bignoseduglyguy

Take it as read

Bonnie Greer has written a a great piece in The Guardian Weekend concerning the role of television in boosting book sales and authors popularity. Whilst interactive literary television events such as the BBC's The Big Read undoubtedly raise the general level of consciousness of the written word/world amongst the watching millions, it would seem that vehicles focused on lower common denominators have a more far-reaching effect.

Both Oprah's Books, a web based spin-off 'book club' endorsed by the eponymous TV chat show host and Richard and Judy's UK equivalent have had a massive effect on the sales of the books chosen or shortlisted for review by the programme producers. 'Star of the Sea' By Joseph O’Connor shot from 350th to 1st in the UK book sales charts in just seven days after getting the Richard and Judy treament, showing a 350% increase in sales, sales that neither author nor publisher could have dared dream of beforehand. On-screen reviews by Greer and Bob Geldof had been largely responsible for this and the author had the good grace to accept this and thank them. Greer writes that a thumbs up from Oprah will easily increase sales eight-fold, such is the power of her endorsement. It is easy to be snobbish about 'literature' and forget that literacy is something that situation and circumstance deny many millions around the world. Like Greer before her involvement in The Big Read, many learned and well-educated folk sneer at television and cinema, looking down their noses at these inferior and base offspring. However, these audio-visual arrivistes are jointly responsible for much of the so-called literature revival, through the seeming endless Bronte bonk-buster adaptations and more original spin-doctoring of the classics, like the recent updated Chaucer offerings in the UK.

I have read voraciuously all my life and need little encouragement to pick up a book or read a short story[1] and it is much the same with SWMBO. The sprogs will devour the latest by Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt (though not J.K. Rowling thankfully) like piranha stripping flesh from a corpse - they are the only kids who get frequent flyer miles from the local library. As far as I am concerned, anything that helps bring books alive and into people's lives should be a good thing. Having said that, I am not entirely convinced that Oprah and Richard & Judy's book clubs are much more than lifestyle statements, with the latest 'recommended' book becoming as essential an accessory as a mobile phone, iPod or PDA. Talking of which, I have used Palm PDAs for years and yet still can't get as enthused about ebooks as I do about the paper variety. I bought FASTER: the acceleration of just about everything as an ebook and have yet to complete the first chapter, Pacemaker. Maybe I don't spend enought time in queues, on trains or in other situations that provide ideal reading opportunities. By preference, I like to read in bed, in the quiet of the night with a book propped up on my knees, knocking off at least one or two chapters a night unless I'm absolutely dog tired or a little 'over-refreshed'. Mind you, at 1300 pages, my current read, Robert Littel's The Company: A Novel of the CIA, is a bastard to hold comfortably in any position, especially when my RSI is acting up at the end of a long day (I have even considered taking a sharp knife to it to halve the bulk - was it the dissidents and refusniks in Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich that shared books like this or was it Allied POWs in World War Two?). Such trifles don't stop me reading until the early hours though, with half of me loving yet cursing the magnetic draw of the page-turning plot and the other (sensible) half knowing I'll pay the price for the lack of sleep later the next day. Now if I could read whilst I was asleep, that'd be a thing...

[1] As a lido lifeguard during teenage summer holidays, I thought I had seen and heard it all when it came to how unhygienic swimming pools are but it would seem I only scratched the surface. If you fancy testing your resolve, your gag reflex and love of the short story format, you might like to spend ten open-mouthed minutes reading Chuck Palahniuk's GUTS, the only piece of fiction I have seen carrying a 'Not for the squeamish or for children' warning.