Reading patterns …

…and more: Bryan Appleyard —  Bestsellers and Our Reading Lives. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… before the cultural pessimists rush to cry woe at our literary dependence on film and TV, it’s worth pointing out that this pattern has been unchanged since that very first list back in 1974, which contained Papillon (film), The Exorcist (film), Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File (film) and The World at War (television).