Today I read an article about a book by AJ Jacobs, the guy who read the Encyclopedia Britannica, tried to follow all the rules in the Bible, and most recently did a health kick. Apparently, this is actually a genre called Shtick Lit. Who knew?
According to said article, "Ben Yagoda defines 'shtick lit' as '[b]ooks perpetrated by people who undertook an unusual project with the express purpose of writing about it.'" Think Walden, but generally nowhere near that good/worthy of existing. The author of the article's main gripe with these kinds of books is that they tend to follow a very set formula, tend to be filled with cliches, and tend to not really go to the level of extreme that would justify having a book about them.
All of this sort of hit close to home, clearly. I mean, this is definitely a shtick blog (but really, aren't most?). It doesn't exactly 100% qualify, in that the project came long before the blog, though. The blog is just a place to chronicle this undertaking, not the reason for the undertaking by any means. Still, I definitely see this project as slightly ridiculous. It isn't exactly a stunt, but I do get stunt mileage out of it. I definitely roll it out when I need to provide information about myself but I don't want to actually share anything personal.
However, since I have yet to actually get a book deal or anything, I think that does show a certain dedication to autodidactism that is missing from many of these.
I'd end this with my most recent awkward gym moment involving a guy and a bagel, but it had nothing to do with reading/the list project, so I suppose it doesn't really fit.
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