On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:10:26 -0400, Bob LeChevalier
<lojbab@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>We were talking informally in class not long ago, 17 college sophomores
>>and I, and on a whim I asked who some of their favorite writers are.
>>The question hung in uneasy silence. At length, a voice in the rear
>>hesitantly volunteered the name of . . . Dan Brown.
>>
>>No other names were offered.
>>
>>The author of "The DaVinci Code" was not just the best writer they
>>could think of; he was the only writer they could think of.
>
>which may mean some or all of the following, in combination
>a) they've been studying their textbooks so much that haven't had time
>for free reading
>b) they don't bother to remember the authors' names because it is
>useless information to them
>c) the books that they read are chosen for subject matter, and not
>because they like the writer (whose name, per b, they may not have
>noticed)
>d) they are considering their audience, and may have favorites, but
>none that they are willing to admit to an professor.
I'm far past my college days, I read an average of over two books
(fiction) a week, and I couldn't come up with the names of two of the
authors of the books I've read in the last months.
I keep a slip of paper in my car's glove compartment where I keep my
library card, and I sometimes jot down the name of the author of a
book I've liked. I usually forget to do so, though, and I usually
forget to take the slip of paper into the library.
When I browse in the library I read the dust jackets and pick out
books that seem like they might interest me. Sometimes I'll choose a
book because I notice that it's by the same author of a book I've
read, but I only know this because the book I've read is right there
on the shelf.
I could come up Dan Brown's name because I've read TDC, but the only
reason I remember Brown's name is because the book is mentioned so
damned often in so many places.
I just finished a book that was OK, but not great, but OK enough that
I would take out another book by the same author. I finished it
yesterday. I have no idea of the name of the author.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
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