something we all could do
i think being on this site indicates that most of us, i know i am, are dedicated not only to our potential for success but the medium of books as a whole. i was flipping through channels and came upon an episode of inside the actor studio. who it was is inconsequential really but the concept of an show of that nature with writers. for starters we tend to be a lot more interesting with all the turmoil we can go through. if some one could make this happen we might be able to truly take the idea of long form fiction to a level that is well above it current status in popular culture. the ratings might such but could be cheap to produce. i am just afraid as some one starting out that the society is getting way to far away from a place of active readers. sorry for the rant, kind of needed to get it out in some form
a novel concept but the way information is being transmitted now is making the idea of paper books obsolete. in the minds of many young people, paper is no longer the best medium. the visual stimulation they get from television and movies is far more substantial than the one they get from books. take for instance fight club. not a lot of people would know that the movie was based on the book and even for those who know it, not all of them will pick the book up and read it. it takes less time and effort to watch a two-hour movie than to spend days reading a book. screen adaptations are easier to digest and the satisfaction is practically immediate and many are content with a storyline that is marginally *close* to the source material that they wouldn't even bother to take the book on.
i've seen shows dedicated to authors but the problem is, most of them are on obscure television channels (obscure in the sense that people would normally just flip through them without a single moment of hesitation) and the market for this type of show is slim. from a business standpoint, it would not make sense for networks to produce a show where the target audience is just a small sampling of the entire television-watching demographic. it could belong to a special subscription channel for book lovers but even there, it'd take a lot of marketing and resources to sell a show that not really a lot of people are willing to buy in the first place.
what could be done for us who already know how rewarding it is to read great books is to suggest those books to people around us who don't usually read and get them started. if they catch on, they'll develop the habit of reading for leisure and may even recommend books to others.