in which we revise the lit review chapter for that dissertation on cats in space

[lolaraincoat]

So late last summer currer, who is evil, introduced me to Bookmooch and I have wasted a lot of time there ever since. It's a bookswap website which, unlike most, functions reasonably well outside the US. But "reasonably well" has its limits: there are upwards of 250 books on my wishlist, and none of them are currently available to be sent to Canada. On the other hand, if I needed five thousand free copies of The DaVinci Code, Bookmooch would be there for me.

Anyway, I accumulated a lot of Bookmooch points sending books to Finland and Ireland and Israel and (mostly) the U.S., and I scrounged around on the Bookmooch site for books to get in exchange, and that's how I ended up with all five of C.J. Cherryh's Chanur books, which I read one and a half of, and then gave up on as repetitive and predictable. They're often mentioned as a good example of SF told entirely from an alien point of view, which is true, and the aliens are basically intelligent matriarchal cats, which is entertaining for about one short book as far as I'm concerned.

But so then I passed them on to fishwhistle. And Fishwhistle, as I've probably mentioned here a time or two already, really, really likes cats. He likes me well enough, and he likes cheesy science fiction too, but cats ... well, cats are special to him. So he loved those books. Loved them. He stayed up late for weeks at a time, reading about cats in space. And now he is sad because he has read them all. And so, my beloved interwebs, I turn to you: what other Cats In Space fiction can you think of? I've already thought of that Heinlein novel, but isn't it late-period Heinlein, which is to say horrible sludge? And then, speaking of horrible sludge, there are the Larry Niven novels with the Kzin in them, but I think Fishwhistle has read all of those, even the short-story collections by other authors, and they just make him sad because the humans and the intelligent space-cats are fighting all the time. But surely there is more Cats In Space science fiction out there somewhere?

Meanwhile it has recently occurred to me that the novel I most want to read, of all the novels in the world, is one that has not yet been written (as far as I can discover, anyway): the thinly veiled roman a clef about Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg in New York in the late 1950s. Wouldn't that make a great book? And then later, a brilliant movie?

Comments

[norah]

There's Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song, which is not Cats In Space but is a good fantasy cat novel nonetheless.

[lolaraincoat]

I'll look for it! thank you!

[donata]

I don't know any Cats in Space novels, but there's Akif Pirinçci's Felidae: crime fiction written from the PoV of a cat detective. It's not science fiction, but it does have a fantasy feel to it. It's been at least 15 years since I've read it, and, even though I don't remember anything of the plot, a strong impression of supernatural spookiness still lingers.

[lolaraincoat]

I asked Fishwhistle about this, and he said, "that's not a Cats in Space story, is it?" and made a sad face. On the other hand I think it sounds cool, so I'll look for it. Thanks!

[idlerat]

Y'know, when he said he liked Avatar, I didn't even consider that angle. I just thought, "dudes like Avatar." Cats in space!

I'm sorry you got stuck with all those credits. Why must the foreigns have such bad taste?

[lolaraincoat]

Ah hah hah! I hadn't thought of that, exactly, but you're right! Cats in space!

Oh, it's not just the furriners who have the unholy love for Dan Brown - it's pretty much everyone who's willing to ship to Canada seems to have a copy of The Davinci Code they're hoping to get rid of. I guess that shows better taste than not giving away their copies. Still, it reminds of how, for a period of many, many, many years, it was like some kind of law that every used record store, no matter how specialized or obscure or snooty, had to have at least three copies of Frampton Comes Alive! on sale, extra-cheap.

All of which is to say that we can expect to see Dan Brown in some embarrassing reality TV show involving rehab in about fifteen years.

[idlerat]

Yes, of course (re BookMooch). But the thing that confuses me is, yes, the US is a big market, but it's not a bigger market than *every other English-speaking person in the world.* Maybe if they *excluded* Americans it would be more balanced, & then get a better reputation, & more members...

[lolaraincoat]

Well, one thing is that US postage is significantly cheaper than Canadian postage - like, less than half as much, as near as I can tell. And I think European postage runs closer to Canadian prices than US ones. So that might help to explain why all those US Bookmoochers with their Dan Brown books ...

*shakes a tiny but overpriced fist*

[idlerat]

But the problem isn't too much Dan Brown - it's too little everything else. I'm not sure the postage differential would lead to a trade imbalance by itself. If it's cheaper for US customers to ship books than for Canadians, so what? We're going to ship too many books? I think the problem is that US members have an incentive to order *from* non-US members (we want books), but not to ship *to* them (we can ship more cheaply within the US, via PBS - unless what we have is some piece of crap that we can't unload domestically). US members are taking out more and better quality books than we put in. We should be banned!

[lolaraincoat]

Oh! I see what you mean! you're right. Although ... in some ways these are two distinct issues. One is that the majority of users are in the US and unwilling to send books abroad (but hoping for books from abroad anyway.) The other is that the majority of books available on Bookmooch, from anywhere in the world, were written by Dan Brown. Because everyone is hoping to unload pieces of crap - we just have to hope that some of the time, some people think books other than the DaVinci Code are crappy. Banning US users would only solve the first problem, alas.

[idlerat]

Hm, well, I'm afraid I (annoyingly!) don't think these are 2 separate problems, actually. Although my proposed solution may not be the correct one, there is a problem here that wants an explanation. Yes, of course everyone in the world posts Dan Brown. That's inevitable, but it doesn't have to prevent an exchange from working. I'm suggesting that the fact that "the majority of books available on BookMooch are Dan Brown" is not an immutable first cause, because I know for a fact it doesn't have to be that way, even though there is certainly a global Dan Brown glut.

Bow & I are avid users of the US-only PaperbackSwap. People want to get rid of their Dan Brown just as much on PBS as anywhere. But, since the exchange is functional, there are a lot of other books on it, too. I've mailed over 100 books, none by Dan Brown, and received almost 40 - good books, that I wanted, most in very good condition. Just two weeks ago, I requested all the books for my summer course, and I already have 2 of them. The reason I send more books than I receive is that I have too many books, and also that I can convert the credits and use them for other media (CDs and DVDs). Also, I often give away books that people leave in the laundry room, etc. My trade imbalance is not because good books aren't available (though you often have to wait).

Given the number of Anglophone readers in the world, a similar global exchange should work - if nothing was distorting it. As you point out, it would be more expensive, and that would discourage some people. The US mail is also pretty fast. So maybe a non-US exchange would have less traffic. But it should still be viable.

Of course everyone, everywhere, hopes to unload crap. That doesn't explain the *difference* between PBS & BookMooch. The question is, what incentives are there to unload non-crap. I am suggesting that the shitty selection at BM (!) comes, not from an intrinsic inability of book exchanges to work because of the global Dan Brown glut, but (at least partly) from the combination of US and non-US members - although of course that's just one theory. BookMooch has gotten off balance because demand for (non-Dan Brown) books there greatly exceeds supply, and that is self-perpetuating. It's almost as if they had a large block of members who were demanding but not supplying :D. I'm sure they have many members like me and Bow, who only mail to BookMooch what PBS can't take. And that could throw the whole thing into a death spiral. Just having a lot of certain crappy books is not enough to kill a book exchange, any more than a few copies of Frampton Comes Alive are enough to kill as used record store.

Another thing that happens on PBS, that doesn't seem to happen on BookMooch, is that people will mail new books - remaindered books that they get for almost nothing, review copies, etc. There are various incentives for this - the books they can get with credits are worth more than what they paid for the remaindered books, people can actually sell credits (buying credits is cheaper than buying on Amazon, but this only helps in a robust market where there is good stuff to order), and/or they may want the credits to use on another exchange.

Where there are good things and a faith that things will become available, the system keeps getting stronger. Where there aren't, the market will keep getting worse. I think that the asymmetry between US and other users could be a factor that pushed BookMooch into a downward spiral.

Incidentally, the "swap-a-dvd" system does *not* work so well, though it's still better than BookMooch. I've gotten quite a few things, but I've had some trouble, and some things never come up, and some things I've ordered I now can't get rid of. I think there are a variety of factors there, that with even more thought could be illuminating.

Because I am always bored by all the things I am supposed to do, and need to exercise my brain!

[lolaraincoat]

Yep, you are right again! Hmmm. It's hard for me to compare the two exchanges, or to say that Bookmooch is any worse now than it was in September when I joined, but I believe you that PBS is better and that Bookmooch is failing, and that this is why.

I wonder if another, related problem is that books are so much more expensive in the rest of the anglophone world than they are in the US. People are less likely to give them away, maybe? On the other hand, that should weigh against the relatively high cost of postage ... so maybe not. But you don't see a lot of books left in laundry rooms, review copies at used book sales, etc. around here, for whatever reasons.

OK, I really have to do the work I'm avoiding right now!