Sep 27

BOTNS #148: Your literary Mount Rushmore?

By Ann Kingman Podcasts Add comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:50 — 17.1MB)

Hype vs. buzz – when is it too much? Who’s on your literary Mount Rushmore? Also, We the Animals by Justin Torres, and Habibi by Craig Thompson.

Hype vs. Buzz

In segment one, we try to differentiate between “hype” and “buzz,” largely inspired by a post at the Redbox blog. We think that “hype” is manufactured, and “buzz” is genuine. Examples of this are The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding. Both books received incredible word-of-mouth months prior to publication, but from our vantage point, that was genuine buzz created largely by booksellers and bloggers who had read and loved those books. We look at some of the reasons that people may not want to read books or see movies that are getting “too much buzz” or being “too hyped.” Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

 

Your literary Mount Rushmore? (7:51)

In our Goodreads group, we have a thread called “What do you want us to talk about?” where we troll for episode ideas when we’re stuck. Dennis had a great one:

How about a “Literary Mount Rushmore”.

I think it would be fun to do a call-in show about the four authors you’d put on your personal Literary Mount Rushmore. I’d leave off any qualifiers to make the answers the most interesting and diverse.

We had a lot of fun with this topic. We hope you do, too. Please call our voicemail line: (209) 867-78323 and tell us which 4 authors would be on YOUR literary Mount Rushmore.

Michael’s literary Mount Rushmore:
William Boyd
Jeffrey Eugenides
Donna Tartt
J.K. Rowling

Ann’s literary Mount Rushmore:
Agatha Christie
Anton Chekhov
William Shakespeare
J.R.R Tolkien

Please do call our voicemail line by October 15th if you can — we will put all of your calls together for a podcast that will air on October 19th.

Two books we can’t wait for you to read: (16:17)

We the Animals Habibi

I need you to read We The Animals by Justin Torres. I don’t really want to say much more than that. As I was reading this book, I sent a twitter post: “We the Animals, wow! My heart was broken by page 5, stomped upon by page 17.”

Michael raves about Habibi by Craig Thompson, a graphic novel set in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. The story of a young woman who is sold into slavery, and the young child she finds and cares for. The art is beautiful and evocative, and the design of the book is stunning.

One last thing: if you are at all interested in the details of the Books on the Nightstand retreat, Booktopia 2012, please sign up for the newsletter — we will be announcing details via the email list on Friday, September 30th.

 

[image: AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by theclyde]

  • Anonymous

    Definitely J.R.R. Tolkin is a Mount Rushmore for me, but also going to the book store and not adding to my collection, but the same thing could be said about me and the library.

  • Sean

    Melville

    Borges

    Pynchon

    Antrim

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Literary-Man/100002063705771 Literary Man

    Well, Mount Rushmore is in America, so we’re looking at American authors, right?

    Let’s dance like this, then:

    Melville

    Twain

    Hemingway

    Morrison

    Wouldn’t THAT be bad ass?

  • Sean

    Good point, Literary Man. 

    Melville
    Flannery O’Connor
    Pynchon 
    Antrim

  • kbrown

    Mark Twain immediately came to mind (especially if we are limiting the list to American Authors)
    Ernest Hemingway
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Harper Lee

    OR

    Emily Dickenson
    Harper Lee
    Toni Morrison
    Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • kbrown

    Mark Twain immediately came to mind (especially if we are limiting the list to American Authors)
    Ernest Hemingway
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Harper Lee

    OR

    Emily Dickenson
    Harper Lee
    Toni Morrison
    Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • kbrown

    Mark Twain immediately came to mind (especially if we are limiting the list to American Authors)
    Ernest Hemingway
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Harper Lee

    OR

    Emily Dickenson
    Harper Lee
    Toni Morrison
    Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • Pattysnyder26

    When I saw the words “hype” and “buzz” in your show notes, I immediately thought that the buzz is just as manufactured as the hype. The hype is created by the publishers and the agents to reach those who create the buzz. It’s definitely a form of direct marketing. I just finished reading “The Book on Publishing” by Keith Gessen in the October issue of Vanity Fair Magazine. The article reveals how much effort goes into creating a literary star, Chad Harbach author of “The Art of Fielding.” There was also a mention of how “The Night Circus” was made appealing to the audience at Book-Expo America by its editor when she mentioned along with other information, that it had already been bought by a major film studio. This is how new-age hype is being used to create buzz.

  • Bill

    Wouldn’t “American Authors” be a qualifier? 
    Haruki Murakami
    Natsuo Kirino
    David Guterson
    John Irving
    American only: I’d replace Murakami & Kirino with Hemmingway & Barbara Kingsolver

  • http://fortheloveofbookshops.wordpress.com Erin “Fortheloveofbookshops”

    I agree with Pattysnyder that the “buzz” is just as manufactured as “hype,” and therefore, fairly indistinguishable to this layperson. I’m one who gets suspicious when I hear a lot of buzz over a book. It’s unfair because I know many of these books are hyped up for a reason, but I still can’t beat the feeling that I’m being sold something trendy. I tend to wait several months to see if the buzz is still there and if it is and I like what I’m reading, then I’ll give it a go. 

  • http://twitter.com/Zachcaro Zachary Caro

    There maybe a better place to post this… But I just found the best ever scifi fantasy flowchart guide to NPR’s 100 best Scifi/Fantasy books:

    http://www.box.net/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg

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  • Lynda Infantino

    4 authors for my Mt. Rushmore might be:

    F. Scott FitzgeraldWilliam TrevorKazuo IshiguroJohn Steinbeck

  • Debraknits

    Here’s my Mt. Rushmore:
    Jane Austen
    Louisa May Alcott
    Margaret Atwood
    Mary Wollstonecraft.

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  • Jessica

    Mt. Rushmore:
    Jane Austen
    Henry David Thoreau
    Shakespeare
    JK Rowling

    Very interesting to think about who has influenced me or who I think is the best. I feel like being an avid reader made it that much more difficult…

  • http://twitter.com/contextual_life gabrielle gantz

    I know you want a voicemail and that it’s probably too late but here are my four: Richard Wright, Douglas Coupland, Ray Bradbury, and Dorothy Parker. Great show!

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