On Writing A Best-Seller (Shhh, There’s a Formula) is a piece on NPR discussing the book: Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers
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The books analyzed
James W. Hall, a university English professor, recruited a group of students to read (or re-read) twelve super-bestsellers, novels that sold millions even before movies were made of them (and movies were made of all twelve of these books). They analyzed the books the way they normally deconstruct Henry James or Jane Austen classics.
The 12 books that are analyzed in Hit Lit are:
The Bridges of Madison County
The Da Vinci Code
The Dead Zone
The Exorcist
The Firm
The Godfather
Gone with the Wind
The Hunt for Red October
Jaws
To Kill a Mockingbird
Peyton Place
Valley of the Dolls
Good choices
‘They analyzed the books the way they normally deconstruct Henry James or Jane Austen classics’
I found that doing that with ‘great books’ actually lessened their impact on me and actually messed up future enjoyment.
Same with poetry. Sometimes you just need to enjoy things without thinking too hard 🙂