Yanny Boy

Last night I went to see Yann Martel at a local bookstore. For those of you who haven't been inside a bookstore in the past three years, Yann wrote Life of Pi, which sold a zillion copies and won the Booker Prize. I read the book and enjoyed it a great deal, so I figured he'd be a good guy to see speak.

Two Thoughts:

1. Yann told us that it takes him about four years to write a book and that he writes extremely infrequently (approx. once a month). Although that seems pretty lazy to most of us with real jobs, I gave him the benefit of the doubt--it clearly works for him. Then, when asked to name a contemporary author he liked, he could only mention J.M. Coetzee, as he claimed to be so busy/transfixed by his literary ideas that he can't read anything else while he's working at a snail's pace. Apparently he sneaks in the occasional Nobel Prize winner on trips to the bathroom -- seriously, if this guy doesn't do anything related to his job, what does he do all day long? Watch TV? Drink beer? Cultivate his voice to talk like a snobby, blue-blooded author? Well, I can vouch for him hitting at least one out of three - can you guess which?

2. If you want to make it as a writer, target women. There were 25 people in front of me at the store and 23 were women. And when I think about it, the overwhelming majority of the serious readers/writers I know are women. But don't worry dudes, you still clean up in the ol' roucking category!