Blog Post 5

In my mind a book has to be 99.9% true to be considered non fiction. I understand that it may be hard to remember things accurately and sometimes when we tell our story we embellish slightly but not to the point of altering events or adding new ones. Half-truths are not ok, however 7/9 truths are more tolerable. Frey and Mortenson should be punished for their books because they lied to increase the profit for themselves. Especially Frey, since the only way he could get his book sold and make money was to falsely publish it as a memoir. I disagree with David Shields because genres are very helpful to readers. I believe mixing genres is ok but you can’t mix non-fiction with fiction or else it is no longer non-fiction but instead “based on a true story”. I like genres because I find the ones I like and then I can get books that are in that category for future reading. I used to have a set paper I wrote for all of my English classes about a time when I got locked in a hotel pool and “escaped”, and every year it was more and more embellished to make a better story. I stopped doing that in 9^th grade. These authors acted as middle schoolers and high schoolers when they wrote their books and they got published! Plus they are rich now because of it and well known. I don’t believe that’s fair, I believe that their books should be banned from being printed anymore and all of the sales should be donated to a charity instead of going into a liar’s pocket. If you can’t write a book good enough to be a fiction novel, then write a new one, don’t lie. I’m sure if JK Rowling decided to say Harry Potter was based on her nephew’s life and people were stupid enough to believe it then she would be that much richer.