Yes it’s real. Apparently it’s not selling well because the venn diagram of “Mr Beast fans” and “people who read” are two circles that just barely touch.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
52 points (81.0% liked)
Books
8527 readers
38 users here now
A community for all things related to Books.
Rules
- Be Nice. No personal attacks or hate speech.
- No spam. All posts should be related to discussion or reviews related to books. (Please avoid posts that are just a link to the book and a generic summary)
- No self promotion.
Official Bingo Posts:
Related Communities
- !books@piefed.world (Piefed Sibling Community)
- !comicbooks@lemmy.world
- !fantasy@lemmy.ml
Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
His target audience are minors, so that tracks.
Do minors not read anymore? I read a lot as a kid.
unfortunately😔 it seems to be the case
😔
Somewhat unrelated but to some of the ebook stats, and I'm Gen Z, but tbh you can download any classics for free on Project Gutenberg while you gotta look for and spend money on a physical book.
My kids read constantly; but none of their friends do, AFAIK.
load more comments
(8 replies)
"I never read any books when I was growing up" is a sentence I would definitely keep to myself as an adult.
Maybe I'm too judgy, but my first reaction will probably always be "Yeah, now that you say it it's quite apparent."
“I never read any books when I was growing up”
in rural areas
some folks are proud to be ignorant. there is an aversion to literacy. James Stephen, a rich white kid, grew up in one of those North Carolina areas.
I saw him read a book when he was a kid. The dictionary. For like 24 hours straight on a webcam.
Oof, you weren't even kidding.
People somehow don't realize how MrBeast got his start. He performed superhuman feats of boredom and endurance to get his channel certified. I seem to recall he counted to a million in another stream. I was really confused when the popular media started talking about someone I knew as a sideshow freak in a similar genre to LA Beast. The guy isn't dealing with the normal human configuration of brain goo. His relationship with human suffering is fucking WEIRD. It's like he's lost the ability to comprehend what it is, and he just walks around faking it. It kinda scares me that he is so powerful now. Both in the immediate, "he's going to fuck shit up," sense, and also as a microcosm.
I did not read a book for pleasure until I was in my thirties. It's not something I brag about or am ashamed of. It does not reflect of my intelligence or attitudes. It is just a fact of my life.
Today I have the luxury of being able to read a lot, and I am thankful for that.
TL;DR: talk a bunch of shit about James Patterson, but the dude puts his money where his mouth is.
My partner is a retired bookseller. There's a lot of history and context over which I'm hand-waving. But Patterson has an annual [thing] wherein he awards a grant to employees of an independent bookstore for that employee's cause du jour. I forget the numbers, but it's significant. Like... life-changing quantities of money relative to the bookseller's position and proposal.
My partner has won the James Patterson annual award for [some things she was getting into before we met] about five (seven?) times. She is assed out and is not responding to my poking her to ask. Patterson has funded things like my partner's hand-painted/drawn shelf-talkers, even if they weren't for his books. Patterson funded my partner's friend's launch of an independent bookstore.
Hate on Patterson all you want (oh... and I do). But the dude really gives back.
That's nice and all, but then there is the fact that he partnered up with Mr. Beast about a book.
I think I might be one of three people on the internet that doesn't know a damned thing about Mr Beast. So, I'm guessing this partnership is some really bad thing for some reason?
I thought Patterson, like a lot of fiction genre authors was a pseudonym that's shared by many different authors.
Not hating on that, I think it makes it cooler but I wonder how they decide what to donate
Saw some people go through it and it has pretty much all the markers for shitty AI writing. Em-dashes, 'it's not just x, it's y', rules of three, everything. It's AI slop.
I'm convinced that James Patterson isn't a real author. I was a huge fan of Maximum Ride as a teenager. Honestly, looking back, it had the obvious fingerprints of a team of ghostwriters all over it. A disjointed plot that just kept going, ballooning plotholes, forgotten powers and abilities. Hell, the main character's hair even changed color for no apparent reason.
He's always been just a cheap brand.
Tbf he has a point. Getting to read something you like vs having to for an assignment can be very souring.
Can't be worse than teens reading the fountain head either.
We don't think teens want to read at all, esp. his addicted demographic.
Both my kids (13 and 11) aren’t fans of reading, but there are some books they can’t put down (One Piece and Jujutsu Kaizen manga). And honestly, I’m all for it if it gets them excited about reading and not glued to their screens.
I even read the books once they are done with them. It’s kinda like a little book club. 🤷♂️
~My only complaint is that the selection at the library is thin and incomplete.~
time to complete the library then😁
load more comments
(1 replies)
I don't know if this is real, but James Patterson is known for partnering with famous people to write books with them. My impression (guess) is that he does the writing while they provide inspiration. I read both the books he did with Bill Clinton. The first one was okay. The second one was forgettable. Or maybe it was the other way around. I can't recall which was which. Maybe they were both mid at best?
He's done a few that had me curious. I just don't find his writing to be all that great. The story can hook you, but if you forget it shortly after, did it really make an impact?
Also, I don't fault MrBeast for saying books were boring growing up. They didn't pick fun books in anybody's school, I believe. We were not taught to enjoy books. We were taught to enjoy movies and video games. We were taught that books were boring. That's a failing of our education.
The thing is james patterson barely writes his own books anymore. At this point his popularity just sorta has its own momentum. So slapping his name on a book that a team of writers or ai vomits out is guaranteed sales.
I never considered AI writes his books. Would we even know?
It is: status/2094837479861792791
I recommend the original although:
So this is the original, I liked the mildly enjoyable Ice-T and Gary Busey movie Surviving The Game.
I don't think I've seen a book written by just Paterson in a long while. It's all co-writes.
IIRC, I think Paterson has always been a team of ghost writers.
He has a very successful series of YA called Maximum Ride and he has done a ton of thrillers.
Hi. I was a Maximum Ride fan as a teenager.
It's ghostwritten. And not by just one author, it's ghostwritten by a couple of them. Plot points get forgotten, powers and abilities just change without warning, characters start making erratic decisions, and the status quo varies from book to book. Hell, Max's hair even changes color once for no particular reason.
That's quite hilarious and I hope, if Hollywood driven by their desperation decices to make a Maximum Ride movie, then in it now and then Max switches hair color with no apparent reason and without anyone addressing it.
Oh, they did make one. It was okay, honestly.
Oh, I know. My wife loves them. I mean, recently, most of his books have been him and someone else. Full marks haven't really gone to him in a while.
Is it yet another ripoff of squid game?
It is the best seller in amazon's Men's Adventure Fiction.
I love the comment, I hope it is satire.
I wish he wrote more in the Daniel X series that first one was one of my favorite sci fi books of all time growing up.
view more: next ›