Sherry Chandler » Do you have a favorite book?
Do you have a favorite book?
Zane Grey was one person who wrote 90 books. Lance Mannion speaks of 2,500 people who chose one book, their favorite. No surprises: the Bible, Gone With the Wind. Lance is having none of it. We’re not a nation of readers, he says, we’re a nation of liars. Where are the Oprah picks, the mysteries, the bodice-rippers, and the westerns? (Well, I might argue for GWTW as a sort of ur bodice-ripper, but then it’s far from my favorite book.) “But here’s the thing,” says Lance:
Most real readers, men and women, don’t have favorite books. They have favorite authors.
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3 Comments
1. Gin replies at 13th April 2008, 10:00 am :
The problem I have identifying “x” as my favorite book is that “x” changes frequently. So often, it’s one of the most recent books I’ve read, even if the question was posed as “favorite book of all time.” I’m fickle.
2. Helen Losse replies at 13th April 2008, 1:00 pm :
I love the book “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles (have taught it to high school juniors many times) but cannot “get into” his others, even one about one of the major characters in ASP. But I think that’s an exception. Mostly I do like authors.
3. sherry replies at 16th April 2008, 3:23 pm :
Helen, I had the same experience with Zora Neale Hurston. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God from cover to cover in one sitting, barely able to see the page for my tears. But I haven’t been able to get into her other works, though I like her song on the Oxford American Southern Sample a couple of years back.
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