I also like their recognition of ‘influence and popularity sometimes don’t go together’.
I like the fact that the editors have gone to some effort to qualify their choices. We’ve tried to reflect this in our list.” Influence and popularity sometimes don’t go together. The Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa never sold as many records as some of the “one-hit wonders,” but their music has transformed the industry. We also tried to keep a balance between books that everyone buys and hardly anyone reads versus books that, though not widely bought and read, are deeply transformative. All the books on this list have been enormously influential…. Not all the books on this list are “great.” The criterion for inclusion was not greatness but INFLUENCE. The editors of the list were careful with their selections and tried to “…provide a window into the culture of the last 50 years…. I have only read eight of these books cover-to-cover – a few others I have read parts of (some under a degree of sufferance at uni!). Interestingly, the list includes a mix of self-help and pop-psychology titles, a diet book as well as fiction that reflects significant cultural trends. Another interesting book list, this one from Super Scholar listing the ’50 Most Influential Books of the Last 50 (or so) Years’.
0 kommentar(er)
