Dan Wilbur releases debut book ‘How Not to Read’ Tuesday
Dan Wilbur wants to teach the world how not to read. You just have to read his book to learn why.
Wilbur, creator of the popular Tumblr blog Better Book Titles, released his debut book, “How Not to Read: Harnessing the Power of a Literature-Free Life,” today and discussed his writing and career path with The Daily Gamecock.
Wilbur grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, (“I always tell people that Cleveland is great if you’ve never been to Chicago,” Wilbur said) and attended high school at St. Ignatius, a small Catholic school in Ohio. The blogger went on to study classics and creative writing at Bard College, an environment Wilbur described as “a culture shock.”
At Bard, Wilbur also began writing jokes.
“I started doing comedy the second I got to college,” Wilbur said.
Better Book Titles, a site that posts Photoshopped book covers displaying humorous names, was started out of boredom.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard this about post-college life, but it’s very lonely,” Wilbur said. “I would come home from gigs and open my computer and get on Tumblr ... all I did was ‘like’ stuff. I wasn’t adding anything to the internet.”
Wilbur began his internet writing career by doing humor columns about video games. While playing “Assassins Creed 2,” Wilbur thought the game should’ve been called “Kill the Pope” because that is the goal of the game.
“There would’ve been so much controversy,” he said. “Can you imagine the headlines?”
While jokingly ranting about game titles, Wilbur had a revelation.
“I said, ‘You know what else has pretentious names?’ and I looked around my room and I had hundreds of stupid books,” he said. “That’s when the lightbulb went off.”
Wilbur created Better Book Titles in summer 2010. Popular posts include retitles of “The Great Gatsby” (“Drink Responsibly”) and “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (“This is the First Book I’ve Read in Six Years”).
The site gained popularity after being featured on the web show “Urlesque” and was a hot read among “lit geeks,” librarians and bookstore owners. At the end of August, an agent approached Wilbur to do a book.
“How Not to Read” is a collection of essays about “faking your way through the literary scene,” Wilbur said. The book includes chapters about hosting book clubs and how to navigate the classics. “How Not to Read” also includes various Better Book Titles covers that have been featured on the blog. Readers who purchased the book from Wilbur’s website had the option of creating a better title for his book complete with a custom dust jacket.
Writing the book came at the right time in Wilbur’s life. The comedy club he worked at closed and both the television shows he worked for had been canceled.
“I was at total zero. I had no job, I had no income,” he said.
Wilbur’s advice for aspiring bloggers?
“Move out of the way so I can reign supreme!” he said.
But in all seriousness, Wilbur suggests finding a specific subject that hasn’t been explored yet.
“Without even thinking about it, I found a really narrow niche,” he said. “I made this blog that makes fun of my tastes.”
Wilbur said there’s a place for all types of writing on the web.
“Think about what you do and how it fits into the internet.”
Wilbur is continuing to do stand-up and is starting a weekly show in Brooklyn this month.
“How Not to Read” is available at bookstores everywhere today.