Books I Don't Plan to Read

Long & Short Reviews asked. Let's put it this way. I don't plan to buy a lot of books, although I would if I were rich, because I am not rich. I've inherited the home libraries of a few friends so I already own a lot of books I've yet to read.

I do not sit down and say to myself, "Eww ick, that's a bestseller, so it can't be any good. I will not read anything by James Patterson or John Grisham or Jude Devereaux or Stephen King or Danielle Steel..." I don't feel much need to boost those authors, but I have read some of each one's books. There are reasons why they're so popular. There are less popular authors who deserve more attention from more discerning readers. Boosting their signals is what book blogs are for. But I see no reason to deny that readers get more than material for Freudian fantasies out of bestsellers. Some books that have reached the bestseller lists are actually pretty good.

I don't say "Eww ick, no books in this or that genre or by this or that type of writer," either. There are genres in which I expect to enjoy more books than others. There are genres I'm not really qualified to criticize. I'll read just about anything.

I just passively plan to read the popular books when I'm all caught up on everything else I want to do. Realistically, it's possible that that might happen, but it's not likely. 

I'm aware that popularity...well...you remember how in high school you'd been a good friend over the years, but someone else had more expensive stuff, so at some point somebody said something like "I like whatever it is that you and I do but I can do that any old time whereas this may be the only chance I eeeevvvver get to ride in X's new car..." and you felt betrayed? Popularity for books works something like that. Bestseller numbers are shaped when big-city bookstores order a few hundred copies at a time before throwing a big book party celebrating a new release by a big corporate publisher. If your book sold to a small publisher or an academic publisher or even a large denominational publisher, that won't happen. If your book expresses a viewpoint the monster corporations don't like...you can become a successful author, working with small publishers, self-publishing, even starting your own publishing house if you happen to be as brilliant as J.I. Rodale or Thich Nhat Hanh, but your books may never be on the New York Times bestseller list. And, well, discovering authors like J.I. Rodale and Thich Nhat Hanh does happen to be one of this web site's main goals.

If and when I have a physical bookstore I don't expect it to be big enough to need lots of copies of the bestsellers of the week, but I expect to order them on demand.

I expect to stock books that aren't featured in the big-chain bookstore on the mall. Books whose appeal might be considered "academic" because they're serious science, well researched history, or just books that tend to appeal to educated readers. Christian books, and other books by people who take other religious traditions seriously. True Green books, as distinct from Poison Green. Books that J.I. Rodale would have published, before Rodale Press was swallowed by the European monster Penguin has become. Books that those who want global tyranny want to ban.

People can always buy bestsellers on the mall...but that doesn't mean I want to ban bestsellers. I just figure that a book that's on the bestseller list this week is going to be available for a dime in aid of charity next year, whereas a new writer nobody's heard of yet needs a sale now.