ATD: ad: Pynchon excerpt from new novel

[Paul Nightingale]

> > I'm curious, bookstore person.  What have Pynchon's book-sales figures
> 
> > been like?
> 
> I'm guessing not too spectacular? But one thing I notice is that
> Pynchon's books show up a *lot* less than average in second hand
> bookshops. I suppose people who buy Pynchon books don't often sell
> them.....

This might be the case; Pynchon readers (a) are serious readers who want to
revisit his books year after year after year, or (b) want others to think
they are serious readers etc.

However, I too recall the piles of M&D remaindered, barely a year after
publication; and I also recall the frequency (as it seemed to me) with which
the hardback then arrived in second-hand shops c. 1998-2001.