Lisa Adams and John Heath
Upon finding that I needed a break from the Internet theory books and the challenging nonfiction, I decided to look at this meta-book, which takes recent bestseller lists and looks at trends and what they might say about the American psyche- or at least the psyche of American readers. Just as the subtitle promises, Why We Read What We Read is delightfully opinionated in parts and delivered with a sly cynicism that is neither overwhelming nor inappropriate. The tone of the book is light throughout and the authors give a fair shake at everything from diet books to Regency romances to the Left Behind series while drawing pointed conclusions about American literary habits. It's obvious that this study isn't meant to be an end-all, be-all summation of the current reading public, but the authors do a remarkably thorough job of wading through recent bestsellers and a good job presenting their data, if it is a bit tiresome occasionally. They do an excellent job of categorizing the main traits of bestselling fiction and wisely group books that are thematically or structurally similar: it just makes sense to talk about self-help books together and, as in the lumping of political nonfiction with thrillers that embrace the same stark good/evil divide, their categories themselves are as illuminating (and well-supported) as their conclusions.
Though the book's sarcastic humor and excellent organization make it a fun and easy read, the authors can get a big preoccupied with sharing their data. The problem with writing about books for a general audience is that the audience can't be presumed to know the books, and any conclusions will be empty and insupportable without presenting data. Why We Read What We Read uses data, a lot of it, and the book is jam-packed with descriptions of books that at times overwhelm the conclusions drawn by the authors about them. Readers leave knowing the plots and outlines of a variety of books, but it's a bit harder to explain just how the authors felt each category spoke about the American reading psyche. Summations of individual books can be long and unnecessary at times, and the book occasionally seems like a collection of summaries with some short conclusions attached. Nonetheless, when the conclusions appear they are revealing and interesting, flowing perhaps more from the authors' preconceptions than the data itself, such as it is, but intriguing nonetheless. The book culminates brilliantly in a final chapter that takes the trends outlined in the preceding pages and attempts to explain the massive dominance of The Da Vinci Code in recent American book buying habits. Overall, Why We Read What We Read is an entertaining look at trends in recent bestselling books and its conclusions, while not decisive, are convincing and interesting along with the authorial insight about books readers may have read. Why We Read What We Read is a quick jaunt through the book-buying public's mind that should provoke much thought in its own readers.
Grade: B+
Though the book's sarcastic humor and excellent organization make it a fun and easy read, the authors can get a big preoccupied with sharing their data. The problem with writing about books for a general audience is that the audience can't be presumed to know the books, and any conclusions will be empty and insupportable without presenting data. Why We Read What We Read uses data, a lot of it, and the book is jam-packed with descriptions of books that at times overwhelm the conclusions drawn by the authors about them. Readers leave knowing the plots and outlines of a variety of books, but it's a bit harder to explain just how the authors felt each category spoke about the American reading psyche. Summations of individual books can be long and unnecessary at times, and the book occasionally seems like a collection of summaries with some short conclusions attached. Nonetheless, when the conclusions appear they are revealing and interesting, flowing perhaps more from the authors' preconceptions than the data itself, such as it is, but intriguing nonetheless. The book culminates brilliantly in a final chapter that takes the trends outlined in the preceding pages and attempts to explain the massive dominance of The Da Vinci Code in recent American book buying habits. Overall, Why We Read What We Read is an entertaining look at trends in recent bestselling books and its conclusions, while not decisive, are convincing and interesting along with the authorial insight about books readers may have read. Why We Read What We Read is a quick jaunt through the book-buying public's mind that should provoke much thought in its own readers.
Grade: B+
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