Last week I was interviewed for a documentary film about books. The concept behind the film is that a dude is driving a Bookmobile around the country, stopping in towns to ask people questions about books and reading; they get a free book in exchange. Different authors drive the bus and do the interviews in different cities, and everyone gets to talk about what books mean to them.
It’s a great idea, and I had fun in the interview. I talked about my job and what we do and why I think it’s important, I talked about my college obsession with the short story, and I talked about a few books that had meant a lot to me because they connected me with other people.
So I was super bummed to see that the website for the project totally blows. The background, oh my god, the wallpaper background. Maybe it’s supposed to seem nice and old-fashioned, but it seems like the better approach would be a clean layout that doesn’t look like a crappy family blog.
Don’t take this to mean that I wouldn’t be excited to be included in the documentary, though I’m sure my large hand gestures and tendency to look at the camera and not the interviewer have knocked me out of the running there. But moral of the story: don’t have a good idea and then build a website that sucks. The end.