Overzealous Book Report: The Book With No Pictures

The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak is an exploration of free will, control, power, and expectations.

At first it appears that it is a boring book, like grownup books are because they don’t have pictures. Just as that is not true for all grownup books, that’s not true for this book. It is anything but boring.

The pivotal line is, “Here is how books work: Everything the words say the person reading the book has to say. No matter what.” This is not just any book. This book controls the reader. It is true that literally the reader could put the book down, but that would defy societal expectations. If a kid asks you to read a silly book you are expected to read that book. This book also writes out the reader’s supposed reactions to having to read this absurdity. The reader protests and complains about having to read all of the pages.

One is reminded of the Milgram experiment where the subject was asked by the scientist to give ever increasing shocks to an unseen person. The subject could have said no and stopped at anytime and the majority of them protested but still went all the way to the highest shock. Just as in Novak’s book the stakes appeared high but ended up not being as high as they appeared. Unfortunately that does not make the implications any less dire.