I suspect that this is a common occurrence, that people end up discovering that the book that got them into a subject turns out to be trash. I mean, I guess this isn't a brilliant insight, given that books written for popular audiences are designed to be exciting to people who know nothing about a subject but... Anyhow, I know that I wou…
I suspect that this is a common occurrence, that people end up discovering that the book that got them into a subject turns out to be trash. I mean, I guess this isn't a brilliant insight, given that books written for popular audiences are designed to be exciting to people who know nothing about a subject but... Anyhow, I know that I would never in a million years cite most of the stuff that thrilled me when I first started studying religion and folklore.
The way in which a lot of these books are trash is kind of interesting though. It's like bad academics with an ax to grind are trying to win in the popular conscious because they can't win in academia.
I suspect that this is a common occurrence, that people end up discovering that the book that got them into a subject turns out to be trash. I mean, I guess this isn't a brilliant insight, given that books written for popular audiences are designed to be exciting to people who know nothing about a subject but... Anyhow, I know that I would never in a million years cite most of the stuff that thrilled me when I first started studying religion and folklore.
The way in which a lot of these books are trash is kind of interesting though. It's like bad academics with an ax to grind are trying to win in the popular conscious because they can't win in academia.