Talk:One for the Road (B.C. Tørrissen book)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The author of this page has removed the dated prod tag inserted by the Wikipedia administrator Rettetast. The reasoning for the tag removal follows here.
[edit] Motion summary
I put forward that this article belongs on Wikipedia because:
- The book is a work of notability, as argued below.
- There's no "conflict of interest" here. This is non-commercial information that can be of use and/or interest to various people for a number of reasons. The contents are of encyclopedic nature, and although I have an "intimate relationship" with the book, I gain nothing from others reading either the article or the book. Any gain is all on the reader's side.
- I have done my best to make the article suitably comprehensive and definitely neutral, following the pattern laid down in articles about similar books, such as Neither Here Nor There and Notes from a Small Island. As should be expected by information found on Wikipedia, the article is purely factual, and the validity of the information can be verified through the references in the article.
I have read Wikipedia's guidelines, and I honestly find that this is qualified Wikipedia content. I am of course willing to adjust/improve the article in any way deemed necessary by a qualified authority. Just point out on this discussion page what needs to be done, if anything. If any Wikipedia policy appears to be broken, please indicate which one(s).
[edit] Further discussion regarding notability
"A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable resources that are independent of the subject."
The book in Norwegian received coverage and reviews from resources that indeed were independent of both the book and the author, such as the travel Web site Reiseliv [1] and newspapers Adresseavisen[2] and Brønnøysunds Avis[3].
The English edition is early in it's life cycle, but it is likely that similar attention will be paid also to this edition. Even books that haven't been published yet (2008 in Literature) are articled on Wikipedia, so this may classify as an allowable "breach" of the "Notability is not temporary" rule.
Furthermore, the book is in no way an autobiographical work or a text mainly about the author, but an account of experiences had at the places that are visited and about independent travel in general.
The fact that the book is published by Lulu.com, which isn't a traditional publishing house, doesn't mean that the book is a piece of amateur work. There's strong evidence that the author wants the contents to be freely available to anyone, at no cost. Unlike most publishers, Lulu allows this. If this sounds dubious to Wikipedia administrators, before making up your mind, please have a look at the actual book, which can be downloaded as described in the article, and see for yourself that this is "a real book". When neutral reviews from reliable resources appear on-line, I will of course add references to them.
If these arguments are inconclusive, please consider whether this is a case where Wikipedia's first rule applies: "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it". There's a long tradition in encyclopedias for giving at least a short mention of books that people may inquire about for a wide range of reasons. Granted, in previous times usually only major works of historical importance would be mentioned in encyclopedias, but this limitation is unnecessary on the infinite Internet. Especially when it comes to books of a narrow genre like travel literature.
Finally, I'd like to note that I haven't registered on Wikipedia just to create this page. I have contributed to a number of articles during a long period, both anonymously and while logged in, and I have put many of my photographs up for free use at the Wikimedia Commons.
[edit] References
Author and Wikipedian uspn (talk) 12:26, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
