The novel is dead! The novel is dying! Fiction is dead!
Criers have lamented the decline of the novel for decades. Me? I don't buy it. Never have. Maybe I'm biased by the fact that 90% of my reading choices are fiction. Who knows. Regardless: the novel? Very much alive.
Now we have cold, hard evidence to support my as-yet unfounded hypotheses. According to today's issue of Shelf Awareness, USA Today has reported that fiction is on the rise. The Top 100 Books of 2010 list was 77% fiction - up from 76% last year, and the highest percentage seen since the first list, released in 1993. Not too shabby, fiction writers. Seems the recession is working in your favor, as readers look for escape and distraction in their reading choices.
The list is dominated by Stieg Larsson, whose Millenium trilogy took gold, silver AND bronze on this list. Other notable fiction titles include The Help, a healthy portion of Nicholas Sparks' novels, and lots of Rick Riordan.
Worth noting, however, is the fact that bestseller lists in general are necessarily not an accurate depiction of the balance of readers' choices overall. I, for one, purchase dozens of books a year, and read day-in and day-out, and yet the majority of the titles I purchased and/or read in 2010 are not on this list. In general, I don't read bestsellers. Not because I have anything against them as bestsellers per se (I did read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, just to see what all the hype was about), but because I tend to avoid books by Nicholas Sparks, George Bush, and James Patterson. Call me a snob if you wish, but it's true. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the same is probably true of the majority of bloggers I follow (which is also why I follow them).
This community of avid non-bestseller readers is not a small one, but because of our diversity - that very trait we so pride ourselves on and which continually provides us with new book recommendations - our choices don't make the nation's bestseller lists.
Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I, for one, am thrilled to be part of a group of booklovers that go beyond these selections to discover unheard-of titles. I am simultaneously thankful to see books being published that get people excited about reading. And I'm looking forward to finding time to pick up The Girl Who Played With Fire sometime soon.
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