How many books does a man need? (allusion)
L E Bryan
lebryan at sonic.net
Tue Oct 31 14:45:52 CDT 2017
They pile up in the homes of the tsundoku cursed.
> On Oct 31, 2017, at 6:31 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Isn't it also true that the books not worth reading are the ones that sell? Excluding vanity and tenure granting, I mean.
>
> On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 6:27 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com <mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Arthur,
>
> Take it from one who knows: most of those books, say 160,000 are not worth reading. Say 100,000 are what I call interchangeable books, newly reshuffled pages of generic stuff: on self-help, business, dieting, etc. etc. that leaves 20,000.....at least half of those are the equivalent of vanity publishing, I say....not good enough for anyone but relatives and tenure-granting Department heads to read....so, maybe 10, 000 now, of which at least half of those are medicore, earnest finishers....so, 5,000 left, of which more than half cannot be of any major reader's interest since we cannot be interested in all---that half varies by individual, of course---so only @ 2,500 fiction and non-fiction ( or around 55 a week)....
>
> So.......just.......read....slowly.......enough; .....feel.....every ...............word ......which the books worth reading demand......
>
> to not care about the other 54 while you are reading.
>
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