A book v. a tome
How to avoid the latter, plus my weekly shareables: a riveting new podcast, a pit bull savior, and two TV comebacks
Here’s a question that popped up in my head when I was in the shower: When does a book cross over into being a tome?
I never knew exactly what tome means, so I looked it up. It’s meant to mean a scholarly book, especially a volume that’s part of a larger work. It can also just mean a large book. There’s a sense that you can tell a tome just from the sound it makes when you drop it on your desk. The deeper the tone, the more likely a tome.
But there’s a more subtle definition, too. A tome doesn’t necessarily have to be heavy. It just has to READ heavy. I’ve read a bunch of 500-word newspaper columns that felt like tomes. Probably written a few, too.
This is a question I’m constantly dealing with as I work on my Westminster Dog Show book (which I might have mentioned once or twice in this newsletter). I know SO MANY FACTS about dogs and the dog-show world now. I’ve been to dozens of shows, read a whole bookcase of books, browsed hundreds (maybe thousands) of news stories and academic papers. There’s a great temptation to fire those facts at you, the reader, like T-shirts from one of those cannons at a basketball game. It feels good for a couple of reasons: one, to show off what I’ve learned, and two, to fill the pages.
But you do that for very long and pretty soon the book becomes a tome.
Maybe that’s the distinction. When I teach news writing, I talk about the difference between an article and a story: An article is a collection of facts, and a story is a collection of facts with a point. Maybe a tome is just a book that doesn’t seem to be taking you anywhere.
(It’s also like what Lewis Grizzard used to say about naked v. nekkid: naked means you don’t have any clothes on, and nekkid means you don’t have any clothes on and you’re up to something.)
So even a short book can be a tome. And there are really long ones—real desk-thumpers—that never cross over. Every Harry Potter book is longer than the one before, but I don’t think many readers would call them tomes. Stephen King, either. (Do the Robert Caro LBJ books qualify? Maybe they’re the exception to the rule—tomes that read like regular books.)
I’d love to hear from y’all about this. In the meantime, let me get back to writing my book. Which is definitely not a tome. I hope.
10 things I wanted to share this week:
I was really jacked to post the latest episode of SouthBound with my guest Bomani Jones, who launches a new season of his show GAME THEORY Friday night on HBO. Bomani and I talked about masculinity and the NFL; navigating the small-town South; Coach K’s reign of terror on black America; and lots, lots more.
My weekly for WFAE was about how the miracle of flight doesn’t feel so miraculous anymore.
My friend Amy Wallace is the co-host of a new podcast called RIVETED, which explores the magic of great storytelling. I got totally caught up in the first episode, which features Jennifer Senior—she goes in-depth on her Pulitzer-winning story about a family still searching for answers 20 years after 9/11.
And if you haven’t read that story, go change your life right now.
DOG NEWS: While I work on my book, I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: From Theoden Janes at my home paper, a story about a woman’s devotion—and donation—to caring for pit bulls.
Congrats to my buddy Justin Heckert for wining a New York Videogames Critics Circle award for his Vanity Fair piece on a strange and heartbreaking video-game heist.
I’ll admit that I’ve never read the Judy Blume book, but the movie version of ARE YOU THERE GOD IT’S ME MARGARET was shot here in Charlotte, so I’m officially intrigued.
Teaser #1 that made me very happy this week: SHORESY is coming back.
Teaser #2 that made me very happy this week: TED LASSO is coming back. Photo from Apple TV:
The way the villainous Rupert looms in the background gives it a real STAR WARS feel.
I wrote about “Missing” by Everything But The Girl last week … for some reason that song pairs in my head with another of my favorite songs, “All Around the World” by Lisa Stansfield. So I listened to that one a lot this week. Here she is performing for an adoring crowd at the Apollo Theater.
See y’all next week, everybody.
The story about the stolen video games intrigued me, and also made me unreasonably angry at the perpetrator because the damage seemed so senseless. I’d really like to know what his story is, and how he knew about the safe.
May our lives, and bookshelves, be free of tomes!