Last year I read, for the first time, two of the most popular books of all time; Catcher in the Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird.
It’s hard to say why I had left it so long to get around to reading them. But it has something to do with the mathematical formula Number of books sold + Length of time published ∝ Reluctance to read them.
It’s straightforward snobbery, of course, to say ‘if everyone else is reading them, then I won’t’, but that’s at the heart of it.
However, take a look at the list of the all-time 20 bestselling fiction books in the UK.
The Da Vinci Code is top with just over 5m copies sold.
There are then seven Harry Potters in the top ten (no argument with that), with the Deathly Hallows coming in second place overall with 4.5m.
But elsewhere there are two more Dan Browns (Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol), the three Fifty Shades books, and three of the Twilight books. (Girl on the Train would now be in there somewhere, no doubt, but it was published too late for this particular list.)
Otherwise, probably the only books in the top 20 you might want to spend some time with The Lovely Bones, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Slim pickings if you’re not a fan of vampires, wizards, mummy porn or symbology.
And yet. Sometimes there are books which are on the bestseller lists for a very good reason, and one which doesn’t involve being the latest product in a money-spinning franchise.
Often this will be a standalone thriller like the aforementioned Girl on the Train, or Gone Girl, or The Couple Next Door (which was number three on the bestselling list for 2017).
But there will also be the occasional literary sensation which takes off due to a Booker or Costa win, a television adaptation, or the sheer vagaries of the market. I avoided Life of Pi for a very long time on the basis that it was far too popular, only to realise the error of my ways when I finally got around to reading it.
It’s not something which is unique to books. Take music, for example. A look at the all-time 20 bestselling albums will reveal entries by Shania Twain, Whitney Houston, Adele, and two by Celine (none of which would win any awards for boundary-pushing); but also genuinely groundbreaking efforts like Jagged Little Pill and Dark Side of the Moon.
But with music at least you will normally have had a chance to hear a little of what is on offer. Being faced with The Lovely Bones for the first time, for example, it might be more difficult to decide whether it’s worth picking up.
Perhaps you just need to go back to the failsafe method of checking the book cover. If the book’s title is bigger than the author’s name, buy; if it’s the other way around, avoid.
All By My Shelf 