Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful, Cultural Insight, December 26, 2001
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!
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MAYBE MICHAEL'S MASTERPIECE, November 18, 2001
Michael Korda is not sanguine on the turn best-seller book publishing took in the 1990s. "At the end of the day,"Korda writes " the bestseller lists of the nineties made for relatively depressing reading, except to accountants. In fiction it became enormously difficult to break through the sheer weight of numbers generated by perhaps two dozen. or fewer, top writers who virtually dominated the list, and in nonfiction. a range of celebrities , merchandise, and self-help books that made it equally hard for all but the most exceptional book to get to the list."
You will learn much about the publishing and bookselling industries-- as well as America's reading habits for the past 100 years -from this delightfully candid and witty work.. I admire many of Korda's books,- the thirteen that he's written (eight nonfiction, five novels) and more than a few of the hundreds that he's edited. (And this I can prove.! I spent seven years of my own life writing a biography of one of his famous authors.) However with all that Korda-(possessor of unsinkable intellect and energy, even in the face of prostate cancer-) has previously contributed to our insider knowledge of books and publishing , MAKING THE LIST is his most indispensable work. You might not think so at first because it is short and so much fun to read, but the distilled knowledge, observations and insights of his long career (which began in 1958) may leave you with (a) an enriched understanding of the relative place in the world of some of your favorite books and authors, (b) a savvy historic view of where modern publishing came from , and where it may or may not be going., (c)comprehension of those historic periods (by decade) which resemble one another culturally, and those which clash. ( For example, hot sex is pretty much gone from mainstream commercial novels right now. In this regard today's fiction could be at home in 1895, when the first list was started, and vice versa...) With Korda as your guide you will learn how the parameters of best-sellerdom rise and fall...and rise.: as the only editor with the distinction of having himself written a number one hardcover bestseller
(on the annual bestseller list of Publishers Weekly) Korda reveals that this book ,POWER! ,earned its top spot with a net sale around 200,000 ,after returns, although there were 350,000 in print. Today the top nonfiction title would sell at least three or four times that amount.... In some eras nonfiction sold more than fiction, but nowadays (in case you haven't noticed) the brand name new-title-every -year novelists virtually have a "lockhold "on the list, often achieving hardcover sales in the millions....Thirty or forty years ago it was expected that the hardcover book business was almost terminal- except for libraries. Today, many books sell more in hardcover than in paperback. The price differential is small enough that readers don't want to wait.
Korda closes MAKING THE LIST with the observation that the bestseller list defines what Americans are reading: "Like a mirror, it reflects who we are what we want, what interests us, and what we really want to know....and the longer we look into it, the more we clearly see--OURSELVES." This belief may explain why Korda muses so sadly and regretfully at the lack of originality, intellect and art on recent lists. I would urge him to cheer up, and remind him that.some of the most influential books of the 20th century fell below the radar of the top ten or (later) top fifteen biggest sellers of an entire year., even though many enjoyed a good run on the easier-to-crack weekly lists. As a feminist, I couldn't help but notice that in the 1960s and '70s - at its height - my revolution didn't make it to the annual lists. Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, Germaine Greer, Susan Brownmiller etc etc. - those whose transformative books changed every woman's life -did not sell nearly as many books as , for example, EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK or THE SENSUOUS WOMAN by the mysterious "J." But Friedan et al were read widely and deeply enough to light women's pilots all over the world. Again, in the early 90s, when feminism was declared dead ,Gloria Steinem, Susan Faludi, Anita Hill, Naomi Wolf and others dramatically reawakened interest with their popular and widely debated works. But neither did they make it to the Publishers Weekly annual lists. even though as Steinem travelled around the country promoting REVOLUTION FROM WITHIN her admirers rose at dawn and waited for hours on lines that were many city blocks in length.
Maybe one day Korda will give us a sequel to MAKING THE LIST called MAKING TROUBLE. In the meantime everyone who loves books and reading (or writing) is urged to check out MAKING THE LIST.
|
|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Warm, Witty Wisdom Wreathes Winning, Wonderful Writers!, November 3, 2001
Mr. Michael Korda is the perfect person to write this book. He brings to the project an enormous sense of perspective from his many decades as an editor at Simon & Schuster, having had two books (Power! and Queenie) on the best seller list, being a book lover, and having a great story telling talent. The experience is like having a pleasant discussion over fine wine and aged cheese in a beautiful country home with a beautifully flickering fire in the background.Today's best seller list began with surveys by Harry Thurston Peck in 1895. Mr. Korda's book then captures almost the entire history of best sellers in the United States. The lists for 1900-1912 come from The Bookman and from Publishers Weekly for 1912-1999. During the earliest years, there is only a fiction list. Later on, the list divides into at least fiction and non-fiction and sometimes includes special lists (such as during war years on war topics). Most of the book is contained in ten chapters that each cover a decade. An essay captures the main themes in writing, popular taste, publishing, retailing, technology (if any) and the legal environment. Along the way, Mr. Korda sprinkles in factoids that sharpen up the appeal of the material. For example, the popular author Winston Churchill in the early part of the 20th century did not later become the prime minister of Great Britain. In certain years, he can tell you how many books had to be sold to make number one on the list. Further, he provides a sense of perspective in pointing out minor and major taste trends along the way. For instance, sex was only hinted at until after World War II. By 1999, it had almost disappeared again from best sellers after temporarily having been a centerpiece in the 1960s and 1970s. I was impressed both by how many great books that I have enjoyed were actually best sellers, and how many books that were best sellers I have never heard of. At the end of each decade is a year-by-year best seller list. Reading through those felt like stepping into a warm Jacuzzi as the warm memories of books I have loved flooded back over my mind. It was almost visceral. I could feel myself becoming young again, and then aging to the current day. If you are like me, the book is worth it just for the great nostalgia you will enjoy. I have put together a brief list of best sellers by decade that may surprise you: 1900-1909: The Hound of the Baskervilles; The Virginian; Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms; The Pit; The Jungle. 1910-1919: The Montessori Method; The Education of Henry Adams; Penrod; Seventeen; Pollyanna. 1920-1929: Outline of History; Emily Post's Etiquette; The Story of Philosophy; The Bridge of San Luis Rey; All Quiet on the Western Front; Ripley's Believe It or Not. 1930-1939: Of Time and the River; Of Mice and Men; Grapes of Wrath; Mein Kampf; Life with Father; How to Win Friends and Influence People. 1940-1949: A Bell for Adano; Yankee from Olympus; The Greatest Story Ever Told; Berlin Diary. 1950-1959: Andersonville; The Old Man and the Sea; Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book; Kon-Tiki; The Sea Around Us; Revised Standard Edition of the Bible; Power of Positive Thinking; Why Johnny Can't Read; Eloise; Atlas Shrugged; Kids Say the Darndest Things!; Masters of Deceit; The Ugly American. 1960-1969: Franny & Zooey; The Shoes of the Fisherman; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Profiles in Courage; In Cold Blood. 1970-1979: Sophie's Choice; Roots; Ragtime; The Thorn Birds. 1980-1989: In Search of Excellence; The One Minute Manager; Megatrends; Iaccoca; The Mammoth Hunters. 1990-1999: Annually dominated by John Grisham for most of the decade. What's the weakness then of the book? Well, for all of its charm, the cultural perspective is a mile wide and a few centimeters thick. So, although the book certainly hits its target, to give us "a look at who we are, seen through what we read," you will probably not learn too much that you did not know already. The main lesson for me is that the public taste is better than I would have thought. Many fine books did sell well. Serious students of cultural history will find raw material here for further consideration, but not much analysis. If you are like me, you enjoy seeing other peoples' libraries. What lessons do you draw from the reading tastes of Americans over the last century? How might those tastes change for the better or worse in the future? May you always find books that excite and inspire you!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Neil Simon
by James Lee Burke
by Nora Roberts
