I think there's an interesting phenomenon here how a lot of people get obsessed by producing a book. I have seen so many blogs by aspiring writers, and overhear

I think there's an interesting phenomenon here how a lot of people get obsessed by producing a book. I have seen so many blogs by aspiring writers, and overheard their conversations on trains, too. What drives people to do this? I think most of them don't hold much hope of becoming rich or famous: they understand that most writers need a day job. Perhaps for some reason they consider themselves inadequate until they are a published author. But why? Does it just follow from the way authors and publishers create a mystique in order to sell their wares? The mystique (if that's what it is) seems to be quite specific to being the author of a book. Writing a series of articles for a national newspaper or being a commercially successful screenwriter or ghost writer somehow isn't good enough, even if it's much more lucrative.