Junk Fiction: America's Obsession with Bestsellers

[sparkchaser]

Amazon sent me an email this morning about a new book by S.T. Joshi called Junk Fiction: America's Obsession with Bestsellers. The title sounds interesting and I just wanted to throw it out there in case it's something someone might enjoy reading.

I only own three S.T. Joshi books, The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text, and Lovecraft's Library: A Catalogue and I have been pleased with them.

 

[steffee]

I read your post, sparky.

Never heard of the author. What do you think of the three books you have? I agree, the title sounds interesting.

 

[sparkchaser]

I like them. Especially Lovecraft's Library. I have a fascination with author's personal libraries.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Bestsellers do not equal great reading. This I believe. Sounds like a interesting book to try. Thanks for posting, Sparks!

 

[Peder]

Best sellers may not be great reading in any literary sense of the word -- and it does depend on what one means by "great" -- but I don't think that they are necessarily that bad either. When I go over to Borders I see 300-400 new books displayed every time, right up front, none of which I feel like buying. If the best sellers are only 10 of those, that is a pretty good down-select from several hundred, and any of the top ten (which I don't buy either) may happen to make fairly interesting reading. Unless one is hard over on using one's time to read only literary fiction (which is what I tend to do).
But right now I'm reading a junk detective mystery by an author I have never even heard of, so I certainly can't call it a best seller, and some might call it trash, but I've read worse. The plot moves along, the pages turn, and in the end the miscreants will get caught and get their due in some manner that is still a mystery to me. What's to complain about?

It sounds like a survey of Junk Fiction might be a good idea, entertaining to read.