General Literature Thread

[Alexisonfire]

Because it needed it.


Also, I managed to completely miss the release of "And Another Thing..." for about two months, the elusive sixth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

For those who do not know the backstory: Douglas Adams effectively ended the series with the fifth book of the trilogy, but he was really angry at the time the book was written and anyone who read the book surely could notice. Adams, years later, said this:

The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying "And another thing…" twenty minutes after admitting he's lost the argument.

Beginning to to feel the urge to continue with the universe, he had put ideas aside to reconcile his actions upon it in the fifth book and end it with a more upbeat note: a sixth book. Now HOW he would do that was completely up for debate, as common sense dictates that it couldn't be done. Yet, common sense was never a huge force in the books to begin with.

Anyway, Douglas Adams died. It happens. And about a year and half ago, Eoin Colfer, known for the Artemis Fowl series, announced that he would be taking on the project. I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl series as a young teenager, much more than Harry Potter and the like, but I was doubtful that Colfer's fairly simplistic writing and fairly childish audience would not transfer well to the Hitchhiker's universe, as it is known for its very, very unique writing style.

Anyway. Back to yesterday. Was in a book store for the first time in months (I have textbooks to read! No time for Novels!) and managed to spot the book. I read the foreward and the first chapter on the spot. From everything I had read so far, the universe, the writing, and the spirit of the series couldn't be more realized unless Adams himself wrote it.

It sure was a shame that the book was $35. I'll definately pick it up once I have the money and a non-hardcover version is available.

[Mr. Teatime]

I have very mixed feelings about Douglas Adams. I do love zany British humor and intricacy, but I felt like some of his works were just intentionally confusing. Having read both Dirk Gently books twice, I can safely say I have no idea what the heck is going on in either of them.

This sounds interesting though. I had completely never heard about it, so thanks for bringing it to my attention, Fire.

[Revan/anakinjmt]

Amazon.com recently released a lit of top books and authors over the past decade. Let me post books and let you all decide for yourselves what you think of this.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling

3. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

4. Twilight -Stephenie Meyer

5. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

6. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - JK Rowling

7. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

8. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

9. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

10. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Several interesting things to note. First of all, Deathly Hallows and Half-Blood Prince are #1 and #2, respectively. I don't think those two are  is really that surprising, considering Deathly Hallows sold over 15 million books in the first 24 hours, beating the previous record of Half-Blood Prince of 9 million copies in the first 24 hours.

However, it's surprising that Order of the Phoenix is NOT on this list. Considering before OotP came out in 2003 over 200 million copies of the first four books had been sold worldwide, you'd think it would be.

What's also surprising is that Beedle the Bard DID make this list at #6. Considering it's initial print run in the U.S. was ONLY 3.5 million, which is still WAY more than most books get and yet compared to the previous Potter books is extremely small, the fact that it's above Order of the Phoenix is really shocking to me. Not only that, but Beedle beat one of the Twilight books: New Moon. The only things that beat Beedle, besides HBP and DH, were Twilight, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

Also of interest is that, except for the final book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, the first book, Twilight, beat the other books in its series: New Moon and Eclipse. Maybe I'm just used to Harry Potter where each book in the series does better than the previous book, but that's really weird that the first book does better than the second and third book and yet not the fourth book.

[Mr. Teatime]

So, wait, this book wasn't the "best selling," it was just their interpretation of "best books/most worth reading?"

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

[PWNr_o_NUBS]

Yeah, this can't be best selling because there's no way that a sequel would outsell the original like that– isn't breaking dawn the last twilight book? there's no way people would only buy the first and last... would they?


Point is, I read the first four entries and grew too apathetic to go on.

[Alexisonfire]

Unless, of course, most people who bought the new book had the previous entries in the series before the beginning of this year.

[Revan/anakinjmt]

Unless, of course, most people who bought the new book had the previous entries in the series before the beginning of this year.

Except this is of the decade. And yes, this is "Top selling books of the decade." I doubt if it was their "best of decade" that was not by sales numbers you'd see such a skew towards Harry Potter/Twilight.

Maybe people borrow other books in the series from friends or the library and buy the later copies because they can't wait until their friends are done reading them or they don't want to be in the holding line from their library for a year. I know that's why I bought the Twilight books. I didn't want to wait a long time to finally get them from the library.