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When Moby Dick Wasn’t Box Office

Jan 25, 2016
by Caroline Miller
Amy MaLay Patterson, best book list, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, I Read 164 Books in 2015, Moby Dick, Roots, why a person reads a book
2 Comments

A reader sent me a blog written by a librarian who, after having a daughter, admits she fell into a “cultural wasteland” where neither books nor movies existed. Eventually, her librarian instincts kicked in, and in 2015 she read 164 books, some with pleasure, some because she thought she ought and others because she wanted to be conversant with titles recognized as the best of the year.  One of those in the last category was Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee’s latest publication, which the librarian/blogger,  Amy McLay Paterson, concluded should never have been set to print. (“I read 164 books in 2015…” by Amy McLay Patterson, vox.com, 12/29/15) 

Much of what Paterson wrote in her blog is self evident.  Reading should be a pleasure and not a chore.  It should expand the mind.  And, some of life’s lessons are “better learned through characters and stories than presented as facts.”  Roots fires our imagination against slavery with a greater force than details from a history book. 

I also agree no book should be endured simply because others say it’s good.  That’s why I was surprised when she wrote she chooses her material from a list of the “best” books. I confess I’m uncertain  how that list is assembled  but  suspect it derives from titles published by the 5 large publishing houses and ignores small imprints or self published manuscripts.  Rather than expose herself to an expanded view of the world, as she desires, Patterson narrows it.

Not every well written book becomes a best seller or wins a prize.  But each tells a unique story.  Why a title doesn’t appear on a list stems not from an inability to write but an inability to convince a New York agent that the work will be a blockbuster.  But blockbusters, as I have observed more than once, don’t always represent the best in literature.

Serious readers have their work cut out for them.  They must take risks, plow through many titles, listen to the opinions of their friends and only then, consider the cannon of the “best” list.  If its appearance on that list were the sole criteria for reading a book,  Moby Dick would never have seen the light of day.

Moby Dick

Courtesy of yahoo.com

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2 Comments
  1. Janet January 25, 2016 at 9:34 am Reply
    As a newly retired reader with the dream of spending much of my free time reading as much as possible, I admit that I also wonder how some books make it to the best seller list, but I think one hint is that I choose some books because a friend has recommended them. Then I discover that some of these recommendations just don't draw me in. In the meantime I have purchased the book (sorry - I love the feel of a new book and can, at the present time, afford to purchase). The purchase has enhanced the book's position on the bestseller list. Since I have more free time, at the first of the year I decided that I would read the books on the NY Times best seller list (both fiction and nonfiction lists) in 2016 with the goal of seeing if I can agree with at least 75 percent of the picks as being deserving (in my own humble opinion). Now I am one that generally has no trouble putting down an unfinished book that I find boring or that does not grab me. I just finished All the Light We Cannot See after putting it down several times. Because of my new resolution, I picked it up and read the last 300 pages in a couple of days and concluded it was one of the best books I have read in a very long time. Now I want to go back and read again - but I can't because I am on to the next book on my list (one that I also put down several times - Dead Wake by Erik Larson. Wish me luck. (Sorry - I have already judged Go Set a Watchman as being a sham. Don't think I can pick it back up).
    • Caroline Miller January 25, 2016 at 10:21 am Reply
      You make a good point, Janet, about giving a book a chance and sticking with it until the author has had enough time to pull you in or not. I've read all the excess pages of Donna Tars's two novels, often wanted to take a pair of scissors to both and wondered if her editor was on vacation when she submitted her manuscripts, but there was enough mastery to pull me through and I'm glad I stuck it through. Nonetheless, I encourage you to get beyond the New York Times. Try the recommendations of the Midwest Review. They specialize in small press authors, writers who aren't deemed to have written a blockbuster but who are worth your time. I write about them on occasion in these blogs and believe me, I don't waste precious ink, not even for friends.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published five novels

  • Getting Lost To Find Home
  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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