I’m always amazed at how ‘old’ books suddenly become ‘the latest hottest’ books, years after their release because either the author has finally written a blockbuster — such as John Grisham’s THE FIRM causing his much less-well known (at the time) first (not that very good) book, A TIME TO KILL, to go stratospheric — or someone like Oprah recently ‘discovers’ a book like THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, a Ken Follett title originally released in 1989 which has just miraculously made her Oprah’s Book Club list and is now red hot, hotter than it was when it was first published. (Funny, but it seems to me she must be really reaching, to have to go back 18 years to find something worth promoting, eh? What happened to the books released in the last 6 months? Nothing worth reading in the WHOLE bunch? Hummm… ;)
Now while I loved THE KEY TO REBECCA and EYE OF THE NEEDLE way back when, I really have never read much Follett after that. And as a bookseller, his books are generally what they call ‘too available’ to usually sell well or for very much since they’re everywhere, so I generally don’t pick them up when I see them. However, just a mention from Oprah, and everyone’s scrambling to get their hands on a First Edition or just about any nice copy. Amazing what power that woman has. (Now if only I could get her a list of ALL the 1st Editions I have around here and have her promote THOSE too, what money I could make… LOL)
The other thing I’ve noticed that will ‘bring a book back’ is having a movie made from it. A few examples that come to mind are Clive Cussler’s SAHARA (having had Matthew McConnaughey star in it didn’t hurt interest, that’s for sure!) along with RAISE THE TITANIC! (always a popular topic, but the movie made it more so), not to mention the classic case of GONE WITH THE WIND (Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, yummm) keeping that book selling for a solid 60+ years now in every format under the sun. A new one just out, I AM LEGEND with Will Smith, may give Richard Matheson’s books a new push, although his early stuff is usually always in great demand as his work’s classic. Should be interesting, however, to see how they deal with the book’s ending. (I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it in case they want to after seeing the movie.) That book’s been made into movies before, but not with a ‘big name star’ like Smith. Having him attached ought to create quite a buzz for the book anew. Guess we’ll have to wait and see, hmmm?…
Photo of Ken Follett at a book signing in Italy
