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Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999
 
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Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 [Hardcover]

Michael Korda (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

According to Korda (Country Matters, etc.), it was only in 1895 that someone Harry Thurston Peck of the Bookman published the first bestseller list, and that listed only fiction. PW ran the first nonfiction list 17 years later. Today, bestseller lists galvanize the publishing industry, much as their cousins do the film and recording industries, among others. Of the several books written about bestseller lists (most notably, Alice Payne Hackett and James Henry Burke's 80 Years of Best Sellers, 1977), this is the most perceptive and not surprisingly, given Korda's literary abilities, which have led to his own run of bestselling books the most engaging. The engagement arises from Korda's erudite yet conversational tone, leavened with humor and smartly opinionated (e.g., the 1958 nonfiction bestseller list, he writes, "remained the kind of thumping, predictable bore it had been through most of the fifties"). The perceptivity arises not only because Korda, longtime editor in chief of S&S, knows just about all that's worth knowing about books, but because he approaches the lists as the subtitle indicates. Decade by decade, he examines the annual hardcover lists drawn from PW beginning with 1913 to see how the books people buy embody the cultural tenor of the times. "Like a mirror," he writes, "[the list] reflects who we are, what we want, what interests us...." Korda finds, for instance, that "[books about] better sex, more sex, plus tabletop cooking, says something about the priorities of Americans in the first year of Richard Nixon's presidency.... People were looking for domestic happiness, in retreat from the... conflicts of the sixties.... " As Korda charts changes in America via the bestseller list, he demonstrates that reading tastes haven't altered all that much; as background to that charting, he presents a useful, compact history of the publishing industry. Witty and deeply informed, this is a bracing, even essential, read for anyone who loves books. (On-sale Nov. 15).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Recorded Books on Tape version, Oct 16 2002
By 
This review is from: Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 (Hardcover)
This is not a book that lends itself to a good audio recording. Listening to the "text" portions of the books was fine - very enjoyable and very informative - however, it is impossible to listen to the lists of published books without getting bored. I ended up fast forwarding through the book lists and probably missed some of the text as well.

Yes, I recommend this book - but read it - don't listen to it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile for book-hounds, Jun 23 2002
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R. Walker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 (Hardcover)
Although this "Cultural History of the American Bestseller" is somewhat light on actual text -- it's mostly full of the bestseller lists themselves, going back to 1900 -- it's an entertaining read if you're interested in books. There's a natural tendency to be sort of skeptical of popularity, and one of Korda's themes is that many books that have been popular have also been extremely good. (Literary fiction, etc, always has a place on the charts.) And actually what's most revealing is how the mix of what's on the big lists has really changed very little, or at least it comes and goes in regular cycles. Romances go out -- then they're back in. The sprawling historical epic rises, falls, rises again. There's always some Tom Clancy equivalent cranking out a book of year, and topping the sales rankings every time. It's too bad Korda's text sometimes veers toward the superficial, and a more careful edit would have removed some of his repetitions, but the book is still a fun way to fill a few hours -- and the list of lists alone is a thing worth having.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting As Far As It Goes, May 6 2002
This review is from: Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 (Hardcover)
"Making The List", is an interesting book that piques the reader's interest rather than satisfying it. This 10-chapter book contains 195 pages, and more than half, 100 pages, are just the lists of the best-selling books for a given year.

Michael Korda provides informative, witty, and at times sharp edged commentary for the 10 decades of books that he comments upon. The analysis he offers is uneven, although it greatly improves once his observations originate during his tenure as a publisher. I have always wondered just how many books need to be sold to make the annual list. He does provide numbers occasionally, but they are the exception not the rule. Some of his remarks are readily apparent to readers who pay attention to the names of authors that routinely appear year after year. Being told that a short roster of names have virtually locked up the annual lists for almost 20 is not news.

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