Agree its wonderful, but I’m not sure I’d hold up a book where the characters frequently spout off in untranslated Latin as “very accessible”.
I have a book resale business, and I can’t GIVE her books away. It seems that everyone who wants them already has them.
And I refuse to stock the “Left Behind” series, I don’t care how well they might sell. I do have standards, ya know.
p.s. Does anyone still read Jacqueline Susann novels any more? Those were huge best-sellers in their time.
I read a lot, and have never even heard of some of the authors listed. I’m not sure why anyone would think they’re the most well-known in America, let alone other English-speaking countries, let alone the rest of the world.
I didn’t realize he was still alive, but now that you mention him, that’s not a bad choice, at least for “best regarded.”
I don’t consider the Harry Potter series children’s literature. It’s a good story no matter your age. I recall her later books would even come out with two covers, one of them being a more adult-oriented one for her older fans.
Three others to consider for best regarded - E.L. Doctorow, Salman Rushdie and Alice Munro. Come to think of it, Rushdie may have a shot for best known, if for some of the wrong reasons.
Yeah, and Rushdie is a writer’s writer, too - really widely respected, his novel Midnight’s Children won the Booker of Bookers, etc. I’m not a huge fan, but that has no relevance here…
Saintly Loser, kindly step over here:How do you rate Bob Dylan’s songwriting?
OP here, to confirm that no, Oprah doesn’t count. I’m referring to people who are primarily known as authors.
Internationally, I’d say best known goes to Rowling. King doesn’t even come close. In this area of the world, Murakami is better known than King.
I have to say I was surprised at how often King got mentioned in this thread. He must be positively HUGE in America. In India at least, he’s not widely read, known or liked. AFAIK. But I love reading, and consequently have friends who like reading. King never even enters any conversations. Or bookstores for that matter. I spend more than my fair share of time in bookstores. King isn’t prominently displayed or well stocked.
But are movies from his books shown? That’s how Thais know him. Thais are not big readers. It’s often unusual even for an educated Thai to read a single book in his lifetime. But they all know Stephen King from the movies. In that sense, he is well known.
King’s very well-known in Israel - all of his books are translated as soon as they come out, and I’ve never seen a bookstore without at least a few of them. I’d say that with the exception of Rowling, he’s definitely the most well-known contemporary foreign author here.
Wait…seriously?
Seriously. Very seriously. Thais just don’t read. Except for maybe Japanese manga and other comic books. Even university students have been known to graduate without ever opening a textbook. There’s the odd Thai such as my wife who does read books and enjoys it, but the vast majority never do. Ever.
Funny thing too is that Unesco named Bangkok as this year’s World Book Capital, much to everyone’s mirth. About the only thing that has been done to promote it though is the Bangkok city government setting aside some sort of comic-book corner in one building somewhere.
Good for India.
Stephen King, although the total number of his books sold isn’t much less than J. K. Rowling’s total, differs from J. K. Rowling in that his books haven’t sold that many copies individually:
The Dark Tower series sold much fewer copies than the Harry Potter series, and the other books of his even less. Yes, they were best-sellers by most standards, but they weren’t close to the sales of each Harry Potter book.
Best known would have to be Rowling.
For “best regarded” - I’d take a slightly different tack, and define that as “Who will literature classes be reading in 50 years?”
Is Rowling even in the hunt here? I know here books are really great stories (I admit to not reading them), but are they good as commentaries on the human condition? As representations of present day culture etc?
From what I have heard bandied about, King is starting to be well thought of in this area.
So many great authors. For the well-respected category, I’ll add Paul Russo, Jonathan Lethem, Paul Auster, James Ellroy, and at least some of Dennis Lehane’s work.
If he had stuck around another month or so, Elmore Leonard would have made a dent in poth the popularity and respect categories.
Yeah, that’s the thing in Stephen King’s favor: a lot of his books have been made into movies, many of them very successful movies; and in at least some cases, the fact that the movie was based on a book by Stephen King is part of the movie’s marketing. I can’t think of any other author you could say that about, to the same extent. So lots of people are going to be aware of King even if they’re not readers.
(Oh, and count me among those who are shocked at the idea of a whole nation of non-readers.)