Len Deighton's SS-GB has climbed to the top 10 of paperback sales in the UK, according to The Times.
My theory is that much of this is down to the Waterstone's push (see stories below) to its customers, making the book thriller of the month for September. Perhaps some of it's down to people curious about the upcoming BBC series?
Whatever it was, for fans of Deighton and this book in particular, it just goes to show that quality is persistent and rarely fades totally from view.
I love this resurgence that LD has over the past few years. When I first stumbled upon him in 1995 while in university, only the Ipcress File and Samson series were in print. Thankfully, the university library had all of his previous output, and I was able to devour it all. The reprinting of all these great books has allowed to turn on a lot of fellow readers to his work, and no one has been disappointed yet!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad LD is still around to enjoy it!
What is interesting is, besides the SS-GB in the top 10 list, the popularity of books, I mean the physical books. To me, who has background in computing and all things digital and cyberspace etc.., paper and physical books are lasting strong even in this age of the digital revolution-the crowd at Waterstones in Gower Street for example, in the paper back sections, demonstrate this.
ReplyDeleteSimon-that is very interesting and encouraging. I consider myself to be an early adopter, and I have both the Nook and Kindle e-readers. Initially, I thought this would be great since I have a library that takes up a room and spills over into others. However, I have done a complete turnabout on ebooks. I typically only take the e-readers with me when I travel now, and only use them when the physical version of the book isn't available. The idea of having a huge collection of ebooks at my disposal is only appealing when away from home. I think (and hope) physical books and bookstores are going to be with us for a long time.
ReplyDeleteMathew- I have been an university academic in computing, now retired, since the days of the massive IBM 370 which we used in USA in early 1970s as well as the ARPA network , the forerunner of the Internet. Computing is my profession and my passion, not in the nerdy sense, but what it can do to help. particularly to the young, provided it is used in a measured way. But there it stops when it comes to books. I like to pack a few paper backs for my reading during travels and stay abroad on official work. e-books, and e-readers never appealed to me.
DeleteAlthough I teach distance learning masters programmes in computing for a top Russell Group university, I advise my students to buy physical textbooks, as they can go back read and re-read and contemplate for their analyses. I agree that bookstores and physical books will be here, long after I am gone!