It's OK not to read the book... - Stephen Baker

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It's OK not to read the book... posted on January 8, 2009

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Here's what I was thinking last night as I made my way toward the wonderful party that MediaBistro threw for me: Many of the people there--perhaps most of them--would never read the book, much less buy it. That's just the way it is.

But it's not bad. I've learned a lot about book consumption over the past couple of months, and it's a lot more complex than I originally thought.

If you had asked me about readers a year ago, I would have divided the world into two camps: Those who read the book and those who don't. The whole goal of promotion, I would have said, is to expand the first group and shrink the second.

But those people at the party last night, more than 100 of them by my estimation, were participating in the book in their way. They came to the party. Others participate by reading an excerpt, a review, listening to a podcast, even talking about it at a dinner party or reading this blog. In all those ways, people can join in. And the goal, I think, is to reach out to make that group as big as possible. And it will pay off in many ways, presumably including sales.

There's one group in the Numerati community that I haven't mentioned: People who buy the book, or take it out of the library, and don't get around to reading it. But even they participate in their own way. They probably read the blurbs on the book jacket and plan to read the book some day. Meanwhile, the book is on their shelves (or, if in a house like mine, stacked up in a pile next to the living room couch), beckoning others to read it.

Here's another way to consume The Numerati: check out John Michl's Mind Map. It picks out the themes and examples, and provides a different way of digesting the book, one closer to surfing than reading. (By the way, be sure to move the mouse around on it. There are plenty of details outside the borders of the window.)