book’ nonsense – just normal interaction. I know you can all do this, because I was reading your blogs before my ‘vacation.’
3. Start writing up your lists of books for the back matter of your forthcoming books. As you go forward you should hopefully see how this brings readers to minor works, and as it costs nothing to do it ain’t exactly a stress factor on your schedule.

Tomorrow I promise there will be less serious, though none the less interesting, thoughts on something which has been bothering me since I caught up on happenings in the world.

Lit List: Spaced

Season 1

Episode 1 – Beginnings

As part of the sequence where Daisy goes over Tim’s childhood, she mentions Batman comics.
Numerous comics, including Avengers, Cable, Cry For Dawn, Daredevil, The Darkness, Fantastic Four, Planet Comics, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science can be seen in Fantasy Bazaar comic shop in which Tim works. There may be more I haven’t noticed… In real life, it is the renowned comic shop They Walk Among Us.
An issue of FHM can be seen, opened to a Gillian Anderson photograph. I think it is the #84 (Jan 1997) issue.
As part of the sequence where Tim goes over Daisy’s childhood, she can be seen reading a copy of The Beano.
When Tim opens a cupboard two girls are standing in it, just like in The Shining (based on the Stephen King novel).

Episode 2 – Gatherings

The music from the feature film Misery (based on the novel by Stephen King) plays when Daisy is typing.
Tim reads an issue of Zenith while Daisy is on the ‘phone with her boyfriend, and later is seen reading an issue of Judge Dredd. There is talk on the commentary about it being the US editions, which is rather more amusing than it really should be…

Episode 3 – Art

The (thankfully fictional) magazine Flaps is mentioned by Daisy as one of the titles she submitted work to, and the office is later seen.
A whole slew of magazines are seen when Daisy goes to the newsagent, and she then returns to the apartment with magazines and newspapers.
The Guardian very noticeably falls out the top of the bag of newspapers and magazines Daisy returns with.

Episode 5 – Chaos

Socialist Worker newspaper is seen at the beginning of the episode.
2000 A.D., Judge Dredd Magazine, The Death Of Groo (and the other comics in Fantasy Bazaar).
There’s a flashback sequence which is based on the maze sequence from The Shining.
Tim reads The Independent newspaper report of the break-in at the animal testing facility at the end of the episode.

Episode 6 – Epiphanies

Tim wears a Batman t-shirt (with an image in the style of the animated series) at the beginning of the episode.
Captain Marvel (the Fawcett character, rather than the Marvel character) is referenced during the Scrabble game.
Daisy is reading Eightball issue #13 (Apr 1994) before Tim snatches it from her and begins reading it.

Episode 7 – Ends

Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is mentioned at the beginning of the episode.
Mike mentions Andy McNab when he is in his meeting with the Territorial Army.
Daisy looks at her typewriter in yet another reference to The Shining.
During Daisy and Marsha’s talk, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is referenced.

Deleted Scenes

Mike is holding Gun Magazine while asleep on the train.

Season 2

Episode 1 – Back

Tim’s opening narration is reminiscent of the one in GoodFellas, based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi.
Mike is holding Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson when he comes out of the bathroom.

Episode 2 – Change

French Fun by Catherine Bruzzone, The Diet Cure by Julia Ross, a Dummies Guide title, and a selection of Mr. Men books are among the titles seen in the bookshop Daisy is working in at the end of the episode. Other books are seen, though the names of the books are obscured by the camera angle.

Episode 3 – Mettle

Some of the scenes parody One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, based on the 1962 Ken Kesey novel.
The sequence set in an underground robot wars club is based on Fight Club. “The first rule of Robot Club…”

Episode 4 – Help

Dark Horse Comics is referenced in a poster at the beginning of the episode.
Tyres calls Daisy “Shakespeare” when he arrives to take Tim’s portfolio.
Daisy reads Hello! when she goes to fetch Mike from Marsha’s .

Episode 5 – Gone

Another Shining visual gag appears in this episode.

Episode 6 – Dissolution

Daisy can be seen writing for Colwyn Bay Gazette in a dream sequence. Unfortunately, the website seen is no longer working.

Episode 7 – Leaves

Sophie tells Tim that she has to leave to work for Marvel.

More Linkies

Characters outnumbered against incredible odds? Oh yes, this is just what I go for. From 300 to Assault On Precinct 13, through Zulu, watching individuals take a stand against immeasurable odds has fascinated me since I was a brat – some might argue that I’m still a brat, but whatever… There’s something about watching doomed causes which relieves the boredom of the horribly egocentric films in which individuals take on armies and win.

Fans of eighties macho bullshit films need not complain.

Why people shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that a word they don’t recognize is automatically a typo? Well, Lori has that covered. There’s probably good reason for me to add here (while I am in the mood to share) that I am keeping a folder of obscure words for the very purpose of dropping them into sentences when nobody seems to be paying attention. The hirplan way that things meander along means that I get more than enough opportunity to be mean and confuse people.

Gratuitous nudity in literary adaptations? Check. 😀

There are some lessons guys need to learn. Seriously… I still find it hard to imagine any sane guy asking a woman how she feels about oral on a first date.

Guys – what the fuck is wrong with you?

Top 10 YA Fantasy from debut authors.

And some love for The Crow.

For a very special link – King Arthur’s legend. There’s a lot of Arthurian bits and pieces in one of my WIPs, mostly because mo much of modern life has elements of the legends woven through it. There’s a satellite array, the national lottery, security software… It’s almost too easy to weave all those disparate elements together, though (as far as I am aware) there is no true connection between those using the names of characters and places from the myths.

I had thought that I would be done by now, but the sheer amount of things which have gone untended this past couple of months is astronomical – linkies will continue to appear until I am done, and thus able to give enough attention to the writing of interesting posts.

Linkies (some commentary)

Gypsyscarlett posted about the first horror film a while back, so I should point out how late (comparatively) this move into the horror genre was for early cinema. The first comic-book adaptation – something seen by many as a recent phenomenon – was in the 1880s. You can argue amongst yourselves if they meet the precise criteria, but both Ally Sloper and a series of untitled shorts based off a one-pager of a boy (sometimes a girl) standing on a water hose, then raising their foot when the gardener looks into the end of the hose, were made in the mid-1880’s (eighty-four seems to be a date that stands out)

Blake M. Petit put up his 100 favorite comics – there are some excellent choices in there, and I may steal borrow the idea at some point for a post. I really need to convert people to the wonders of Valerian, The Walking Dead and Black Jack for good karma points.

Neftwink has been posting some amazing photographs over the last couple of months, so you should be taking a look.

Oh, and Jamie DeBree raised a subject I’ve been trying to ignore. Notes. The mere thought of explaining how jotting down the things which make up my works-in-progress tick makes me cry.

At some point I’m going to have to explain how I pull all the threads into little blankets of text with which I try to wrap my characters into seamlessly. Hmm… Lots of fabric metaphors there. (You’re guess is as good as mine as to where that came from)

Talents. Uh. “I can see where the holes are.” Stop sniggering. It wasn’t meant like that, and you know it. When I look at things (from novels to comics, from television shows to news broadcasts) I can see where there are things which have been omitted, and where pieces which appear to be unconnected end up intersecting. It’s like I know instinctively where there ought to be more material. It also allows me to call bullshit on nearly everything which BBC News broadcasts – not that doing that is particularly difficult.

While I agree with this, I also acknowledge that there are times when calling someone names is not only necessary but demanded. Anyone who claims the live-action Transformers films are high art, for example, or who insist that Yoko Ono’s songs are beautiful.

When I saw this post my immediate reaction was to point out precisely why we need to be able to film police officers…

Can anyone say “Rodney King”?

Oh, and you must read this as a primer to the forthcoming apocalypse.

Some More Thoughts On Marketing

So it is probably time to give meaning and structure to the contents of the last post, having taunted and tormented you with it long enough. The idea was really quite simple, though I never expected such a large bump in stats. Jeez guys, it isn’t that people need to hear the same shit regurgitated a thousand different ways, but in my brief examination of the whole “make money online” nonsense, I have found a bewildering lack of thought and foresight. Of the handful of books I flipped through in preparation for this little thought-experiment, the same dull, tired and unimaginative information is disseminated time and time again. I’ll save you a bunch of money (and a whole lot of time) by distilling the contents of most of these books, blogs and articles into one easy-to-understand sentence –

Put links up everywhere and hope people will click them.

Um… No. Really, no. This is the equivalent of the kid shouting “Hey mom, lookit me. Lookit what I did. I set my head on fire, mom. Lookit me. I’m gonna be famous on YouTube. Aaargh. My head. Aaaaarghhh.” It has the same aura of desperation and unoriginality which flows from the pores of people who let camera crews follow them around as they go about their day to day business, and just because the ploy worked for Ozzie Osbourne does not hold that people want to see other former stars do the same. It’s the fat guy in the cowboy hat, sweating profusely as he hawks used cars, talking faster in the hopes that the heart attack he had before going on air doesn’t fully hit until his paid minutes are up. If the notion that links alone are the solution to everyone’s money problems, then things are much worse than I thought in online marketing.

This approach is so wrong in so many ways that it is difficult to know where to begin. I find it incredible that people are still writing about the way marketing was done in the late nineties, and that people are still buying into this crap is even more worrying. The only thing accomplished by providing countless links to one single page (for there is always a nexus point people are pushed to in traditional marketing) is to give people the opportunity to purchase an item. It’s a one-shot deal. It’s a quick fuck up a side alley, which both parties will think no more of come the morning. And the kicker? People don’t learn anything from this technique.

Before you start complaining that I’m being too dismissive of putting links into every forum post, blog comment and tweet, I’ll lay out some simple facts for you to ruminate over. A sale – specifically a download – does not guarantee that people will bother to read / listen / watch the download. It’s not the only problem you will face if you’re looking at marketing as an attractive money-making opportunity, but it is the big one – if the people who have purchased from a link once don’t follow through by enjoying the download, what is there to bring them back? The old methods of shouting attractions out to a largely disinterested audience have been replaced by infinitely more complex interactions by salesmen and “audience” (for they are such), people advertising wares must change their behavior also.

The role of marketing is NOT to sell things. Selling things is a by-product of advertising, but it is not the primary reason to advertise. The true role of marketing is to change the perception of those who are being advertised to. The main objective is to build a base of customers who will return again and again to buy more things, and this is the reason links are pointless. I can’t state this enough, because the pervasive attitude of the books on the subject are so far from the mark that they give a false impression of human psychology. We aren’t wired up in a way which looking at meaningless links will affect in any meaningful way.

How often have you heard people say they record television shows so that they can skip the adverts?

We remember things by context and narrative, so by engaging in a discussion with people, marketers stand to have a much better impact. The way that such a discussion can be created – to create a relationship with consumers which might last longer than that one solitary purchase – is not in the realms of brain surgery. I’m talking about some really simple and interesting things here. It doesn’t have to be of the scale nor complexity of a massive ARG, and it really doesn’t have to take a year to plan. A little fun and experimentation can go a very long way, and I’ll go one further than that- if the first link on a Google search is the link to the product, I’m gonna buy it, and then forget to check out the rest of the links.

By providing a little difficulty into the process of getting something, and by making me work for the thing I am looking for, I am forced to read about it further, and (hopefully, if you have done your job right) get more enthusiastic about the process of getting my hands on it. This increases my odds of actually reading / listening / watching the damn thing, so it is in people’s best interest to have the point of sale lower in Google rankings than the material which discusses the product. It’s part of that long-term relationship-building which will lead to interest in future material from the same source. There’s no secret to getting people returning time and time again. Oh wait… I haven’t explained the image yet, have I?

A minor confession here – the pic won’t help you. Much like the rest of the information online about marketing, which panders to instant gratification and completely ignores any long-term strategies for the extended shelf life of the product, it is a phantom. It’s Keyser Sozer. The truth of the central phrase (in clear English) is all about the interaction with whoever is looking at it. It sells itself as a path to something, and that is precisely what this post is all about. I’ve been here before, and I still hold that people aren’t trying hard enough to keep people coming back to them time and time again, because serious and prolonged investment in propagating the image of a product (more than “Hey, click the link dude”) is the most important part of any enterprise. Also, by drip-feeding information and making people follow a trail of crumbs to the product, which is a way to have a conversation with purchasers, the mess of links which are clogging up sites will soon dwindle.

This is about being smart, as much as it is about being visible. This visibility, so lauded by mediocre hands, has made many products anathema to me. I have no idea what Covonia (or however it is spelled) is, but because of the prevalence of the adverts, I now have no interest in ever purchasing it. I hate those adverts. Being very visible can HARM you.

“Hey mom, lookit me. Lookit what I did. I set my head on fire, mom.”

I Haz BlogType AwardThing – End Of The World Imminent

There are, apparently, “rules” I must follow (yes, the dreaded R-word popping up on my blog again) so I’ll put in bold the important stuff. I’m bending the format of this award-thing, but it won’t do any harm. 🙂

Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

The excellent and entertaining Claire Gillian, who probably should have read all of the previous posts before highlighting the insanity which can be found here as award-worthy, has her post here. Massive thanks for this undeserving blog being mentioned alongside Amanda Plavich, Regan Leigh, Julie Loden, Damien Grintalis et al. Go look at the post in full, and follow Claire on Twitter here. Yes, that is an order.

Onto the next part of the award…

Share seven things about yourself.

Damn. I knew it wouldn’t be so easy… Okay. Seven things about me. For people who have been following this blog for a while, the “revelations” will be old news, so I’m expanding somewhat on each entry. Plus I’ll throw in a couple of things I can’t remember having written about here – I may have made reference to them elsewhere, but it’ll keep this post from being deathly dull.

# 1. I have OCD. Aside from the incessant collecting of books, computer games, DVDs, CDs, odd bits of hardware and other items, there is a running theme of the number four. Multiples of four, and references to the number, crop up everywhere, and even though a lot of the time I know I’m doing things in fours, it also appears unexpectedly in things when I don’t expect it to. It’s one of the reasons why lists show up so often, and why I obsess over the right way to do lists, and associated gathering and distribution of information.

This may be of importance later. Just saying…

# 2. I smoke. A lot. These days, admitting that you smoke is on a par with admitting that you like to eat human flesh, but for centuries it was positively encouraged. The fact that governments make billions of pounds (and probably trillions of dollars in the US) is conveniently overlooked when self-righteous politicians appear on television to say that smoking is bad. By my continued smoking, I am putting money back into the running of my country like a good little citizen. Yay for smoking.

# 3. I like bad movies. Not that films have to be bad for me to enjoy them (Godfather II is one of my all-time favorite films), but I can get as much enjoyment from RoboCop 3 as I can from Solaris or El Topo – I did grow up with a constant stream of Roger Corman, Charles Band and Lew Grade productions feeding my imagination, so the emphasis on plot and storytelling over FX probably enables me to overcome the horrific visuals of certain films.

# 4. I read a lot. Anything. Everything. The lack of distinction between genre and literary (and between genres) means I don’t really care about the barriers which some people manage to raise between books – it’s all good. It’s all equal. The Road, a novel hailed as a literary work, reminds me so much of the seventies Italian post-apocalyptic films that I can enjoy its schlocky elements – it’s a fine book, but it’s a brilliant meta-novelization of all those films. Hate me for that comment if you want, but the blatant inspiration for the novel remains evident.

# 5. I make sketches of all my characters. Even the ones who are never properly described get some form of illustrative work done for them, so I can keep straight in my head who each character is. I also do a lot more background material than anyone should ever contemplate, but it all helps solidify the worlds I try to bring to life. This has been covered in some length here before, but it bears repeating – the more I know about the characters and locations, the more I can deliver with the words I chose.

# 6. I used to smoke a lot of legally questionable stuff. When I say “a lot” I really mean shitloads, and when I say “legally questionable” I mean illegal. It is rare that I tell this story, but seeing as I have this special occasion I might as well tell you about this: Probably eight or nine years ago, with quite a nice buzz already, I thought I had run out of resin. The hopeful part of my brain said no, whilst the logical part decided otherwise. In my bedside drawer I found what I believed to be the remnants of my last bender, and promptly stuck it in the pipe. Big mistake. It was a piece of plastic, and it scratched my throat up for weeks. There’s a damn good reason why people aren’t meant to burn things made of plastic.

On a similar note, I have eaten bread with mold on it. You’ve seen when bread gets the blue stuff? Yeah. I scraped off the blue bits with a knife and coated it in a thick layer of butter and honey. It’s hard to describe the bitter, lingering taste of food which has gone off, but I can tell you this – the taste will stick with you for the better part of a week. Doesn’t matter how many times you brush your teeth, or rinse with mouthwash, the dry and clinging aroma of fouled bread will be with you.

# 7. I couldn’t use my hands for a couple of days as a teenager. Or maybe younger… The specifics are vague, but I got really, really annoyed with a friend, and as I was walking out of his house through the close (an external passageway through the house) I punched out with both my arms. Naturally, balled fists against bricks are no match, and my hands were quite badly bruised up. The lesson in there is probably something to do with not letting anger get the better of you, but I like to think that the lesson is really about using biotech to surpass the frailties we were born with.

Given half the chance, I would *so* opt in for the full Steve Majors upgrade. And, y’know, if anyone has a spare biomod canister lying around… Just saying…

Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!

So I’m guessing I should at least try and keep to the spirit of the third rule. “Recently discovered” means that I ought to highlight the peeps whom I have only recently discovered. Yeah. So the definition of recently is perhaps being stretched to stretching point with my choices, but I’m playing this my way. To avoid favoritism, I’m not counting any blogs which were mentioned in Claire’s post. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t have picked anyone mentioned alongside me, because I would have. Just playing fair to the folks who haven’t been given a chance, or tormented with this, yet.

1. Benjamin Solah (follow on Twitter)
2. Beth Plus a quick mention of her other blog, because nothing in the rules says I can’t do so.
3. Blake M. Petit (follow on Twitter)
4. Justin Caynon (follow on Twitter)
5. Effie Collins (follow on Twitter)
6. Jamie DeBree (follow on Twitter)
7. Melanie Avila (follow on Twitter)
8. Emily Cross (follow on Twitter)
9. Christopher S. Daley (follow on Twitter)
10 Ralfast There’s also not one, but two other blogs you should check out. (follow on Twitter)
11 Daniel Sos (follow on Twitter)
12 ArachneJericho (follow on Twitter)
13 Scott Williams (follow on Twitter)
14 Nanda O (follow on Twitter)
15 Romi Moondi (follow on Twitter)

Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

That’s more of a demand than a proper part of the rules. *sigh* Yeah. Fine. I’ll get right on it.

______________________________

Knowing my luck, I’ve probably screwed up one of the above links, so feel free to bitch and whine at me if you find any errors. I may fix them if you catch me in a good mood. No guarantees though…

Things That Should Exist But Don’t

There are some things which I keep expecting to find on the internet, but can’t quite seem to locate, so I thought it would be an idea to make a list of everything that people should have thought of before me. I refuse to believe that I am the only person that has thought about this shit, and everyone should be ashamed of themselves that they didn’t come up with these ideas first:

• Real maps designed after the style of GTA 3‘s excellent (and colorful) in-game map. This would be the coolest thing since… Actually, it would be the coolest thing EVER. Not only would map-lovers be intrigued by the design aesthetic, but gamers might start buying things that are actually useful – like maps.
• Remote controls designed to look like Star Trek phasers. C’mon, you know these would be cool. And they would serve a purpose.
• Computer games with real-life repercussions… No, wait- Sorry, that one has already been covered. I don’t know whether to be surprised or horrified.
• Sports with mortality rates. I’m partial to a Rollerball derby being set up, but a Death Race would suffice.
• A bag / backpack which knows how much weight is being carried in it, and can warn of back strain. Somebody make one of these for me, PLEASE. Seriously, make one.

I could come up with more, but I’m afraid of being labelled a complete, irredeemable geek.

####

This isn’t worth a full blog post of it’s own, and sticking it here seems as good a place as any:

WARNING:

The following link must NOT be clicked on, under any circumstances. You have no idea what the fuck it is, you don’t know what lurks beyond the click of a mouse… You really don’t want to know either. For all you know it could be a picture of a fat, naked man, a sign-up page for the military, a horrible virus or merely a LOLcat page. You just don’t know, so why take the chance.

It isn’t worth it. Do not click on the link. I’m warning you, so you can’t come back here and blame me.

NOT. MY. FAULT.

Got that?

LINK

For the benefit of anyone who clicked on the link, I offer my full apologies.

Links To Things That Keep Me Sane(ish)

CAT, n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle. (Ambrose Bierce)

Yes, starting a blog with an obscure quote is fucking despicable. Don’t care.

There hasn’t been much in the way of worthwhile writing flowing forth from my pen. The time which was formerly dedicated to coming up with ideas is now free time. This is very, very dangerous – I get bored easily, and when I’m bored, I tend to come up with things to do. In the lean times (between the muse shitting on me from a great height) I get cranky, slightly insane and tend to spout off at people who piss me off.

Today I’m trying to be nice, as coaxing ideas is difficult enough without the threat of physical violence. There is no sign that the muse is going to void her bowels on me any time soon, so I have put together some nice links for your edification – the theme of which is ZOMBIES:

This is a list of zombie rules from a much better blogger than I.

Here is where you will learn about horror tropes.

…and learn about how saying the Z-word is bad.

can be found here. Their tune ‘The Gonk’ is heard at the end of Dawn Of The Dead.

You can find job opportunities in a zombie outbreak here.

Dead Source is a George A. Romero fan site you should check out.

Okay, so it isn’t much of a reading list.