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Fourteen categories of good books

8 o'clock, April 16, 2005

In these remote pages it is written that the good books are divided into those:

  1. sold in Foyle’s
  2. slightly foxed
  3. in revised editions
  4. non-fictional
  5. disturbing
  6. unpublished
  7. mass-market
  8. included in this classification
  9. with ugly covers
  10. unread
  11. written in distinctive and poetic styles
  12. et cetera
  13. recently thrown across the room
  14. that, in magazine reviews, are indistinguishable from one another

Comments

It's like a Chinese Bestiary of books!

—— Maureen McHugh, 7:43 AM, Sunday, April 17, 2005

I would also include the books that belong to the Emperor.

—— Kathy S, 10:29 AM, Sunday, April 17, 2005

Well, you know, I started with “category (n)” and “everything else,” and then I realized how arbitrary that was...

—— David Moles, 8:05 AM, Monday, April 18, 2005

Good list.

See also my column on categories and my column on the indexing problem.

Your categories g and i obliquely remind me that I still can't get over how nice-looking trade paperback covers have become lately. Every time I go to a bookstore lately I start judging books by their covers; makes me want to buy all of them. Perhaps it's my tastes that've changed rather than the covers, but either way, I seem to have become part of the target market.

—— Jed Hartman, 12:50 PM, Monday, April 18, 2005

I think the covers have changed, too.

Which makes me wonder: Are the fantasy covers that look exactly like they did in the 1980s aimed at young readers, or at nostalgic readers in their forties?

—— David Moles, 4:52 PM, Monday, April 18, 2005

I must say, I always thought the largest category of good books was books-I've-been-meaning-to-read-for-years-now.

Thanks,
-V.

—— Vardibidian, 4:33 AM, Tuesday, April 19, 2005