WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT WRITING A BOOK? 3

The subject of your book is not the most important thing.

I think we talk about the subject because of the bait that the generous people who ask us about what we do (writing a book) usually ask us. What these people usually ask is: “And what is the subject of your book?”

But that is not the right question.

Much better questions would be:

“Why do you want to write that book?” Not “why do you want to write a book” because your book is not “a book.” It is your book.

Another good question is: “Who will benefit from your book, and how will it benefit them?”

The next one is more like the beginning of an interview or an interrogation: “And how are you organizing it? Do you already have the index or how are you going to order and present the topics?”

Another good question: “And is it like a documentary, or like an Adam Sandler movie, or like a Christopher Nolan movie, or what is it like?”

A few days ago a friend was telling me that, when people find out that he reads a lot, the question they invariably ask him is “And what is your favorite book?”

On each occasion my friend is confused.

Because he doesn’t have “one” favorite book.

There is no “one” book that has everything he wants to know, or that tells him everything he is curious about or everything that at some point he knows he should learn.

The question “What is your favorite book?” is as misleading as “What is your favorite food?”

If from this day forward and for the rest of your life, absolutely all the foods you eat were solely and exclusively “your favorite food,” how long would it take for you to be disgusted?

That notion of “favorite food” is confusing. Ambiguous.

The truth is that no one really has such a thing as a “favorite food.”

The question “What is your favorite book?” is just as tricky.

The “favorite book” question is not a good icebreaker either. Any of the others not only goes further and deeper, but any of them makes the conversation that can start by pure chance richer and even more important. With these questions, neither you nor the other person will easily forget.

We should talk like women dress up in front of the mirror. What is important is not what you wear but the flirtatiousness, the malice, the dart you prepare to shoot. Not even reporters prepare their questions like that. So, I really think that to ask a question you have to put yourself in the shoes of a woman who is going out before those of a reporter working.

The subject of your book is actually impoverishing the vision, the image that your book projects.

It is badly applied makeup.

I am going to the book about Qatar that I wrote.

If I answer, “The topic of my book is the contemporary history of Qatar,” the person who politely asks me at that moment reduces his interest.

Because he automatically thinks: “Wow, that topic, on a scale of 1 to 10, interests me…” Of course, he will never tell you that, but he will politely ask you one or two more questions… and walk away.

When I think about it, I who wrote the book on Qatar feel the same as that person who would leave me alone.

I did not plan to write “a book on the contemporary history of Qatar.” That information already exists on Wikipedia. It is what the AIs give you in seconds if you ask them.

I wanted to… discover Qatar.

I wanted to get into the heads of the people who do it.

What do you mean by “get into their heads?”

Maybe this image will help: as a child, I believed that the inside of houses was the same. That all houses, even if they looked different on the outside, were the same as mine on the inside. The first time I went into a friend’s house, I was really surprised by how different they were, and how many different things they could have. And that painting? Why do they have that furniture? And who uses that tiny chair? Why so many/so few decorations? Etc.

Travelers know what I’m talking about. You don’t travel to see the same thing that’s in your city. Staying in a hotel is not getting to know a country.

What you’re looking for are the strange things.

What sat me down at the table to write it was a richer, secret, fun curiosity.

Arabs have always seemed exotic to me. I understand that that word is not politically correct. Ok.

Arabs have always seemed exotic to me. In everything. For everything. I once bought a book about Arab culture that I opened with enthusiasm. The very first sentence in the book was: “Arab culture is not so different from Western culture and shares many features.”

I threw the book in the trash.

It’s the only time I’ve done that.

The book offended me.

The Arabs are not like us. They eat, pray, dress, love, speak, sing, work differently and differently.

Many years later, with that same spirit, the 2022 FIFA World Cup made me pay attention… to the Arabs.

And I remembered the anecdote I told you.

Being aware that you are writing because of something you don’t know at first is the most difficult thing about writing a book.