Unread Bestsellers (what bestseller can you not get through?)

The Word Spy ^ | Jan, 2003

[Utah Girl]

unread bestseller

(UN.red best.sel.ur) n. A book that many people purchase but few read in its entirety.

Example Citation:

There's the National Book Critics Circle Awards, another nice "high-culture" opportunity for Jonathan Franzen, author of jumbo unread bestseller The Corrections. —Alexandra Jacobs, "The Eight-Day Week," New York Observer, March 11, 2002

Backgrounder:
Here's my all-time Top 10 unread bestsellers list:

The Bible
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
The Bell Curve, Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein
The End of History, Francis Fukuyama
Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Earliest Citation:

A 500-page novel set in a 14th-century monastery and written by an Italian professor of semiotics is hardly the stuff of conventional best sellers. But "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco, has proven to be just that. ...

A few cynical observers suspect that snob appeal has played a considerable role in the book's rise. Says Howard Kaminsky, president of Warner Books, which bought the paperback rights for $550,000: "Every year there is one great unread best seller. A lot of people who will buy the book will never read it." It serves, he has said, as a "passport" to intellectual respectability. "It doesn't hurt to be seen carrying a copy at the Museum of Modern Art. It hints you've got something more in your mind than getting picked up."
~~~—Alexandre Still, "Miracle of the Rose," Newsweek, September 26, 1983

[redhead]

You keep mentioning stuff I've read. You like what I like, you dislike what I dislike. Are we TWINS??

[Temple Owl]

Right after I check out this new author who goes by the name Travis McGee. Heard of him?

Never heard of a writer named Travis McGee, but I read just about everything written by a guy named John D. MacDonald. He would not make this list.

[Utah Girl]

We must be reading twins!

[redhead]

Go HERE and enjoy!

[Utah Girl]

Wow, that column could have be written by me. I can't tell you how many times I have awakened in the morning with the night light still on, and a book on my chest.

[2rightsleftcoast]

Thanks for all the info. I read Killer Angels and liked it very much. I had Gods and Generals and couldn't get into it, will try again.

[Bernard Marx]

My "McLean Period" was back in the early 70s and I read "H.M.S. Ulysses" back then -- excellent! I'll definitely check out the Smith book. Thanks.

[Pelham]

Focault's Pendulum. Couldn't read it either.

But Name of the Rose is terrific- particularly if you are a latin-literate medievalist who reads Jaki and Molnar for fun.

[cyborg]

My mother DRAGGED me to see the movie Beloved.. I can't remember if it was toni morrison that wrote it. But it was the most HORRIBLE movie ever made. My mother and I were not comfortable at all with much the scenes in the movie. My mother thought many of the scenes were gratuitous, and reminded her too much of when her friends called my dad a slave master. I hated the movie, because movies are supposed to be fun and help you forget your problems. Hence I never read books by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou. Not discounting what these women have been through. I just have enough depression!

[ConservativeLawyer]

Never heard of a writer named Travis McGee

I'm very familiar with MacDonald's work. I'm referring, however, to our very own fellow FReeper Travis McGee.

He has an excellent novel in the works. I highly recommended it. Here is a link:

Enemiesforeignanddomestic.com

Like MacDonald, he definitely would not make this list either.

[cyborg]

Like Water for Chocolate, perhaps the only time where I thought the book AND the movie were both good. You know half the time, the movie sucks and the book was better.

[Kevin Curry]

Finnegan's Wake. It isn't a novel. It is Joyce's 17-year practical joke.

[PJ-Comix]

The World According To Garp. One of the few books that I just couldn't read to the end.

[PJ-Comix]

War and Peace

It's long but I found it VERY fascinating. Okay, the ending with Toltoy's ABSURD theory of history was a bigtime letdown but the rest of the novel held my attention. BTW, according to Tolstoy's ridiculous theory of history, the French would have invaded Russia even if Napoleon never existed. Ridiculous!

[hoosier_RW_conspirator]

Annotated Shakespeare and Chaucer are great.

Speaking of annotated...I recall having read "The Annotated Alice" (Lewis Carroll) in high school. Very enlightening to have the symbolism revealed; what I'd always assumed to be a children's story was a pretty scathing satire of British and world politics of the Victorian age.

[Utah Girl]

I had forgotten about Beloved. Blech. Toni Morrison makes me ill.

[cyborg]

I don't want to make you totally sick :-) but ever read any of Terry McMillan's books? Waiting to Exhale... I swear it seemed like every black girl was reading that book. Horrible. Too angry and full of "i hate white women angst". However, she wrote another book that I guess if I read would be good. "How Stella Got Her Groove Back". The movie seemed better than the book though.

[Utah Girl]

No, I haven't read any of McMillan's books. Just not my type of book.

[cyborg]

Her books aren't my cup of tea either... too vapid and political. I understand she's trying to connect with a certain segment of the "community" though.

I like Amy Tan, but I can't get through any Stephen King novels. I can watch the movies though. Actually I lie. I can't watch The Stand either, too long and boring. I've read every book from the Alien Nation series. A lot of Starwars and hoardes of science fiction novels, so much that mother took a picture of my closet to send back home.

Another series I can't through.. that Red,Blue,Green Mars series. Clan of the Cave Bear,etc.

[Utah Girl]

I like Amy Tan also, a lot. Clan of the Cave Bear, etc: BLECH.