Quiet Books in a Noisy World
Plus, a shelf saga update, One Day, and The Weekly What
This week I listened to an episode of the What Should I Read Next? podcast with Anne Bogel in conversation with author Susan Meissner about character driven stories with immersive plots. Anne opens the show saying:
Susan writes character-driven historical fiction. That's her lane, and she's happy to be in it. Sometimes books like hers are described as quiet, and she's okay with that. But lately there have been whispers in the industry that this kind of quieter historical fiction isn't what readers want right now.
Instead, so they say, today's readers value compelling plots above compelling characters, and they prefer books with mystery, suspense, or romance as the driving force. Short, snappy, and flighty books are selling right now, and books with long, thoughtful chapters are not. At least that's the conventional industry wisdom these days. So what does that mean for Susan and other authors of quiet books?
Susan, who published her first novel 20 years ago, goes on to explain she reached out to Anne about this topic after turning in her most recent book and though she, her editor, and agent all loved it they asked her to completely rework the novel to make it more plotty and less character dependent because they didn’t think they could sell it otherwise.
Let me clarify, Susan isn’t coming to this conversation feeling wronged and looking to complain, she truly wants to figure out how, and whether it’s possible, to balance writing the quiet type of book she prefers to both read and write while still selling books to assuage her publisher.
What this conversation tiptoes around the edges of, but the larger context I understood is increasingly what’s trending on TikTok is what sells in the book world. And, hey, look, I love that people are finding their way to books they love, or just a general love of books through TikTok (or other social media platforms) I think that’s wonderful!
But there are particular types of books best suited to the world of BookTok, these are fast paced, plot driven books that elicit big emotions, books appealing to the broadest audience of readers. Books easily distilled into a seconds long video that will entertain both the algorithm and followers, compelling people to purchase a book, and then maybe, possibly compete with that same social media platform through which they discovered the title long enough for them to read the book, but, let’s be real, selling books is the true endgame, not encouraging reading. And since these same social media platforms are having a negative impact on our attention spans this likely requires quick, compelling, dramatic reads for books to have a chance of competing for our limited attention.
And while there are many types of readers on TikTok and a wide range of books being discussed the homogenous algorithmic nature of the platform means the same creators and the same books will be the seen the most, which are, in turn, the books that will sell the most, which are the books that will create the most profits, which means those are the types of books publishers want to sell and put their resources behind and the entire cycle begins anew. The publishing industry is increasingly chasing the attention of a very small subset of tastemakers in order to drive sales.
Susan also brings up another point about reading quiet novels that I found so important:
Some people, I feel like, they have forgotten how to go deep with a book, maybe. And that's why they resonate with these plottier novels. And they'll read the quiet novel for their book club and they'll come to the meeting saying, "I didn't like it. It was too slow."
And I think the person who maybe picked it that said they loved that book was because they fell, like they went deep, they fell into the abyss and it was wonderful and deep and so many treasures awaited them at the bottom of this dark place where you have to grab the rope and go down.
I feel like that's a really good way of describing it is that it means to go deep with a novel. And if you don't know how to do that, if you've never gone deep, it might seem like, why do I want to do that? Or how do I even go deep with a novel? I think it's probably a reader skill maybe, as much as it is a writer skill.
And to me, this is the crux of it, books are magic because they are an experience between the writer and reader. There’s an alchemy that happens when authors create something from their minds, translating their imagination into words, put the words onto paper to be consumed and filtered through someone else’s mind, creating an experience, and this experience will be wholly unique to each reader.
These “quieter” stories, the character driven, layered, theme exploring stories take work on the reader’s part. They take contemplation, contextual understanding, a focused attention, they can be challenging in many ways. And look, I also enjoy plot-driven stories, I do, and these types of literary novels aren’t going to be revered by every reader. But when I think about the books I LOVE, the ones that stay with me, the ones I want to re-read, the ones that spur real thoughtful discussion with other readers, they’re all “quieter” novels. Because teasing apart layers and understanding fully realized characters is better suited to deep discussion not the mostly one-sided broadcasting type communication that happens in the seconds long videos on TikTok. Allowing a single platform to take over the publishing industry does a real disservice to authors, readers, and the art of books generally.
Right now there are authors who are still driving sales with quieter novels and you’ll even see them popping up on social media (Ann Patchett, James McBride, Maggie O’Farrell among them) but I do wonder for how long and whether there will be a generation of these types of authors to follow in their footsteps, whether the intersection of capitalism and social media and their side effects will save space for quite books in an increasingly loud world, and what this means for both the writers and readers of these books.
Further reading:
Has TikTok Ruined Reading? (Book Riot)
TikTok is Changing the Way Books Are Recommended and Sold (The Economist)
BookTok Helped Book Sales Soar. How Long Will That Last? (Publishers Weekly)
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka
Tell me:
Do you enjoy quiet novels?
Who/what are some of your favorite quiet authors/books?
Do you think social media has an impact on publishing and/or the way we consume books?
Anything, let’s chat!
What I’m…
Reading
A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. An accessible immigrant family drama exploring timely topics of racism, classism, police brutality and the American Dream. I liked this and think it would make for an excellent book club selection.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Read for
book club. Thankful for the motivation to tackle this classic. I found it readable if not a forever favorite.A Better World by Sarah Langan. Sinister and satirical speculative fiction about a family scoring a much coveted spot in a company town where they will live in protected luxury while outside society unravels. I loved this! Publishing this Tuesday 4/9.
Listening
People Collide by Isle McElroy. A husband and wife body swap in this story, an interesting exploration of gender and relationship dynamics.
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera. Really good listen as it incorporates a true crime podcast into the audio. I would have liked it less in print.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobson. 😶😶😶 This non-fiction book explores a very possible, very realistic doomsday scenario where the U.S. is drawn into nuclear exchange in order to illustrate just how dangerous and horrifying nuclear war would be. Terrifyingly effective.
What Should I Read Next? with Anne Bogel: Quiet, Compelling, and Wildly Popular Novels
Watching
One Day (Netflix). I liked this in the end though from the many rave reviews I saw I expected something more. While I found the 14-part short vignette structure lent itself well to adapting the novel I had to get acclimated to that choppiness in order to get into the show. I really enjoyed the novel when I read it many years ago. I think the series is a better adaptation than the 2011 film, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen it’s hard to recall for sure. The story is very character driven and I find those are always hard to translate to screen.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Hulu). This was a rewatch, we’ve seen this movie many times though it’s been a minute. Still hilarious though some parts haven’t aged well. It has been nearly 20 years since this movie came out (2005)!
The Ultimatum (Season 2, Netflix). Lucky for my Love is Blind hangover I discovered an unwatched season of its less entertaining sibling (just give us more Love is Blind!)
Eating & Drinking
French Toast Casserole for breakfast and Grape Salad and Carrot Cake for our family Easter celebration
Breakfast for dinner: Corned Beef Hash utilizing leftovers served with a sunny side up egg on top
Sweet Potato Black Bean Tacos with guacamole
Ham and Bean Soup (the best part of Easter ham is leftover ham bone for soup, IMO!) and honey cornbread. Perfect for the (hopefully last blast!) of chilly weather that arrived late this week.
And to that end, I’m still on my Earl Grey kick
Links + Loves
I’ve been diffusing this Spring Shine essential oil blend on repeat lately. It’s a sweet blend of citrus and herbs that’s perfect for the season!
Last week I talked about my shelf saga. Well, my shelves that were supposedly back ordered until June arrived late this week - huzzah!
At the beginning of each month I (try to) deep clean our dishwasher including cleaning all the filters (am I the only one who only relatively recently discovered the existence of dishwasher filters? I didn’t realize there was one let alone multiple!) and running a cycle with one of these tablets. I think they’re really helpful.
Here’s how to set your reading goals and read more books in 2024 (NPR) (Psst… I wrote In Defense of Reading Goals and offered a whole list of goals that go beyond numbers earlier this year.)
For book recommendations, people are always better than algorithms (Lit Hub) Agree - and, there are some really excellent recs in the article!
I am forever intrigued by suggestions for how to organize your TBR (Book Riot) because mine is always chaotic. I have kept track of my reading in one way or another for most of my life and I’ve never figured out a truly effective way to manage my TBR. Maybe this is something I should put my attention towards.
His Novel Sold a Million Copies. James McBride Isn’t Sure How He Feels About That (NYT)
And while we’re talking author interviews, I loved this one with Percival Everett (Elle)
ICYMI
This week’s blog posts:
That’s it for this week’s Weekly What! If you enjoy my rambles please consider subscribing, sharing, liking, or recommending to a friend.
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Until next time!
“Allowing a single platform to take over the publishing industry does a real disservice to authors, readers, and the art of books generally.“ THIS exactly. Thanks for putting all of my worries about the impact of BookTok on the publishing industry into such clear and concise words! One of my favorite examples of a really quiet book that I LOVED is French Braid by Anne Tyler. I always describe it as a book where nothing really happens but I couldn’t stop reading anyway.