the royal "we".

i hate bringing up the topic of the royal wedding, as i am sick to death of it as i'm sure you all are, but through my sleepy-dust caked peepers this morning a little snippet caught my eye on the bbc news.

ten days following the announcement of their engagement, a book about kate and wills is to be sold in bookshops, supermarkets and other such retail outlets across the land. this is the very first one apparently with seven more currently in the making and more on the way nearer the time of the wedding.

talk on the news this morning focused on how this book would kind of sit alongside the good old cups, plates and tea towel ensemble in terms of commemorative use. the most interesting thing spoken about between the bbc journalist and the very eager publisher was the fact that a book was considered over any sort of commemorative electronic publication straight away.

the publisher cited the reason for this being that people want something physical to own. they crave the book as a collector's item, something that they can leaf through at their own leisure, maybe not even immediately, but perhaps a few years after the event has passed. an electronic resource would not cut it at this point.

to me it seems the kind of people that demand this type of commemorative book would be part of that patriotic, monarchy-obsessed section of society. like having the book, despite the inevitable poor quality of content (no book put together in ten days is going to be a literary masterpiece), is a status symbol that allows one to be part of their exclusive tribe. this is the most fascinating part of the whole thing.

i know i won't be buying this book... but i like the idea of tribes and books.