Slate books and culture columnist Laura Miller looks at what this year’s bestseller list tells us about 2017. One of her conclusions, “2017 was the year that the very concept of a best-seller became even more dubious.” After reading her analysis, check out our Year in Reading lists, whose authors found joy in reading and viewed it as one of the few good things of this year, even if the bestsellers of the year didn’t reflect those feelings.
What the Bestseller List Says about 2017
Submit to ‘It’s Lit’
The Year of the Essay
“Reading fiction is one of my true loves, but essays help me to understand things about the world, the writer, and if they’re really great, myself.” Electric Literature‘s Jason Diamond argues 2014 was “The Year of the Essay,” and when we think over the collections published this year – The Empathy Exams, The Unspeakable and Loitering, among others – it’s hard to disagree.
●
●
.literature
Amazon’s attempts to control literary domain names like “.book” and “.read” are not making the publishing community happy.
●
●
Describing Art as an Art Form
Recommended: Matthew Monteith’s series of photographs showing people explaining artworks.
“A brazen car”
●
●