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Originally Posted by sirbruce
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Sure, that's over the past 6 years. What about total volume averaged over the past decade compared to when heinlein wrote (what, the '50s?)
Off-topic:
From
The Teaching Company's Great American Bestsellers: The Books That Shaped America
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A good place to start is probably with a definition: What is a bestseller? The phrase may seem self-evident, but in fact there is room for debate. To begin with, for books, the term “bestseller” dates back only to the 1890s. As several scholars of popular literature have pointed out, the word “bestseller” is misleading. A book termed a bestseller invariably appeared somewhere in a tabulation of 10 or 15 or more books. Recently, to add to the confusion, specialized categories of bestseller lists have proliferated. As we proceed in the course, I will discuss the distinctive qualities and particular accomplishments of each book we will examine, and I will also comment on the recurrence of certain themes, among them the meaning of America, the idea of success, the complex questions of race and gender, and the prominence of religion. And wherever I can do so, I will also try to answer the question, why was this book so popular?
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