What Kentucky reads?

[Mandy Muffin]

My local public library, Boone County, provides book marks which publicize some aspect of the library's activity.  The latest has a listing as follows:

"Do you know what your neighbor is reading? Currently, the five most checked out books at the library are: 

1. Private #1 Suspect, James Patterson

2. The Last Boyfriend, Nora Roberts

3. Safe Haven, Nicholas Sparks

4. I, Michael Bennett, James Patterson

5. Fifty Shades of Grey, E. L. James"

If I ran the library, I wonder if I would have published this list.  Are these the classics our children will be reading in 50 years?  However, I admit to having read four of the five. 

[Ursula]

Interesting commentary on reading choices; wonder if my library would consider providing that info.

Snob that I am, I have not read any of those 5 books.

[Lip Service]

some local bookstores publish their best sellers.

Here is one in Berkeley

http://www.pegasusbookstore.com/bay-area-bestsellers

[Mandy Muffin]

LS,

This is more like a list I would have expected from my library.  But the titles they posted were 2 Patterson's which I consider I consider "pop" literature that can be consumed in a two hour plane flight and of course, the "Shades" book which has been labeled "mommy porn."  I don't read Nora Roberts because I'm to old for boyfriends or girlfriends or any of that romance stuff.  But I did enjoy the Sparks book and even went to the movie that came out this spring.  I tend to read all his novels, many of which have been made into feature movies or TV adaptions.   

I'm not a snob either, but I don't think any one of these books is going to make the list of the greatest novels of the 21st century. 

[Carci]

Haven't read any of those. The only one of interest might be the Nicholas Sparks book. I've enjoyed a couple of his in the past.

 

[Ioruach]

I suppose it is easy to look down one's nose at other peoples book choices.  I haven't read any of the five above, but a lot of my choices will never end up as classics, either.  In fact, if I were to read every Patterson novel that is published, I wouldn't have much time for anything else.  Now it seems that most of his are co-authored with someone else.  He certainly is prolific. 

I guess most of my classic reading occurred in my earlier years, during college and shortly thereafter.  I often think that I should go back and reread some of them but never seem to get around to it. 

[Carolyn Tewell]

Mandy! Thanks for sharing that! Too funny...and yet it is a sign of our times. Actually, I think all around NE Ohio would list the same 5 books? Maybe different in San Francisco or NYC...but maybe not. I've read a few of Sparks but I'm just not that into him as the fun book title "He is just not that in to you!"

Read Patterson in the early years...2003 thru 2009... Burnt out. Nora, I' guess I want more reality with my fantasy, Shades? Well, I think I read an excerpt and decided to skip, plus I'm a big Muckity Muck for Friends of Library...want to set an example...crack self up! Romance...now Sandra Brown could write like a man and enjoyed about 4 of her books...but most were "Eh?"

Romance? Stephen Kings Kennedy book had the hero really make love to his choice of Lady...no surprise? 11/23/63 right?

Seems like I did read/listen to an erotic book last year while camping...ahem...campfire was ....never mind! Try to remember the name...a mystery as that is my preference...but the action in bedroom was far more compelling! Hey? How did I get off on this track? Lol

[Mandy Muffin]

I get about one-third of my titles from the local Boone County Library when I am in Kentucky in the summertime.  Here is the library if you are interested in the facilities, which consists of six branches:  http://www.bcpl.org/library/locations/

My own past five borrowed book from there where:

"The Hit" Baldacci

"The Racketeer" Grisham

"The Company You Keep" Gordon

"While We Were Watching Downton Abbey"  Wax

"The Stranger" Camus

The first two books are obvious.  "The Company You Keep" is also a recently released movie by Robert Redford and an interesting look at the Weather Underground, the infamous civil disobedience group of the Vietnam era.  "While We Were Watching Downton Abbey" caught my eye as I started to view the three seasons of the British serial that has tremendous popularity.  This story takes place in Atlanta, where a condo complex is showing the serial a day each week.  Of  course, I try to mix a classic into my reading ritual each month so I picked up a Camus.  This Algerian based novel won the Nobel Prize for literature.