[Bananafish] Book Brokers

[D.]

Well, Franzen has a bit of the "controversy" factor
with him, especially nearly 5 years after the Oprah
Debacle.  DF Wallace has a bit of an "underground"
following, such as those are today, and may still yet
have another opus up his sleeve to rival or surpass
Infinite Jest.

My response was mainly from the perspective of a
collector of rare books who is serious interested in
developing a valuable (especially in the future) or
respectable collection.  The Dan Browns, John
Grishams, J. K. Rowlings of the current best-sellerdom
have demand on their side today, but almost to a
writer they don't have stellar reps as quality
producers and their books are so ubiquitous that they
remind me of Ford Escorts in the 1980s.  Book
collecting is an odd sideline where condition
(condition, condition, condition!), author reputation,
and scarcity of items get jumbled up to produce insane
values either short-term (see Harry Potter today) or
long-term (see The Great Gatsby).  Collectors, from
the ones I've known, really don't give two s--ts about
who is popular or not today--they care more about
whose works will last in the coming years and
generations.

D.


--- Christopher Kubica <info at applicationarch.com>
wrote:

> Really?
> 
> See:
> 
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scott-essay.html?pagewanted=p
> rint
> 
> I don't think there's many people reading those
> guys. Especially see the
> paragraph:
> 
> IS this quantitative evidence for the decline of
> American letters - yet
> another casualty of the 60's? Or is the American
> literary establishment the
> last redoubt of elder-worship in a culture mad for
> youth? In sifting through
> the responses, I was surprised at how few of the
> highly praised, boldly
> ambitious books by younger writers - by which I mean
> writers under 50 - were
> mentioned. One vote each for "The Corrections" and
> "The Amazing Adventures
> of Kavalier & Clay," none for "Infinite Jest" or
> "The Fortress of Solitude,"
> a single vote for Richard Powers, none for William
> T. Vollmann, and so on.
> 
> Sincerely,
>  
> Chris Kubica
> 
> President, Founder
> Application Architects, LLC
> Research Triangle Headquarters
> (P) 919-259-8023
> (F) 425-671-5648
> 
> FileMaker 8 Certified Developer
> 
> FDA, Part 11, GxP, HIPAA and SOX Compliance Experts
> 
> 
> 
> > From: "D." <darjr1 at yahoo.com>
> > Reply-To: bananafish list
> <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
> > Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 15:22:29 -0700 (PDT)
> > To: bananafish list <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
> > Subject: Re: [Bananafish] Book Brokers
> > 
> > As for payoff in 20 years from now, I'd say,
> perhaps,
> > David Foster Wallace or maybe Jonathan Franzen, as
> > they   young, with some level of recognition, and
> > their earliest books had relatively low print
> runs.
> > I'd have to think on this one longer to give more
> > suggestions.
> 
> 
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