I miswrote there, it should read: ''... why are those works
not shelved
[library] in their genre ..." My point being that if
publishers are determining it for both bookstores and
libraries, King for example is in the genre ghetto in a
bookstore and thus should be in the same place in the
library. Granted, King's works have been going beyond simply
being horror novels and that very well may be why some are
moving out.
Also, if you read King's "On Writing" ... King's a very
literary person and while I don't read his books (other than
"On Writing" and an excerpt from
"It", I find it odd that his literary education doesn't show
through in his fictional work as it does in "On Writing". And
the quality of the writing in
"On Writing" is exceptional as well ... he's very articulate
and engaging
(also, unlike a lot of unpublished writing how-to authors he
doesn't delude the reader with the idea that anyone can write
and all they have to do is follow his easy 5 step plan).
Reading it and nothing more isn't a good basis to make an
educated opinion, but if forced to do so ... I'd have to say
his best seller status and not the quality of writing has
more to do with his work being denigrated simply on principle
(it's popular, it can't be good) than an actual lack of
worthiness.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying your experience as being
true ... just that it doesn't match mine from the other
perspective of the bookstore. Granted, based on the
personalities of some of the bookstore workers I've met, I
wouldn't be surprised if they read the publisher's
recommendation and then put it where they thought it belonged
any way even if that opposed the genre printed on the cover
(I've seen that even when it was a non-fiction work).
Personally, I don't mind having genre sections to look
through for reading material ... I can start at the beginning
and look at the spines for anything that grabs me from
beginning to end. If it were all in the same section that
would take an excessively long time to do.
-- Anthony Dauer Alexandria, VA
HBO's Six Feet Under Discussion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Six_Feet_Under/
----- Original Message ----- From: Jess Nevins Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 9:45 PM
> Not always and increasingly not often, from what I can tell. But I think > the publishers guide the LoC classifications in large part. > > That still begs the question, though, about why publishers want > some authors out of genre ghettos and not others.
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