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Title: Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 by Michael Korda ISBN: 0-7607-2559-4 Publisher: Barnes & Noble Books-Imports Pub. Date: December, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.62 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Wonderful, Cultural Insight
Comment: Michael Korda, editor in chief of Simon and Schuster, has collected lists of the bestselling books (fiction and non-fiction) for the entire 20th Century. He writes an essay leading into each decade's lists. His primary observation is that Americans read the same basic books over and over. For example, historical fiction dealing with the Civil War appears on the list via Winston Churchill (a Southern author, not the great British leader) in "The Crisis" in 1901; Margaret Mitchell, of course, made the list in 1936 and 1937 with "Gone With the Wind"; and in 1997, Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" rose to #2. Romantic novels, medical-themed novels, spiritually-themed novels, bodice-ripping novels (more and more explicit as the century advanced) all make continual reappearances. Books sell more and more despite the coming of the radio, then of movies, then of television, and then of the computer and the internet.
It is great fun for a reader to peruse the lists, remembering books read and books-meant-to-be-read. I was born in 1948 so the books and authors from the second half of the century are pretty familiar. For no good reason I've decided to read the nine bestsellers from my birthyear that I hadn't read. (Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" is easily the most prominent and I read it several years ago.) It will take some looking to find them, much less read them; but, it seems a silly, provocative task to undertake.
Every reader will get something different from "Making the List" and therin lies the fun!
Rating: 5
Summary: Well worth reading
Comment: It was on May 22, 1946, that I finished reading and enjoying Fifty Years of Best Sellers 1895-1945, by Alice Payne Hackett. So when I saw this book I thought it would be fun to read, and it is. The author incivisvely comments on the best seller lists during the 20th century, and of course it is fun to see which books one read were best sellers. I was surprised to see that I had read 101 books which were number 1 best sellers in a year, either in fiction or non-fiction. This surprised me since I do not use, or at least I have not for many years, the best seller list to decide what to read. It is also interesting to see which great books never made the list. For instance, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, I have thought an outstanding book ever since I read it back in 1981, and it won a Pulitzer Prize, but never made a year best seller list! If nothing else, this book will open your eyes to how much poor choosing some people do when they decide to buy a book...
Rating: 3
Summary: Review of Recorded Books on Tape version
Comment: This is not a book that lends itself to a good audio recording. Listening to the "text" portions of the books was fine - very enjoyable and very informative - however, it is impossible to listen to the lists of published books without getting bored. I ended up fast forwarding through the book lists and probably missed some of the text as well.
Yes, I recommend this book - but read it - don't listen to it.
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Title: The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read by Andre Schiffrin ISBN: 1859847633 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Book Business: Publishing: Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein ISBN: 0393049841 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Another Life : A Memoir of Other People by Michael Korda ISBN: 0385335075 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 09 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Charmed Lives: A Family Romance by Michael Korda ISBN: 0060085568 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: At Random : The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf by Bennett Cerf, Christopher Cerf ISBN: 037575976X Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 05 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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