The Millions has a great post up right now in which Craig Fehrman goes to a Borders and interviews customers about what they're reading.
My first interview ended up being my favorite. Mary Anne, an older woman with red clogs and a kind face, tells me that âreading is a real passion of mine.â Her favorite author is Diana Gabaldon, and Mary Anne likes to let the TV hum in the background as she reads (or rereads) 10 to 12 books of historical fiction per week. âBooks put me right in the moment,â she says. âThe story, the characters, the period stuff.â (Dan Brown elicits an âehââheâs âoutlandishly far-fetched,â in her nice phrase.)I start every interview by asking people what they read, coming across all the names the bestseller lists would suggest: Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, Mitch Albom, Steve Berry and James Rollins, Stephen King (âThe cheeseburger of American lit,â as one Borders employee puts it), Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, and plenty more I hadnât heard of. (I confess to writing Diane Gabeldern? in my notes.) Bob, an older man in a grubby New York Giants hat, gives the same one-word answer to âWhat do you read?â and âWhy do you read?â: âmystery.â Another guy admits he reads âwhateverâs in the airport.â
I know from experience that it's hard to write about popular fiction without sounding like a condescending jackass, and Fehrman pulls it off quite well. This report is really well-written and informative, and full of glorious asides and fascinating observations about Twilight, Christmas shopping lists found in bathrooms, and how people choose the next book they're going to read.