Recent Reads and Am I Paperback Snob?
Jun 6th, 2008 by Nut
Here are some of the more interesting things I’ve been reading recently:
- I’ve always wondered what the deal was with buying dividend stocks and when you “qualified” for the dividend based. Can you buy it the day before the dividend is distributed and then sell it afterwards? Not quite, but this post by Stockerblog explains it all in great detail.
- I’ve railed on the fiction in The New Yorker before, but the story I’m reading right now is pretty good. It’s from the April 21 issue (I’m a little behind) and the story just oozes genuineosity. Yeah I’m making stuff up now too. There are so many stereotypes and clichés that this could’ve fallen into and didn’t that it kept me reading and reading until I wondered to myself why I was so into it when the things happening in the story weren’t all that exciting (not entirely a bad thing). So be sure to check it out and if you spot your own “good story” in an issue of The New Yorker, please share!
- Frugal Dad is trying to lose weight and so he’ll try to go an entire month drinking nothing but water! Good luck FG, I sense hilarity ensuing…
And while I’m on the subject of reading, yesterday on the bus I saw a guy reading a Michael Connelly bestseller and the dude was really into it. I turned to my issue of The New Yorker and was a little let down (at least the story turned out to be good). But it got me thinking about Stephen King and how he stresses the huge amount of volume he thinks writers need to (or should) read. But not just quantity, variety as well.
I have never read a “paperback bestseller.” There, I admit it. Maybe I’m being a snob (OK, I am) but there’s still a part of me that doesn’t see it as “serious” literature. But if I really want to get published and get some semblance of a readership going, I need to read stuff that sells. I may wind up liking the story and I may not, but I’ll be able to glean a few things about why these books do so well with the masses. I can take the things that work (and that fit who I am and what I like to write) and incorporate them into my own fiction. So I decided, right there on the bus, to grab a mega-bestseller and read it all the way through — no quitting.
So as I’ve done before, I’m coming to my readers for an answer. What’s the best book you’ve ever read that’s sold like gangbusters?
I need names people and I’m not afraid to do whatever it takes to get them. Email me or stick it in the comments.
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lol. I know what you mean. For me they fall into the “trend” category, and for the most part I try to stay away from trends. However, I do fall victim to them once in a while. I know some people hate Dan Brown, but I really liked Angels & Demons! All religious controversy aside, it kept my attention and kept me guessing (sometimes), and those are qualities I enjoy in books! I liked the DaVinci Code, but not as much as A&D. It was also just too embarrassing to be caught reading it in public. (While I was reading it I also saw 8 people reading it in the airport within just a few minutes. Eeek! I wanted to hide it and pretend it wasn’t mine…)
I’m not sure if this falls into the “Best-Seller” category, but I also love The Alchemist. A very sweet story, and I love the message it sends.
Not that the writing was prize winning, but Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code was definitely a page turner.
I also loved Nelson Demille’s Plum Island - the main character is interesting and kept me reading.
I understand your aversion to popular press, but there are some benefits to “light” fiction - I consider it like TV for your brain - a good sedative at night or something to do for entertainment. Just food for thought.
I agree with those comments. I loved DaVinci code because I just couldn’t put it down. No small feat.
I loved the Alchemist (I read it in SPanish) but his other books all pretty much suck (with one or two exceptions). They too bland and not nearly as good as Alchemist. Me makes me angry these days but he makes his money, so I group him with Robert Kiyosaki.
Ah, Frugal Dad, you’re falling into the publishing ‘trap,’ trying to change what makes you unique - your voice - for what will sell. With 1.2M rejections annually, publishers won’t flock to your work because it incorporates elements shown to be successful, (not that corporate publishing is all that correct about what the public wants to read - think Kiyosaki mentioned above, The Chicken Soup guys, Grisham - all rejected numerous times ) they’ll flock if you can get their attention. No easy task, which is why I created Frugal Fiction, an ebook site for independent authors to let the marketplace decide. We can’t all be best-sellers, but we probably have words that will wow a thousand, or five thousand, or ten thousand people, if only they knew about us. In truth, what authors really need to understand isn’t writing, it’s marketing.
[...] kinds of “popular” books without every having read them. I wondered if maybe I was a book snob. So I decided to go out there and pick a book based solely on how well it was selling. I found The [...]