ATD: ad: Pynchon excerpt from new novel

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I suppose there's a little research project for me, getting to the bottom of TRP's actual sales figures. Note, however, that the first four volumes of the new translation of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time"---issued 2004--- (and the only four, in that translation, to be published as Hardbound editions in the USA) have been unceremoniously dumped into the remaindered bins. Our store had a neat little stack of "Swann's Way" (got one for myself, another for my English-Teacher [Dickens-obsessed] sister) and across the street (at a Barnes & Nobel) I found the other three. On the one hand, it's yet another unfortunate indicator of how un-educatable folks are becoming. On the other hand, it's a fantastic bargain for us unabashed bookworms. 
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Paul Nightingale" <isread at btopenworld.com>
>  
> > > 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.
> 
> 
>