There was nothing magical and much gross in so many grown ups puking in the steps of Widener last friday night. It's a good thing this is over.
 

Hello, what's that all about?
 

I believe J.K. Rowling deserves a Nobel Prize for getting children excited about reading. I think what is most remarkable is that she made reading cool for kids. When I was growing up in the 1970s and was an avid reader, I had to hide it or risk getting beat up.

But I have a quibble with this statement: "one of the very pleasant experiences of reading this book is that it returns you to a time when books were really at the heart of American culture, a mass experience."

Ummm, when exactly was that? I always hear about this golden age of reading when books, but I'm hard pressed to know exactly when it was. My parents didn't read (fiction at least) and there is a long tradition of anti-intellectualism/anti-literature in this country. The only literary event that I can think of off the top of my head that compares (meaning it was a true culture-changing event, not simply a book that sold well) was Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Yes, magazines and newspapers serialized fiction in the 19th century (and into the 20th), but I'm not sure that compares. After all, future generations might look at our period and see the hundreds of literary magazines that are published today and assume we were a nation of avid readers.

But I would love to know I'm wrong about this. Like I said, I know very few people in my parents or grandparents generations who read fiction. I just wonder when this great golden age of reading occured and what the evidence is.
 

Great comment. I was actually thinking of Dickens when I wrote my item, and of course you had that kind of critical mass in the 18th century with newspapers and pamphlets, but am I wrong in thinking that there was a golden age of literature in the US?

If I had to guess, I'd say during the first two decades of the 20th century....
 

And, perhaps, in the '60s, with Mailer and Updike and all the various New/Vietnam journalists.....
 

Wait.....we need to find out what happened on the Widener steps. Are you on it (figuratively speaking)?
 

The first couple of decades of the 20th century (and up to WWII) were certainly a golden age of American literature based on what was produced (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Faulkner, Dreiser, Dos Passos, Steinbeck - I could go on and on), but I'm skeptical that people lined up at midnight to buy To Have and Have Not.

However, that might be the one period that counts. Hemmingway was a cultural icon, after all, and maybe Mailer too. It's hard to imagine, say, Michael Chabon (who is a great writer) becoming a cultural icon.
 

As per 11:07 AM, probably due to the fact that the cops were patrolling the streets, all of the bars served "butterbeer," i.e. light beer mixed with butterscotch schnapps, to anyone who could see over the bar. I thoroughly enjoyed this responsibly, shame on those who didn't.
 

I was thinking of Dickens too. The story is that crowds of people at the New York pier shouted out as the last installment of The Old Curiosity Shop came by ship, "Is Little Nell dead?" That certainly echoes the "Is Harry going to die?" questions, though one difference is that we seem to have entered an anti-spoiler culture, so it's more like, "Don't give it away if Harry dies!"

I'm also intrigued that the Potter book is excluded from the NYTimes bestseller list because it's a children's book.

(Assuming the above reference to Widener steps has to do with the music and the Hogwarts Square event??)
 

Come on guys and girls, isn’t anybody reading this blog (other than moi) on Medicare? How about an honorable mention for the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series? And what happened to little Nell? I forget.
 

I would have had my ass kicked if I was seen carrying a Hardy Boys book in school.
 

Richard,

We expect a full-fledged essay on the book no later than tomorrow (and I do mean 'fledged,' since I am a bird or whatever).

I finished it today around midday. No complaints!

Frivolous Eagle,
Really Going to Be in Trouble with Prof. Ryan Now