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Ne znam kako vi ostali blogeri i blogerke ali ja čitam skoro sve na internetu, od vesti do takozvane lepe književnosti i to samo ona manje lepa dela, ne znam šta mi je, ne znam da li je to dobro, ali isto to radi i moja ćerka koja doduše nikad i nije čitala knjige osim kad mora i to je onda radila s velikim naporom i izuzetno oštrim komentarima koje sam ja zadivljeno citirala .Posebno je dobro analizirala karaktere Dobrice Ćosića, nikad nije znala ko je good a ko bad guy što se kod autora podrazumevalo ali ne kod beogradskih šiparica. I ne samo to, već i telefon više ne koristim od kada postoji Skype, i sve me to daleko manje fizički materijalno i psihički košta. Jedino još ne igram internet igrice i čvrsto sam protiv ljudi koji izbegavaju prave životne igre računajući na druge da će u njihove ime nešto dobro da učine. 

Life-Expectancy of Bestsellers Plummets, Finds Study
Signs of Turmoil as Publishing Industry Gathers for Annual Book Expo and Da Vinci Code Film Arrives in Theatres

May 19, 2006 - The life-expectancy of a bestselling novel has halved within the last decade, according to a long-term study of fiction bestsellers. It has fallen to barely a seventh of its level 40 years ago.

The findings of the 50-year study are announced as America's book trade gathers in Washington for Book Expo (May 18-21), its largest annual get-together, while the movie of "The Da Vinci Code," the mother of all recent bestsellers, goes on worldwide release (May 19). The study was conducted by Lulu.com (www.lulu.com), the world's fastest-growing source of print-on-demand books.

The average number of weeks that a new No. 1 bestseller stayed top of the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List has fallen from 5.5 in the 1990s, 14 in the 1970s and 22 in the 1960s to barely a fortnight last year -- according to the study of the half-century from 1956-2005.

In the 1960s, fewer than three novels reached No. 1 in an average year; last year, 23 did.

"The blockbuster novel is heading the way of the mayfly," says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.com, referring to the famously short-lived insect.

The plummeting life-expectancy of a fiction bestseller, says Young, reflects the way that the publishing industry is unravelling, in an age of over-production, plus media fragmentation and now disruptive new technologies such as the Internet and print-on-demand: "The publishing revolution is nigh."

Similar trends are happening in other sectors, from music to movies, adds Young. "It's part of a cultural shift."

The future of publishing, he continues, belongs to "niche-busters" -- books targeting a niche rather than mass market." Over 1,200 new niche-buster titles are now published on Lulu each week.

Although the latest annual book trade figures show the first fall in US book production for years, the period covered by Lulu's 50-year study saw a huge growth in the annual output of new titles. The number of books published in the US almost doubled between 1993 and 2004 -- from 104,124 to 190,078.

Blockbusters, of course, do still exist, concedes Young, who could not do otherwise in the week that the movie of "The Da Vinci Code" opens worldwide. Indeed, the biggest ones today sell more overall than their forerunners. But even uber-blockbusters like "The Da Vinci Code" fail to achieve the sort of unbroken dominance that was once routine.

The three novels to have topped the list for the longest stints during the 50 years studied were "Advise and Consent," a political thriller by Allen Drury, which hit No. 1 on Oct 14, 1959 and stayed there for 57 consecutive weeks; "The Source," an historical epic by James Michener, which reached No.1 on July 11, 1965 and stayed top for 43 weeks; and "Love Story," by Erich Segal, which, from May 10, 1970, bestrode the list for 41 weeks.

The longest unbroken spell that "The Da Vinci Code," by contrast, has topped the list was 13 weeks, between November 16 2003 and February 15 2004 -- or two months less than the average No. 1 bestseller in the 1960s. Dan Brown's novel first hit No.1 on April 6, 2003, but stayed top for just two weeks. It has since lost and regained the top spot over 15 times, for varying periods.

"The market today is more chaotic," says Young. "The churn rate is far higher."

A growing number of bestsellers, says Young, now spend just a single week atop the list. "The New York Times will soon have to publish its bestseller lists daily instead of weekly, in order to stay up-to-date."

ABOUT LULU.COM: Lulu.com, the world's fastest-growing source of print-on-demand books, lets you publish your own books, eBooks, calendars, images, music and videos at no advance cost. It was founded by Bob Young, who previously co-founded the software company, Red Hat.

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