--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "jacquesdebierue"
<jacquesdebierue@...> wrote:
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "foxbrick" <foxbrick@>
wrote:
>
> > Mario, not only that (and that's true of much
simpler novels, as
> > well, including the likes of, say, Jackie
Susann's YARGO or, I
> > suspect, Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES), but
also you're
making
> > the mistake of confusing official "bestsellers"
with books that
> > customers, as opposed to bookstore chains and
distributors, are
> > actually buying.
>
> Yes, I was referring at the bestseller lists that
the NY Times
> publishes, for example.
Sadly, so am I.
> >
> > And then there's the "weighting" that the
compilers of such
lists
> > make so as to distort the list in favor of
"worthier" books.
> >
> > It's a remakably corrupt process, to no
compellingly good end.
> >
> > And, Nathan, some people might well want
complex or novel
> > novels...but not on a beach or in an
airplane.
>
> How do they weight the list in favor of "worthier"
books? Aren't
these
> lists based on reported sales by a sampling of
bookstores?
The key word being "reported." Both the reporting stores and
the lists' assemblers tend to discount books they don't
approve of, notably paperback romances, and tend to inflate
the comparitive sales of books they wish to promote. Not
always more sophisticated work, either. Though often work the
publishers have paid well for.
> As to complexity, even Conrad, a popular writer in
his day, seems
too
> complex for many contemporary readers. I've lent
people Conrad
novels
> and have them complain that the stuff was too hard.
And Conrad is
> nowhere nearly as hard as Gaddis or Faulkner in full
form. Conrad's
> sentences are pretty straightforward, though the
psychology of his
> characters is complex.
Well, there's Conrad and there's Conrad, too, although it's
not as profound as the difference between, say, Melville's
South Seas novels and his later work.
Ross Macdonald wasn't as popular as Mickey Spillane, but was
popular...and some people apparently complain of his dull
slowness these days...and I suspect similar poeple back when
could and did make the same complaint.
Todd Mason
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