Christina’s Reviews > So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance > Status Update

'It is worth asking, in the first place, whether all books need or deserve a mass readership. The immense majority of books are not written for large audiences, nor do they need them in order to make money. At the other extreme, some bad books reach huge audiences, comparable to or larger than those reached by the press, radio, or television, though this in no way makes them any less bad.'

To ignore the public is, ultimately, the actual negation of culture: a failure to communicate, but also salvation from the perdition of commerce and success, a guarantee of purity. Commercial success can be counterproductive, leading to a loss of credibility in the best circles. We want books to be democratic objects, to be read by everyone, to be everywhere accessible, but we also want them to continue to be sacred.

'Thanks to books, we know that Socrates distrusted books. He compared them to conversation and believed they fell short. ...People rely upon it [writing] and fail to develop their memory, knowledge, or imagination. Even worse, they begin to believe they know things because they own books.'

'"Every private library is a reading plan," Spanish philosopher José Gaos once wrote. ...a book not read is a project uncompleted. ...This explains the invention of books that aren't meant to be read. Books, in other words, that can be displayed without consequences or guilt: dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, art books, cookbooks, reference books, bibliographies, anthologies, complete works.'