With year’s end drawing near the editors of the Wall Street Journal‘s weekend review section asked fifty “friends” to tell us their favorite books of 2012. We hear from TV personalities, businessmen, writers, politicians, a college president, two baseball managers, three chefs, a Fed banker, actors, and journalists. Quite an eclectic list.
And quite remarkable for having no one remotely associated with religion. No pastor, not even Rick Warren. No priest or hierarch. No rabbi. No theologian. Tells us something about the editors, I suppose, which also tells us something about America at the end of 2012.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the fact that this set of fifty favorite books, which obviously serves to satisfy reader’s need for gift suggestions (chefs!), is presented with no reference to Christmas.
December 17th, 2012 | 9:25 am
The society is theo-phobic, that’s for sure.
December 17th, 2012 | 10:01 am
I was once told that the New York Times best seller list is computed by first removing “religious” books like the Bible (and perhaps other similar books) from the mix being compared.
The rationale was that if these religious titles were included they would somehow “skew” the totals, and you wouldn’t get the latest most popular books, but instead the Bible would always be on the list.
December 17th, 2012 | 1:31 pm
The New York Times—the focus of evil in the modern world—included in its 100 notable books of the year:
December 17th, 2012 | 1:49 pm
The rationale was that if these religious titles were included they would somehow “skew” the totals, and you wouldn’t get the latest most popular books, but instead the Bible would always be on the list.
First, bestseller lists are usually divided into fiction and nonfiction. How would you classify the Bible?
Second, bestseller lists are usually divided into paperback and hardcover. Paperback books are often divided into trade and mass market.
The Bible is sold in hundreds of different editions and translations. If you look on Amazon.com, you can see the true sales rank of each version. Supposing all the various editions and translations of the Bible, when added together, actually outsell any other book. (I am not at all sure this is true.) Should, say, the New York Times in compiling its bestseller list say, “Let’s see, if we add the hardcover version of the Scofield Study Bible, KJV, with the
Life Application Study Bible NIV, Personal Size, with the The Catholic Youth Bible,Third Edition, New American Bible Revised Edition, with the . . . etc., etc., etc., …. that will make “The Bible” the number 1 selling book?
December 17th, 2012 | 8:22 pm
As the brother of one of said editors, I can assure you that this omission tells us nothing about the editors. It isn’t worth throwing stones about, that’s for sure.
As for not mentioning Christmas, if I am not mistaken, the article did not even mention gift suggestions.
December 18th, 2012 | 12:03 am
Joseph Epstein mentioned that he read E. Waugh’s biography of Ronald Knox.
December 18th, 2012 | 8:12 am
I associate these “end of year” lists with the New Year celebration rather than with Christmas. Specifically, I think of the old year (thin elderly man with a long wispy beard leaning on a cane) that must give way to the new (chubby infant).
I have already seen the list of notable deaths in 2012. To me, this book selection is of a piece with that.
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