surprise

have i told you i like books? have i told you that i am not buying any books this year? the problem with not buying any new books is that i can't stop myself from reading reviews of books, nor can i stop myself from going into places where books are sold to look at what has come out. so i have already produced quite a chunky wants list of books from 2012. sainsbury's have quite an interesting book section. it is mostly the top 20 paperbacks. a few new fiction hardcovers, a few odd non-fiction hardcovers and then the topical hardcovers (at the moment it seems to be cooking). almost hidden in the run of hardcovers is the new stephen king hardcover. it is a bit of a shock. firstly because it is yet another book in his gunslinger series, that ended a few years back (and i have yet to finish reading). i am not surprised that there is a new stephen king book out, the chap is quite prolific. what did surprise me was the page count - it comes in at 352 pages of largish type. for mr. king that is just a long short story. i am not longer surprised by the collection of dull covers that i see in bookshops. where once book covers were works of art, now they are just thrown together with little thought of the story inside. what does continue to surprise me is the continued success of james patterson. sainsbury's has three paperbacks in the top 20, one hardcover in the top 10. all i can do is scratch my head and wonder how and why? he has to be one of the worst authors i have ever read, and i don't say that lightly. yet people buy him in droves. there is no explaining it.