how long till a book gives up?

[cacian]

or does it??
fashion dictates right?

[Tyrion Cheddar]

Me not sure what you mean, o fair cacian. Do you mean how long till a book falls out of fashion? Or how long till you, the reader, give up on it because it's not grabbing you?

[YesNo]

It doesn't take me long to give up on a book. However, sometimes I go back and read parts of it again.

[cacian]

Me not sure what you mean, o fair cacian. Do you mean how long till a book falls out of fashion? Or how long till you, the reader, give up on it because it's not grabbing you?
hi Tyrion i mean both but i specifically mean the first part which is:
a book falls out of fashion:)

[cacian]

Me not sure what you mean, o fair cacian. Do you mean how long till a book falls out of fashion? Or how long till you, the reader, give up on it because it's not grabbing you?
duplicate

[PeterL]

There is a lot of variation in how long a book lasts, and even after they are no longer generally popular some books remain classics within a small piece of the whole framework of literature. For example, Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688) is thought by some to have been the first novel or the first one in the English language, and it is a pretty good read, so students sometimes read it. Bringing the same idea to less than 100 years ago, Hemingway and Fitzgerald were very popular and became fairly wealthy from writing (a difficult thing in any time), but today they are seldom read except in school. I'm sure that there are people who love reading and rereading both, but that is the exception. And recently the Harry Potter series became the most popular series ever, but will people read it in 100 years? There's only one way to know for sure, but I think that they become children's classics for a few hundred years, as happened with Hans Christian Anderson and Mark Twain. Twain is an interesting case; he was very popular in his lifetime, but his popularity is much less than it was 100 years ago, even though a few of his books hold up well.

And on the flip side is H. P. Lovecraft, who was impovished in his lifetime, but in the roughly 75 years since he died, his works have become more interesting and popular.

How long for a book to die? It depends.

[Kunikos]

By falling out of fashion do you mean a permanent or possibly temporary state? I would say a book never really "dies" unless all copies of it and all memory of its existence are erased-- even books that aren't part of pop culture or aren't generally known still have a chance to come back into circulation so long as they exist and there's a chance they might resonate (again) with us. (I'm curious if you think this is too extreme a definition)


Bringing the same idea to less than 100 years ago, Hemingway and Fitzgerald were very popular and became fairly wealthy from writing (a difficult thing in any time), but today they are seldom read except in school. I'm sure that there are people who love reading and rereading both, but that is the exception. ...
How long for a book to die? It depends.

by my above criteria, I'd argue that neither Hemingway's nor Fitzgerald's works have "died."

There's an interesting example in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura-- it was considered a dangerous book and it was burned/banned etc to the brink of extinction. A man named Poggio Bracciolini found what seems to have been the last copy in existence and rescued it from oblivion and the book is gaining more traction in modern times (if you're interested, Stephen Greenblatt describes the full story in "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern").

[PeterL]

By falling out of fashion do you mean a permanent or possibly temporary state? I would say a book never really "dies" unless all copies of it and all memory of its existence are erased-- even books that aren't part of pop culture or aren't generally known still have a chance to come back into circulation so long as they exist and there's a chance they might resonate (again) with us. (I'm curious if you think this is too extreme a definition)


by my above criteria, I'd argue that neither Hemingway's nor Fitzgerald's works have "died."

There's an interesting example in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura-- it was considered a dangerous book and it was burned/banned etc to the brink of extinction. A man named Poggio Bracciolini found what seems to have been the last copy in existence and rescued it from oblivion and the book is gaining more traction in modern times (if you're interested, Stephen Greenblatt describes the full story in "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern").


Who suggested that anything had "died"? I think that your use of the word in this context is inappropriate. I used that word as an extreme that had not happened.

Then there was Aristotle's second book of Poetics; it hasn't been seen in centuries.

[ennison]

I think I agree with Peter L. It depends. But I suppose the question that follows is - on what? That I think throws up a lot of variations.
A writer of whom I am fond - R C Hutchinson - was a popular mid twentieth century author but at present is read only by aficionados like myself. Moby Dick sank without trace not long after publication. Then was re-discovered. Many excellent women writers seem to fade into relative obscurity at their deaths. Of course though it is all relative. I think the Internet has been a boon for texts if not for writers.

[Kunikos]

Who suggested that anything had "died"? I think that your use of the word in this context is inappropriate. I used that word as an extreme that had not happened.

Then there was Aristotle's second book of Poetics; it hasn't been seen in centuries.

I very much like the word "died" in relation to books. I mentioned it in relation to your example because I adopted a much more extreme standpoint (whereas you used it to refer to falling out of usage) and I found the contrast helpful. But the word fits well-- books are just as mortal as we are. Aristotle's Poetics, Cicero's On Mourning-- the list goes on.

[Kunikos]

The Internet may have made it easier to preserve texts, but (a speculation) perhaps it's also causing more of them to fall into obscurity. With the explosion of texts, it might be harder to find a circulate a worthwhile text among a large audience, simply because there's so much else available.

[Dreamwoven]

I agree with YesNo. It doesn't take me long to give up on a book. However, sometimes I go back and read parts of it again.