Books: Folding Star on The Times bestseller list

Over at A Winding Road, Folding Star has moved to the book chats to Sundays. We're going to highlight Folding Star's comments on books regularly because a number of readers have asked for more book talk.

Sunny in New Hampshire, for instance, noted, "I swear I love The Third Estate Sunday Review but a Sunday review should have more book commentary. I loved it when you reviewed Jane Fonda's My Life So Far. And though I've never read comic books, I even enjoyed the discussion of the book on the early history of comic books. Maybe I've been conditioned by newspapers to expect that Sundays are the day of the week when books can finally get a little attention or maybe I'm just remembering the early focus on the arts, but I'd really like it if there could be more discussion of books. I hope I haven't offended any of you."

Well Ty's talking about kicking your ass and Dona . . . No, you didn't offend any of us. We'd decided last week to begin highlighting and excerpting Folding Star's book chats for the precise reason you give. In addition to that, some weeks we'll offer something more. We haven't turned our backs on poetry or lyrics for anyone wondering. We'll be working on a new cutting shortly.


For now we'll highlight Folding Star's thoughts on focus and The Times bestseller list.

From "Lost Within the Pages: Sunday Book Chat:"


Gore Vidal famously wrote an essay for the New York Times in 1973 in which he read and reflected on the top ten books on the New York Times Best seller list. The essay, which is truly a must read and is collected in his United States: Essays 1952-1992, gave me the inspiration for a future series of Book Chats. Though Vidal focused on the top ten fiction books in January of 1973, I've been toying with the idea of doing the top ten non-fiction books.

Of course, I'd probably have to do one a week, rather than all ten at once. Read whatever is number 10 the first week, whatever is at number 9 the second week, etc.

It's a scary prospect, I have to admit. Just looking at the current list at the NY Times Website scares me. And I should warn you, the list on the website isn't published in the paper until May 15th, so if you don't want to know what number 10 will be, close your eyes! I won't reveal any specific numbers for any other books, in case you like to be surprised.

Number 10 is a little number called Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, by the odious Michael Savage. I cannot imagine reading that. I cannot imagine checking it out at the library, and I certainly wouldn't buy it and help his sales!

Still, a former co-worker of mine who was a dedicated progressive and a member of the Green Party read all those sort of right wing books, simply to know his enemy, as he put it.

Luckily, I won't be starting this project immediately. Right now, looking at the top ten list, I've already read one of the books, the amazing My Life So Far by Jane Fonda. But if I used this week's list as my template, I'd also have to read books by Bob Dole and Zell Miller!I suddenly know the horror that Vidal, who is what used to be called a man of letters, felt when he had to read through the sort of popular fiction that was what America was feeding its reading habits with.

Given that most of these conservative titles only make the list because of bulk orders, it doesn't seem fair to have to read them in such a project!

Should I go out on a limb and say that I will read the top 10 non-fiction hardcover best sellers published on a certain week in the future? Not knowing what it is exactly that I'll have to subject myself to?

Sounds like a summer project to me!

In the meantime, Fences and Windows is up next week.

We'll note that Fences and Windows is a collection of Naomi Klein's writings and you can check A Winding Road to see what Folding Star thought of it.