Could it be that reading is suddenly fashionable?

By Hillel Italie
Associated Press

Stephen L. Carter's novel, "The Emperor of Ocean Park," is undergoing another printing of 250,000 copies of the book since fellow author John Grisham recommended it on the "Today" show book club. The novel, which has become a best seller, marks the fiction debut of Carter, who is better known for his nonfiction works. Associated Press

Are Americans reading more, or do they just want you to think they are?

"I'd be happy if it were either," says Richard Russo, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Empire Falls," a novel selected by USA Today's book club. "If people aspire to read and see something missing in their lives and conclude reading might be part of it, that would be good."

Sales have been flat in recent years, but praise of books both good and great is on the rise. Since TV host Oprah Winfrey announced she was cutting back on her picks, at least four new clubs have been formed, with literary novels such as "Empire Falls" among the beneficiaries.

The "Today" show opened its book club recently, asking a famous author to recommend the work of a first-time fiction writer. John Grisham, creator of such blockbusters as "The Firm" and "The Client," emerged from a door-sized book cover and selected Stephen Carter's best-selling legal thriller, "The Emperor of Ocean Park."

Carter's publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has printed an additional 250,000 copies, but even Grisham seemed to question how many could get through it. He warned that the book is long and "at times a bit complicated."

"I tell people all the time I'm a famous writer in a country where people don't read," Grisham told interviewer Katie Couric. "It's not a book culture. It's a movie culture. It's a TV culture. It's a sports culture."

Carter's novel is 657 pages, barely half the size of another best seller, Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science." Thanks to word of mouth and media attention, Wolfram's self-published book quickly sold out a first printing of 50,000 and has spent weeks in the top 10 of Amazon.com.

"Wolfram's gotten a lot of press and there are people who think, 'Wow, that's amazing! I'd like to learn more about it.' But confronted with a 1,200-page tome, they never get into it," says Sharon Dunwoody, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in public knowledge of science.

Reading occupies an uncertain place in American culture. The United States was conceived by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and other intellectuals, but the true folk heroes tend to be generals, cowboys and gangsters.

At the same time, millions have subscribed to the Book-of-the-Month Club and joined reading groups. The desire to at least appear well read has led CliffNotes and other publishers to expand summaries of great literature from the student market to adults.

(The Advertiser last month announced a new book club in which membership is simply a matter of reading the book, and the virtual meetings take place in the newspaper and online. Response has been good with bookstores selling out of the first selection, "American Fuji" by Sara Backer.)

"I get the feeling there are so many book clubs, and people have less and less time. They need a little help," says Justin Kestler, executive editor of SparkNotes, which has published guides to "The Kitchen God's Wife," "Beloved" and other novels.

The most surprising convert to the ranks of the highbrow is Bush, who has evolved from calling the Greeks "Grecians" to reading the Greeks himself. An official recently told reporters that Bush's influences included Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics," along with Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Cicero.

Voters don't care much for intellectuals: The erudite Adlai Stevenson was a two-time loser to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency. But a man's man with brains is something else.

John Kennedy's rise to the presidency was aided by two feats: one of physical heroism — surviving a Japanese torpedo attack during World War II; and one achievement in letters — his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Profiles in Courage."

"I'm not sure bookish people make good presidents, but they like to appear that way," says Richard Reeves, a syndicated columnist and presidential biographer.

"I once asked Gerald Ford what books he read and he told me he was too busy. He presented that as being a real man: Real men don't read books. But after I published that (in New York magazine) he was seen carrying books around, and they started putting out a list of books he was reading."