Dan Brown, Dan Brown, Dan Brown, Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown. Dan Brown
Looks nice, right?
Look, I’m really happy for the booksellers, for the printers and paper factories. Five million copies is a huge boon for everyone in the book business up and down the food chain. I’m most happy for the book stores whose business has been hit hard. I. Am. Happy. Okay? I haven’t heard a bad word about Dan Brown, either. Unlike Mitch Albom who reportedly is a monster. (See how safe I feel picking on rich, successful writers? What a chicken shit, Lerner.) It’s just that reading this morning’s paper made me kind of sick, outlining all the Dan Brown hype including Matt Lauer’s countdown (barf) and Jeff Bezos nearly creaming his pants: “Last week Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, posted a breathless memo to customers on the Amazon.com home page, informing them that the company was taking “one of the most anticipated publishing events of all time” very seriously. “We’ve agreed to keep our stockpile under 24-hour guard in its own chain-link enclosure, with two locks requiring two separate people for entry.” Two whole locks! I hope the Ocean’s Eleven crew isn’t planning to crack this one.
It was kind of excruciating to read, sitting on the train, reading the fourth draft of a novel that probably won’t sell, but you love the author and are devoted to her. I understand Tucker Max’s next book is called Assholes Finish First. I’m going to pre-order a copy from Amazon.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Betsy Lerner 
Looks ‘nice’ alright, but is there any depth? Popularity is not all that counts and often the hugely successful authors in their time do not make it over time. Their writing is not necessarily remembered. It does not endure. It’s like fashion, it goes up then down. I take heart from this.
I like what Flannery O’ Connor said (or did Arthur Koestler say it first?), that she’d rather have one reader in a hundred years for every hundred readers she had now, or something like that.
Who is Dan Brown?
(I live in South Dakota and watch very little TV and so have probably missed something.
Some stuff is good to miss.
Almost finished with Forest-Trees; thanks for good book.)
Oh, Carson Lee in South Dakota, I hope and pray you are for real.
Seconded.
Dan Brown wrote a monster bestselling book that took on the Catholic Church, exposed it for the deceitful, evil, greedy, woman-hating institution it is. You have to LOVE him for that.
You know what kind of authors I hate? The ones who write 96-page travel memoirs and win awards that come with gold stickers that are put on the covers of their booklets. I went to the local Barnes and Noble yesterday to research my competition; you know how many of those gold-stickered booklets were on the shelf? FIVE! And this “book” is about an EIGHT DAY trip!! You call that travel writing???
Note to Betsy: I’m cutting my travel memoir ms. to 96 pages and I’m inventing an award that comes with a gold sticker for the cover. How does “The 24-Carat Award for Spite” sound?
Vivian Swift: thanks for sharing your opinion on the Catholic Church, whatever its relevance to Betsy’s post.
I grew up in the Church, and have a strong identification with the ancient community that has nurtured such great souls (and writers) as Francis of Assisi, G.K. Chesterton, and Flannery O’Connor. I’m no longer a Catholic, but I’m grateful to have received that same kind of intellectual and moral sustenance. I don’t think I could have learned to love literature without it.
I don’t want to take up any more of Betsy’s comment space, just give a shout that not everybody who loves books (and Betsy’s blog) is of the same mind.
Good luck with your book.
I think the point is that the media could do a better job of spreading the wealth. Dan Brown’s latest would have done just fine without Matt Lauer’s countdown or Jeff Bezos’s two locks. Really great writers are being completely overlooked because spineless me-tooers want to hitch themselves to a star’s wagon. It takes guts to recognize and attach your name publicly to an unknown talent.
Just found this — literary magazine trumps Brown’s new book — perhaps all is not lost:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/granta_tops_dan_brown_in_chicago_138672.asp