Posted on 08/21/2007 2:24:45 PM PDT by Nachum
In my dreams! It's not unusual for me to take a book to the latrine, but I'm usually followed by the cat and one or more children.
I like to say that my definition of "entertainment center" is a bathtub with a bookcase on one side and a refrigerator of champagne on the other!
I personally prefer biographies and military history, but my blue-haired daughter reads fantasy, science fiction, hunting-and-outdoors interest, politics and religion, and a couple of local newspapers.
I’ve seen Susan Cooper books around the house this summer, so somebody is reading them!
I find that children love books, especially if the books come with adult attention. Not just own kids, but also the ones I work with in Sunday School and Scouts.
Also "Half Price Books," although I spend more time waxing nostalgic with all the old vinyl LPs when I'm there.
Twilight is fantastic. You should follow it up with New Moon and Eclipse.
I read Raintree County, at least I tried to read it; I have judged every book since (about 41 years ago) on a 1 to RTC scale but I haven’t been to the library in over a year.
BTW, RTC is the highest mark possible on a range of difficulty; rather like the namesake film where they cast Montgomery Clift as the leading man, it has all been downhill since then.
When really stressed I go for the three B's. Book, beer & beach.
I just finished Eclipse the other day. I don’t want to have to wait another year for the rest. It was very good. If you go on her website, she has an excerpt of Twilight seen from Edward’s vision. It was enlightening.
Has she read Mists of Avalon? One of my all-time favorite reads, fantasy or otherwise. I read it every fall.
That looks familiar, too, but I don’t remember whether I’ve seen it in the house, or just on the library shelves!
Anoreth seems to be mainly checking out science fiction currently, “Star Wars” books and the technological type of space fiction. Bill’s on a spy fiction kick; it seems that’s a growing teen-fiction genre.
Depends on the book. Most books actually were never aimed at the every man, they were aimed at fans of the genre. You think Raymond Chandler ever tried to sell books to people that weren’t fans of pulp detective stories?
As for the prices while they have risen dollar for hour books are still the best entertainment value out there. Paperbacks cost about as much as a movie and take on average 5 times as long to read. In a time of $80 dollar concert tickets for stadium tours claiming $8 paperback are priced away from the “every man” is just silly.
I’m with you 100% MadameDufarge!
You hit the nail right on the head.
Love your response
Our favorite thing to do on vacation is go to as many used book stores in Florida as we can find. (and there are tons of them. Real treasures too. and read, read, read.
Apples and oranges. Chandler — although a good writer — was genre. Grapes of Wrath, on the other hand, was pretty much general fiction aimed at “every man.” Today, the general fiction list of most publishers is very sophisticated and aimed at the educated urban reader. And yes, there are exceptions.
p.s.
Look at a book like Blood Meridian. A brilliant book written by a guy who will probably win the Nobel Prize one day. McCarthy has probably sold fewer books in his entire career than folks who paid to see Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
And yet, our “dumb” President read 134 books last year.
Last night on the history Channel’s documentary about 9/11 conspiracy theories, they talked to a girl in the truther movement who looked a lot like Kelly...only after a lobotomy.
Want to make that herring a little more red. Do you realize how incredibly stupid it is to site some book nobody freaking heard of that’s some massive treatise on history as “proof” that books are a luxury?! You could buy hard covers of EVERY SINGLE Stephen King book, multiple copies even, for the price of that thing. Specialty books are NOT what anybody is talking about on this thread, and not even what YOU were talking about until you got desperate to have a point.
Let’s track Durasell in this thread. First he says books are a luxury. Then when called out on that being BS he says “no no I mean the time to read books”. Then it’s pointed out that that’s just as giant a stinking pile of horse manure and he goes off on some weird about stereotypes and in the process comes up with stereotypes that don’t actually exist (there simply is not a stereotype of the fit bookworm, maybe the Greeks might have had that stereotype but nobody since the birth of Christ has). Then he insists the luxury line came from some graphic artist and then spouts of on how book covers aren’t lurid anymore, which is really funny when you realize that Chip Kidd works with Frank Miller who’s the current reigning king of lurid books, on the cover and in the pages. And now you mention high priced specialty books, that are an incredibly minor niche in the book industry, as proof that books are a luxury? Dude you lost, you have no point, your statement was patently false and your attempts to defend have gone beyond strange to downright sophomoric and laughable. Walk away, you were wrong, and you know it.
No Grapes of Wrath had a target audience, people who are interested in poor share croppers, there really never has been and never will be a “general fiction” list, all that is is books they can’t slap a convenient label on. The modern “general fiction” list is just as broad as ever, from the stupid criminal stories of Elmore Leonard and his clones (and BTW these guys are very prolific writer and get a lot of their books turned to movies, they have a clear every man appeal) to whatever the hell it is John Updike writes. There really aren’t exceptions, because there is no rule. There are plenty of books for reasonable prices that the every man can read if he so choses.
What does Cormac McCarthy’s lack of success have to do with anything. The fact that he, called by some one of America’s most pretentious authors, isn’t writing for the every man has absolutely NOTHING to do with your original false statement that books are a luxury, nor does it have any to do with your statement that modern general fiction is geared towards an urban audience. McCarthy’s stuff might be geared towards that audience, but his lack of success shows he’s not part of the norm. You want books geared towards the everyman read Elmore Leonard, nice popcorn books about stupid people, and they sell well too.
I also read factual and fictional works unrelated to my profession to bring pleasure to the experience of reading. This provides a very welcomed balance to my relationship with reading.
I also find that the Bible is the only book that I have read over and over and learn something new every time. I can not say that about any other book that I have read in my life.
I usually read 5 to 7 novels during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays without it taking any time away from my family and religious obligations.
Sadly, I do agree with you and am also surprised that the number of people who read no books last year is not higher.
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