“Because it’s been 150 years, we’ve got this idea that we’ve got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers. This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that.
…
“Books aren’t public property, and writers aren’t Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They’ve got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don’t expect to go to a food library to be fed.”
via Horrible Histories Author Terry Deary On Libraries: ‘No Longer Relevant’.
Terry Deary, a children’s author, is whining a bit, I think. I see it differently — I want my books read, used, abused. And information is public property as are good stories.
And, if you had good books, people will buy them.
Ugh.
Libraries make good readers, good readers feed good authors.
Anyway, contact your local library and ask them to put my book on their shelf.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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I happen to work for my seminary’s library (and I’m on the library advisory board!). Your book will be carried on our shelves.
Oh, and Deary’s argument is ignorant.
sir, you are my hero.
And of course, mine too!! Since we have the same publisher for some of our books, I know that Henry would love it if every library, even every seminary library carried our books!!
amen and amen