Why We Read What We Read: Lisa Adams & John Heath

The past few years have shown a definite trend in the reading habits of Americans. While books like The DaVinci Code and the Harry Potter series fight for supremacy, we also seem to be attempting to assuage our doubts and sorrows in a multitude of religious and self-help books. Diet books offer fast and easy solutions while romance novels offer fantasies of hard-bodied knights and nights of endless passion. Our literary pursuits tend to lean in the direction of motherless children, disfigured orphans, and women surviving against all odds. Even the nonfiction we choose is most commonly in a political arena that has quickly become so partisan that even before we buy the books, we already know which side we are rooting for. But what do these choices really say about Americans in general and the readers in particular?

In each chapter the authors take a look at the major categories that have dominated the bestseller lists for the past 16 years. They take an in-depth look at our penchant for diet books and relationship manuals, from Dr. Phil to Mars and Venus. They cover our need to find God, run away from God, to find the truth, to believe the lies, and all the schlock that gets printed in between. There are sections devoted to our obsession with romance, John Grisham, self-help; even a section about Oprah's efforts to increase serious reading among her viewers. Say what you will about the woman but her name has increased the sales of a good many books and with the literacy rates in this country that's a damn good accomplishment. The very last chapter is an in-depth diatribe on why The DaVinci Code enthralled so many and why it's carbon-copy predecessor, Angels and Demons entralled no one.

Make no mistake though. Lisa Adams and John Heath are no dry-mouthed automatons who spew data at you. They are fabulously snarky and pepper their entries with their take on the situations at hand. The sidebars are full of humorous anecdotes, spoof songs, lists of Chicken Soup books we'd like to see but never will (Chicken Soup for the Killer Albino's Soul is my favorite). The section on romance novels almost had me choking with laughter several times and the section on Christian books versus New Age books was... eye-opening to say the least. Despite the snark and spite though, the authors make a host of incredibly valid points and should not be taken lightly. They have done their research and it shows, not only that we need to seriously rethink what we read, but why we're reading it and what we plan to do about it in the future.
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Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Trade; 1 edition (September 18, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140221054X
ISBN-13: 978-1402210549
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