Newsworthy

I've actually been doing a little reading of a journalistic nature lately. The May 27th edition of The New York Times (the Technology section, no less) carried an article entitled ForSome,The Blogging Never Stops. It's all about people who are obsessed with their blogs, update them several times a day, work on them while they're on vacation, etc. etc. Yeah, I know, that is totally not me. But since I have been writing about my blog lately, I saw a connection. Of sorts.

The April 19th issue of Newsweek ran a short article that caught my eye. Probably because it was in one of those little colored boxes. So I cut it out and left it on my desk where I found it last week. Okay, enough build up. It was called "Will Chopra, Like, Sell?" Deepak Chopra has written a book called Fire in the Heart: A Spiritual Guide for Teens. Now, of course, I have heard of Deepak Chopra, but even after going to his website I can't figure out what exactly he does. Other than spiritual stuff, I guess. And the only info I can find about Fire in the Heart is located at sites that are selling it. I can't find any independent reviews right now.

But none of that really matters, because what really interests me about Fire in the Heart is that it's part of what I'm thinking of as a mini-phenomena--successful writers of adult self-help books moving into a teen market. You have your Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books (a whole series) and your Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens books. I'm assuming there are more of these sorts of titles because I'm one of those people who always seems to know only about the tip of the iceberg, if you can follow that analogy.

I haven't read these books, and I'm not knocking them. I read my share of the old self-help volumes, too. I'm particularly partial to books on creativity and how to blog more and faster. I mean write more and faster. I just find it interesting that this is happening. Everyone seems to want to write for young people these days...actors, singers, self-help authors.

What does it all mean?