a little something on the Salinger Mailing List

[Greg Montalbano]

Tom Harberd's lament:

>I always find this sort of thing really offensive.  I 
>remember when "The Name of the Rose" came out, I was about 
>ten, and I read it without any problems.  It's not a 
>difficult book.  But then later I read that people 
>were supposedly buying it only to leave on their 
>coffee-tables.  I find it hard to belive that people are 
>really this a)dumb b)free with their cash.  #15 for 
>coffee-table decoration?  Un-uh. 
>And Pynchon isn't as difficult as this article suggests 
>either.  Certainly not as "deep" as a "swamp."

Someone else on the list recently mentioned a citation on GR being the "most
purchased & unread" book in recent history.  I think whoever that was is
overlooking some more obvious choices:

#2 most purchased & unread:  MEIN KAMPF

#1 mp&u:  THE BIBLE (any flavor).

~G~
"Stupidity got us into this mess -- why can't it get us out?"
                   --Will Rogers