short author bios on books

content/post/2023/09/short-author-bios-on-books.md

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+---
+title: "Short Author Bios on Books"
+date: 2023-09-14T11:30:00+02:00
+categories:
+  - braindump
+tags:
+  - books
+  - reading
+---
+
+Speaking of Mary Karr (see [On Revisiting Media](/post/2023/09/on-revisiting-media/)), my eyes semi-automatically zoomed in on her author bio on the back of _The Art of Memoir_ as it somehow is longer than the summary of the book itself:
+
+> Mary Karr is the author of three award-winning, best-selling memoirs: _The Liars' Club_, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; _Cherry_, which was selected as a "notable book" by book reviews nationwide; and _Lit_, which was one of the _New York Times Book Review's_ Ten Best Books of the Year and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, Karr has won Pushcart Prizes for both verse and essays. She is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University. 
+
+What was that all about? I have no idea what a _Guggenheim Fellow_ is, let alone a _Peck Professor_ , but it sure sounds important. Additionally, the _"notable book" by book reviews nationwide_ part---with added quotes, no less---comes across as "we don't have anything on _Cherry_ so let's just write this". I presume this long-winded bio is supposed to wow potential readers, but to be honest, to me, it comes across as smug. 
+
+Let's take a look at a few other author bios of books that are within my reach. This should be fun! 
+
+Danny Gregory's _The Creative License_:
+
+> Danny Gregory is the author of several books, including an illustrated memoir, _Everyday Matters_. Tens of thousands of creative aspirants regularly visit his weblog, _www.dannygregory.com_, he has created illustrations for numerous books and magazines and is the creative director of many award-winning global advertising campaigns. Danny lives in Greenwich Village with his wife and son. 
+
+More usage of the term _award-winning_, of course, although a bit more down-to-earth. The purpose of these blurbs seems to be trying to evoke a feeling of grandeur? _You're holding something precious here, dear reader, this person is well-decorated!_
+
+Dietmar Sternad's _Solve It!_:
+
+> Dr Dietmar Sternad is a multiple award-winning management professor with a passion for teaching his students how to become smart problem solvers. He has faced a lot of problems (and has been able to solve quite a few) as a media executive, researcher, entrepreneur, management consultant, and father of two children. 
+
+Award-winning! A few more of those and the term loses its significance, doesn't it? Some folks also like clinging to their (doctoral) titles. If you're a professor, you've got a PhD, no need to add the "dr." prefix or ", PhD" suffix. You're already _Certified Smart_ enough. It also seems good to mention as much professional titles as possible.
+
+Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman's _Lives of the Stoics_:
+
+> Ryan Holiday is one of the world's foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its space in everyday life. He is a sought-after speaker and strategist, and is the author of many bestselling books including _The Daily Stoic_, _The Obstacle is the Way_, _Ego is the Enemy_ and _Stillness is the Key_. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and read by over three million people worldwide. He lives outside Austin, Texas, with his family. 
+
+As expected, more boasting. Is _best-selling_ better or worse than _award-winning_? When it comes to the wallet, I'd say the former. We're starting to see a pattern here folks! 
+
+Will it hold true for more technical books, like _The Go Programming Language_ from Alan A. A. Donovan and Brain W. Kernighan?
+
+> Alan A. A. Donovan is a member of Google's Go team in New York. He hold computer science degrees from Cambridge and MIT and has been programming in industry since 1996. Since 2005, he has worked at Google on infrastructure projects and was the co-designer of its proprietary build system, Blaze. He has built many libraries and tools for static analysis of Go programs, including `oracle`, `godoc-analysis`, `eg`, and `gorename`. 
+
+A slightly different approach here. This reads a bit like a heavily compressed CV. Potential readers are scanning for technical certificates of expertise, I guess. It doesn't say whether or not Blaze was a best-seller though! These days, is having "a member of Google's [whatever] team" on there a good or a bad thing?
+
+Carol Dweck's _Mindset_:
+
+> DR CAROL S. DWECK is widely regarded as one of the world's leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology and developmental psychology. Her work has been featured in such publications as the _New Yorker_, _The Times_, and the _Guardian_. 
+
+This pocket format doesn't leave a lot of room resulting in a short bio that still leaves you mesmerized: world-renowned, woah! Admittedly, Dweck's _Mindset_ is hugely popular. Perhaps I should stop buying books from people that already sell like hot cakes.
+
+All right, one more. Michael Booth's _Sushi & Beyond_:
+
+> Michael Booth is a travel writer and journalist who contributes regularly to _Condé Nast Traveller_, the _Independent on Sunday_ and _Monocle_, among many other publications at home and abroad. His last book, _Doing Without Delia_, was Book of the Week on Radio 4.
+
+How about that, Book of the Week on Radio 4! Without context, for me in Belgium, that's... completely useless. We do have a local Radio 2 though. Again, we see a neat list of things he's contributed to, leading us to believe Booth is a competent travel writer (he is).  
+
+---
+
+Perhaps I should revise my own author bio on _The Creative Programmer_. This is what's printed now:
+
+> Wouter Groeneveld is a software engineer and computer science education researcher at KU Leuven, where he researchers the importance of creativity in software engineering. 
+
+Where's that best-selling flash? Where's the list-of-amazing-things this author has done before? What about degrees? Surely this can be improved upon! Here's an attempt:
+
+> Dr. Wouter Groeneveld holds a PhD in Engineering Technology and MSc in Computer Science and is a distinguished software engineer who's worked in various roles in industry since 2007, from technical lead to development coach. He's currently a computer science education researcher at KU Leuven, where he published in top tier venues such as ACM's _Transactions on Computing Education_. His Dutch bread baking book _Red Zuurdesem_ appeared on many notable "tip of the week" post-it notes. 
+
+Ahh. Much better.