Gold Crown IV

Gold Crown IV
FastMikie's Fun House, Del Mar, California

Monday, July 14, 2008

Pool players like to watch

More than twice as many people are have subscribed to my YouTube videos as have subscribed to my blog (which includes the videos). What does that tell us?

1. Pool players in general "like to watch" rather than read.
2. There is a high degree of functional illiteracy among pool players. (?)
3. My writing sucks.
4. Pool players are lazy. ("A picture is worth a thousand words.")
5. All of the above.
6. ???

I would agree with #3, when I'm in a humble mood (rarely), but I get enough positive feedback via email and my guestbook to keep me un-humble most of the time. I have always suspected that I am among the very limited number of people who actually read anything about pool, and an even fewer number of people who spend money to buy books about pool.
(check out the FastMikie Billiards Library)

If my hypothesis is correct, I'll have little negative feedback about suggesting that many pool players are functional illiterates simply because they will never read this! That sort of reminds me of the thought that the Clairvoyants Association never has to notify their members of the time and place of their meetings. Think about that... I'll wait...

And such is the delusion of writers in general: thinking that someone will actually read what they write. I can not find the source, but I have heard that the percentage of books actually read in their entirety is tiny compared to the total of books sold, which again is a fraction of the books published.

Why do writers write, especially if what they write is seldom, if ever, read? I have no idea about those other poor souls, but I have addressed this burning issue in this post. The short story is that I get value out of it even if nobody reads it. So if you are not reading this, then I'm not the slightest bit bummed, but if you are reading this, then I'd seriously enjoy hearing from you if you have any thought to share about how to improve this blog, or the videos.

If you are one of those who prefer to watch, you can subscribe to my YouTube videos, if you haven't already. Click here, and then click the big yellow button when you get there. As of this writing, there are exactly 70 videos I have contributed to humanity, almost all of them pool related. And a few oceanfront related. Enjoy!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I, for one, do read your posts, as well as just about anything else I can find that is pool related. You would think there would be a lot more quality resources available for a sport as popular as billiards, but surprisingly there isn't much on the internet worth reading regularly. Your blog is worth checking on a regular basis, and also, thanks for the videos!