DO NOT READ BESTSELLERS

In the book industry, more is held to be better. If a novel sells 200 million copies, it is considered better than another that sold "only" 50 million copies. And Best Seller lists are published to "guide" readers on the best titles. Number one on the list is the facto better than number 10. And I was musing today about some best sellers of old that have not stood the test of time, because, in books, the test of the book is in time. Who remembers Love Story? It was all the rage in 1970 when the whole world and his wife were reading and weeping over it. Erich Seagal, a professor of Classics, was denied tenure at Yale because of it. A movie was made and millions were sold. The Bridges of Madison County was also a best-seller by Robert Waller, in 1992, a romance that sold many copies.  Maryl Streep and Clint Eastwood were the main actors in the movie that followed. Many, many copies of this potboiler were bought and probably read. And then we had Sophie´s World, a 1991 history of philosophy disguised as a novel by Jostein Gaarder. I am certain that it went over the heads of most of the readers who bought this history of philosophy thinking it was a romance. The three of them have faded into obscurity, along with their translations into many languages. Do not purchase or read bestsellers, they are the payola promotions of today.