Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Everybody's a Critic

"A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it."

— The Economist

1 comments so far. Got something to say?

rt said...

Huh, interesting point. It also explains why I had contempt for a former boss who would only buy books that were on the NY Times bestseller list. Really, you're only going to read what everyone else reads? You're not going to actually, I don't know, form your own opinion? Gah.