Forbes Honors Modern Literature With A Slideshow …

November 8, 2005 by wfzimmerman | No comments

Tastemakers: Literature - Forbes.com:

t is common to think the world is becoming increasingly illiterate and inattentive. The many media that compete for our attention are louder, brighter and faster than books. Libraries, bookstores and publishing houses are swallowing budget cuts and layoffs. The National Endowment for the Arts says that literary reading is in dramatic decline.

At the same time, truly interesting and original literature continues to be published–and not all of it is languishing in the sale bins at Barnes & Noble (nyse: BKS - news - people ). J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books fly off the shelves just as fast as they are printed (the most recent in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has generated over $200 million in sales since its release in July). Elmore Leonard’s best-selling mysteries keep us up at night. And whether the authors are old lions, such as Philip Roth, or young ones such as Jonathan Safran Foer, serious literature still sells. In fact, in 2004, Americans spent an estimated $8.8 billion on adult trade books, $3.1 billion on juvenile trade books, and $2.9 billion on mass-market paperbacks, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade organization based in New York City. In fact, U.S. consumers will spend nearly 5% more on books in 2005 than they did in 2004, BISG predicts.

Slide Show: Tastemakers In Literature

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