Extremely light weight, but mildly entertaining survey of the changing tastes of America's readers as reflected in bestseller lists. ( )

Read in 2002 - pre-Goodreads

Review 12.01.17

Although it's been awhile since I've looked at this book, I remember that you can see the decline of literature in the American public by the best seller lists. Hey, I blame TV. ( )

3555. Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller 1900-1999, by Michael Korda (read 8 Mar 2002) It was back on May 22, 1946, that I read with great interest Fifty Years of Best Sellers 1895-1946 by Alice Payne Hackett. This is a similar book, and though I think in 1946 I looked to bestseller lists as possible sources of indications as to what I should read whereas I no longer do that, I found this book full of interesting facts. E.g., 21 Pulitzer prizewinners have made a bestseller list for the year, but none since 1967 has done so. This is a corollary of the fact that Henry James in his day was a best-selling author! I did find that I had read 51 of the books which were the number one bestseller (in either fiction or nonfiction) for a year, which fact owes something to the fact that I have read all John Grisham's books (except the last two)--he has had the best-selling fiction work for no less than each of the last six years (1994 thru 1999). An interesting book. ( )