Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Keep in mind that they are talking about books. I know a number of people who read newspapers and magazines every day, but rarely read books (other than perhaps the Bible or some other religious work).
Up until fairly recently, it was unusual for people to have very many books available for reading. That's why many author's main source of income was from short stories, or serializations of books in magazines and newspapers. Most of what we would consider the classic works, i.e. works by Charles Dickens, Doyle, Verne all the way up through Hemingway, were stories that first appeared in newspapers or magazines. It's also why up until fairly recently, libraries were the biggest market for hard back books.
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A good point. I still remember reading how Louis 14th had a large library. He had a whole 24 books in it. Of course books were hand copied back then and too expensive for many people. And even with Gutenberg's press I imagine literacy spread slowly at first.