Name: Eat, Pray, Love
ISBN: 9781408815106

Eat, Pray, Love

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott's hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

What Hacker News says

pessimizerJul 2023

A review of a book that hasn't been published that explains why I don't think the subject is appropriate for a book, how I don't like the author, and what I think about the author's previous opinions about the subject isn't "fake" or "fraud," it's discussion that virtually all intelligent people can handle.

"Fake" and "fraud" are words that you're adding to the article.

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edit:

I feel like it's important to mention that the only reason this "review bombing" is painted as bad is because it convinces people. This is yet another case of (calling for) censoring speech because it is convincing. It convinced the Eat, Pray, Love author not to publish at all.

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AdverblesslyMay 2023

Before answering, I'd like to again remind you that we're talking about a world where the concept of intellectual property does not exist.

> your primary activity can only be remunerated via donations

I don't think the word "donations" really applies here, just like tips at a restaurant are not considered donations. Tips are not legally required, but they are heavily socially encouraged. If everyone agrees that creative works and knowledge should be shared and that we want more of them to exist, then it is expected, though not required that you give something back. Ideally proportional to the use you got out of it and what you have in the first place.

> On top of that, each one of those people may decide to publish your book as their own.

They can share the book all they want, but that doesn't mean they get to lie about who made the book ("as their own"), that should probably be illegal ;)

> But, continuing the hypothetical, why would you do that? Why would you spend the effort to compile all your knowledge in book form?

Maybe I hope to get compensated for it, maybe I like writing books, maybe I wrote the book for my own use and decided to share, maybe I personally value getting this knowledge out there for others to use which may even benefit me, maybe I feel grateful for the knowledge I received for free myself and want to give soemething back or build upon it or maybe I'm just obssessed with books :)

> Typesetting is hard, and you may want to use the expertise of other people for editorial review, printing and binding. Everything you pay them will be out of your own pocket, since the expected market value of the finished product is zero.

Probably if I only know about writing the book, it would make more sense to release a PDF, and maybe someone else will want to go through the trouble of actually making it into a printable book for some portion of the tips. Maybe they'd like to cooperate with me on the "official" release of the book for some share of the tips, after all anyone could possibly piggyback on their derivative work (or just get the PDF :)) so they may get more out of it by being part of the "original" "official" version of my book. Or maybe I can just pay them if it seems valuable to me.

> and may have to if they want to recoup their own costs

Or as above, they'll find it easier to recoup their costs by cooperating ;)

> Taking a slightly wider view, how are you going to convince the bank to lend you a mortgage if your primary activity can only be remunerated via donations?

As in our existing world, if the bank thinks I'll get enough back in tips, then it is a worthwhile investment. Also, in our hypothetical world, since everything is already available "for free", the best place to spend your budget for creative work is in works that don't already exist, making crowdsourcing a much more popular and rewarding option (I can get Eat Pray Love for free, but adverblessly's book is priceless since it will only exist if they get this money).

> In this world, who would still spend time on publishing books?

If we're talking about online publishing, I'm sure you could find plenty of people that will setup a website to host PDFs (or epub or mobi :)) for a 10% comission, guaranteeing the original artist gets at least 85% of the sale price (if it isn't going to the original artist, why even pay?). If w'ere talking about physical book publishing we'd probably see a similar dynamic. Alternatively, maybe you'll get your PDF from the original artist to tip them and then go to the professional printer for the physical book at printing cost +10% profit margin (at whichever book printer provides the best cost/quality for your needs).

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klodolphApr 2021

> The notion that art can't be "good" if it makes people feel good is really misguided, in my opinion.

Speaking of literature, I don't think that reading of the parent comment is correct. The comment was saying that "making people feel good does not make it art/literature," where you're discussing something else, which is "making people feel good makes it not art/literature".

The original comment was something like, "Perhaps Eat Pray Love made people's lives better, but making peoples lives better does not make it art/literature."

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redelbeeDec 2020

I just finished reading “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) and she brought up a related and interesting idea I can paraphrase:

In midlife we’re concerned with status and our outward appearance, which can hinder creative output. Then we get older and realize that we don’t care what anyone thinks about us, which can lead to more creative risk taking and accomplishments. Then we get even older and we find the truth: nobody is thinking about you (except you) so it’s not worth concerning yourself with status or outside validation.

In the midst of my own midlife crisis in the making I often find myself coming back to these types of concerns: How do I look to others? How do I compare to others? What am I missing out on?

Thankfully I’ve been able to, so far at least, keep any real crisis similar to what’s described in the article or otherwise from occurring. I try to remind myself of what Gilbert explained, that no one really cares about me so I should live my life without worrying to much about what they think.

I read a lot of books about creativity and most aren’t great, but I think “Big Magic” is a decent read. I also enjoyed the audiobook of “Creative Quest” by Questlove.

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cafardJul 2020

The charity Turning the Page runs Carpe Librum pop-up used bookstores in Washington, DC. When one opened downtown some years ago, I walked in and saw 30+ (I counted) copies of Eat, Pray, Love on the discount shelves.

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jasodeNov 2015

John Resig (of JQuery fame) got a $7500 advance[1] for a Javascript book. I think it's reasonable to assume that a Javascript book would be 100x (or even 1000x) more popular than a Haskell book. To this day, I don't believe he's made much beyond that advance. I doubt he's reached $20k since 2007.

If the author can crowdsource $20k, more power to her. On the other hand, maybe the monetary threshold needs a reality check. EDIT ADD: I looked again and noticed that the $20k is a "flexible goal" so presumably, the author will write the book even without reaching that amount; therefore, the author already understands market forces at work that might prevent a $20k payout.

(Of course it's possible that the Haskell book market can charge a premium because of a uniquely enthusiastic audience . E.g., doctors pay $500 for a book that shows surgical procedures and the volume of sales is only in the hundreds.)

In the economics of books, the big money is fiction. (50 Shades, Harry Potter, etc). To a lesser extent, you have some non-fiction titles making a decent amount of money (Chicken Soup for the Soul, Eat Pray Love, etc). Way down on the totem pole are the trade publications like computer books. The economics on that level basically dictate that you slave away writing "Java for Dummies" for less than minimum wage. You then use it as a business calling card and let it open doors to speaking engagements at conferences and attract consulting gigs.

[1]>http://ejohn.org/blog/programming-book-profits/

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