How Far Can We Go? Ask Brett.
May 28, 2009
Congratulations to Brett Salkeld — one of our newest contributors at Vox Nova — and his co-author (and friend to both of us) Leah Perrault on the publication of their new (and first!) book How Far Can We Go? A Catholic Guide to Sex and Dating. (Buy your copy direct from the publisher, Novalis, not from Amazon!)
Look for an interview with Brett here soon, where he will tell us more about the book.
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Congrats, Brett!
Since I am neither a teen nor someone who deals with teens, I don’t plan on reading the book. But as a former teen, I am still curious to know the answer. Can someone please tell us how far you can go on a date? I am guessing the book says it’s the wrong question to ask rather than gives quantitative answers like, “Kisses may last 5 seconds, with at least 7 minutes between and a maximum of 4 an hour.”
Congrats, Brett, on your publication! Especially because it appears to tackle a sensitive issue that a lot of young Catholics need some guidance on. I hope that you’ll be interested in discussing it here a bit.
If I may, though, can I ask about the title (assuming that you’re reading this)? It seems to portray church teaching on sexuality and relationships in a negative sense — here are a bunch of rules about stuff that you can’t do. But if you don’t do them, you’re ok, I guess. I’m hoping that the body of the text contains a more positive vision of the Christian ideal of love — both of the romantic and non-romantic variety — that we should be striving for.
David,
You really should pick it up. I think you’d love chapter three where we totally dismantle the lame, “Oh that’s the wrong question, what you really need to ask is “How pure can we be?”" as well as “quantitative” answers. We’ve got something better than either, in our own estimation at least.
Bill,
Publishers pick titles that sell books. I think that you will find just what you’re looking for.
Brett
PS. I cannot put much time into defending what the book says here. That’s why I wrote a book! I encourage people to read it. My guess is you’ll like it.
Point of interest: you’ll have to click on ‘English’ in the top right corner of the Novalis website, and then watch for the book on the left under ‘Just Published’.
Also, it’s dirt cheap. Less than $10 CDN.
Thanks, Brett. Having occasionally written for periodicals, I know how that happens. I guess I didn’t realize that it happens for books too!
Brett,
Make it available on the Kindle, and I will read it. If your publisher won’t have it converted, you can probably ask them for the files and do it yourself. Or maybe you even submitted files and have them in hand.
Note that Amazon has the title as How Far Can You Go? Have that fixed!
Hi David,
I don’t know what the Kindle is. In any case, it sounds like a breach of my contract with the publisher. If you’re not interested enough to see what we actually say, that’s your business. However, given the little amount of time I can spare to defend what I say in the book, you can imagine how little I have to defend what I don’t say.
Keep your eyes on Vox Nova, and you’ll get a sense of what I’m about for free. There are also libraries. With any luck it will be available in some of them in a few months, especially if patrons are making requests.
I’ll let the publisher know about the Amazon error. Thanks for the pointer.
Brett
Brett — Amazon also has the author listed as “Perrault & Salkeld” without your first names, which probably makes it harder to find through the search. I had to enter the ISBN to get it to come up…
I don’t know what the Kindle is. In any case, it sounds like a breach of my contract with the publisher.
Brett,
The Kindle is Amazon’s portable electronic book reader. I did not mean to suggest you try to sell an electronic version of the book yourself. What I meant to say was you could have your publisher convert the book to Kindle format, or you could probably do it yourself for the publisher. I have worked in the publishing industry since I graduated from college, so I would be among the last to advise an author to go behind his publisher’s back.
One of the advantages of the Kindle is that it’s hooked into a wireless network, and when you buy a book, you have it within a few minutes.
One of us should do a post on the Kindle. It’s a really interesting product and I’m sure I would find it very handy. But I am suspicious of it, for many reasons: some based on this kind of technology itself and its relation to the publishing industry and some related to the fact that Amazon controls the formatting and distribution…
Thanks for the info David. My Canadian publisher is in Chicago right now looking for an American partner, to help crack the American market. I have a meeting with him next week about marketing and I will see if Kindle is on our radar at all.
Sorry if I misinterpreted you. If you look back at my last response you will discern that I had the impression your Kindle request meant you didn’t want to pay for it. Being up to date on technology is not my strength. If it does become available on Kindle, you’ll hear it here.
Brett