Having grown up as quite the book worm, the past few months of near constant travel have necessitated a wide selection of books to occupy all those 'in-between' times. And although I am a great Harry Potter fan and I finally caved and read Twilight (much to my disappointment), the rest of the books have not, for the most part, been bestsellers. And it just so happens that I found an article in The Economist which summerizes my point much better than I could myself. Just to quote:
"A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read “The Lost Symbol”, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it."
Now, I'm not saying that I necessarily have the highest standards, but it's always nice to think of oneself as a little above those who ONLY read The Lost Symbol :)
The rest of the article is also definitely worth at least a glance.
Source: The Economist
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