Uncategorized | July 20, 2004

According to The New York Times, every 30 minutes a new book of fiction is unleashed, leaving readers — and even the superstores — overwhelmed. These numbers from 2003 mark a 19 percent increase over 2002. Where to turn for guidance in what to read? While I certainly wouldn’t argue that the market is flooded with mediocre books, it is among those “mid-list” books that the superstores are no longer ordering, or are cutting back on, that many literary gems reside. For those readers of contemporary fiction mentioned in Miller’s editorial, the ones who are so frustrated by the sheer number of books that they leave the store empty-handed, I have a suggestion. Why not visit the periodicals rack on the way out and pick up one of the small literary magazines there? (Perhaps, I don’t know, The Missouri Review?. . .)

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