THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

ANTONIO | 2006-05-06

Antonio comments on the growing New York City provincialism of publishing:

And it shows. Look in the window of any NYC bookstore and you see rows of books authored by Oprah, Maya Angelou, some Neocon scholar, and of course the latest interacial lesbian romance.

Hey, maybe that's why the busiest bookstore in New York is The Strand! Ten dusty miles of used books that people actually want to read. When people would rather buy your industry's 40 year old products than this year's model, it's time to admit the undertaker is at the door.

Comment by Antonio Fini

MY RESPONSE:

I saw a cartoon years ago, of all places, in the NEW YORKER MAGAZINE, that showed someone at a word processor saying something like "Uncle Bill is working on a book for X, John is doing a series of articles for Y, Jane is doing ... "

It was an inside joke on something everybody knew, that publishing was inbred and getting inbreder.

They were going to do a sequel to "Gone With the Wind" that millions were anxious for. Finally they put it in Ireland because they simply could not allow any of hte Poltical Correctness of the original book.

Oddly enough, a sequel that had nothing to do with the original book was not very popular.

So Antonio tells me that the biggest market is for books that are out-of-date.

Like GWTW.

What a murderously accurate observation!

Let me say it again: If you aren't reading the Comments, you aren't reading the Blog.

COMMENTS (1)

#1 Elizabeth | 2006-05-07 17:35

I'm a regular at good book sales. These are held by libraries in smaller towns and cities

with lots of educated retirees, as well as by organizations full of educated people. Sure,

there's some junk, but there is also a plethora of good history, biography and fiction, much

of which is in good to excellent condition -- and it's all _cheap_, unless you've got a

thing for the autographed, certain in-demand areas (try looking for Civil War classics

here in South Carolina), or high-quality art coffee table books.

I pick up at least one copy of one of Bennett Cerf's humor collections every chance I

get at one of these sales.