Thursday, February 26, 2015

Adult Readers Advisory: Week Seven Prompt (In Defense of James Patterson)

For our prompt this week, I want you to think about fake memoirs, author mills, and celebrity inspired book clubs. Basically write a readers' response to one of the articles you are reading for this week - or talk about a time when a book or author that made headlines affected you personally or your work.

For this week's prompt, I want to talk about James Patterson.

Patterson is incredibly popular, but he's also controversial and often derided for his persona, writing style, commercialism, and use of co-authors. I've been known to make fun of him myself, mostly for his TV ads.

(Watch Patterson's commercial for "Private Vegas" here.)

He also doesn't really write the type of books I normally read, though I haven't read any of his books in particular. 

But I'm perfectly happy with Patterson writing his reportedly schlocky suspense books and doing his advertising juggernaut, complete with dorky commercials. If people are buying what he's selling, more power to him. 

While I can't vouch for the quality, or lack thereof, of Patterson's work, I have enjoyed a lot of books by people whose work has been derided for its inelegance and commercial nature. I devoured Dan Brown's books when "The DaVinci Code" got popular, for example. I just don't think it's particularly healthy or helpful to diss the books that people enjoy reading. It reeks of snobbery, and I've never understood why it particularly matters to anyone what another person chooses to read. There's value to "low culture" - entertaining culture - as well as the more artistic high culture, and there's room in the world for both.

It's especially a problem when librarians fall into this trap. The beginning of the ALA's Library Bill of Rights states, "Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves." That means that, if people want to devour every James Patterson book, we should help them achieve that. It doesn't even matter why they want to read the allegedly bad book - whether they find the books comforting, or silly, or distracting, or because they genuinely think they're good. These are all valid reasons for wanting to read a book, because every reason is valid.

One of the other big issues that people have is with Patterson's co-writing, but that just doesn't seem like a problem to me. He credits his co-authors pretty prominently on his books, if not always in his commercials and other advertising. But Patterson is a former advertising executive, and he understands the idea of "branding" and, for better or worse, his name is a potent brand. And other commercially popular writers also have co-authors - one of my favorites is Janet Evanovich, who has co-written several series with other writers. As long as the author is up-front about the co-writing and the co-author is being treated fairly according to the contract, I have no problem with it. Let the readers decide if they want to read it.

We can all probably thank Patterson for giving the publishing industry a boost, too. His books sell incredibly well and makes his publishers a ton of money, which allows them to continue to publish books, including the less popular "good" books. He is also a supporter of reading in general, and has tried to start a discussion about the future of books and how to help books and reading thrive. Yes, it's partially self-serving, since he's made his living from books, but to be a successful writer, I think you need to also be a reader, and I suspect that Patterson would be sad to see books go away in general.

10 comments:

  1. Well said! I agree with the defense you make here. I admit I am a recovering book snob. Fortunately, time, experience, and professional knowledge have enlightened me to the value of "popcorn books" like Patterson's. I haven't read any Patterson books in their entirety yet, but I started Along Came A Spider during our class's Suspense/Thriller week. I ultimately annotated a different title for the assignment, but the Patterson book entertained me enough I fully intend to go back and finish it when my schedule loosens up a bit.
    -Laura Janiga

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    1. "Popcorn books" are a perfect way to describe them! I like a mix of fluff and serious stuff in all of my entertainment - books, movies, and TV shows. They fill different needs. (Though, I will say that I've been gravitating toward fluff while I work on my master's degree, because I don't have brainpower to spare for "tough" stuff.)

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  2. Great defense, Jenny! James Patterson's books are amazingly popular at my library, usually having more than 50 holds. We buy multiple copies. One of the top reasons for purchasing items in our collection development policy is patron suggestion, and patrons want James Patterson. As far as the co-writers, I agree that as long as they're credited, there isn't a problem, Co-authoring with James Patterson would probably be a great way to launch a writing career! I also think, that having co-authors helps keep his writing from becoming formulaic or stale - at least somewhat. While I have only read a couple of James Patterson's books, I enjoyed them. The first of his books that I read was "When the Wind Blows," a 1986 Sci-fi on which he later based his YA Maximum Ride series. While I don't know much about James Patterson, I respect his willingness to make fun of himself.

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    1. No doubt! I want to coauthor a book with James Patterson! Maybe he'll let me be in one of his silly commercials, too! ;)

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  3. I agree with you on the topic of James Patterson's co-writers and I do not have a problem with it as long as he is acknowledging that he has co-writers and giving them credit for their contributions to his books. I also agree with you on the topic of those who diss others because of what someone else is reading is popular and commercial is unfair and just plain mean. I read popular books for the potential of having something in common to talk with someone about and keeping up with what is going on and what seems to be the books everyone currently reads.

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  4. Well said! For a long time I had an issue with James Patterson and then I realized that I don't want people to judge me for what I read so why would I judge them if they're huge fans of Patterson. To each their own!

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  5. Well said! For a long time I had an issue with James Patterson and then I realized that I don't want people to judge me for what I read so why would I judge them if they're huge fans of Patterson. To each their own!

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  6. Nicely put. I am also among the many librarians who regularly help people find James Patterson books but have never read one myself. I don't read the books because they don't appeal to me, but I certainly don't judge anyone else for reading them. I think it is great that people have found something they enjoy reading and I am more than willing to help them locate his next book or something that is similar. Libraries would not be very useful places if we only stocked our shelves with critically-acclaimed literature. We provide access to what people want and James Patterson is definitely in demand.

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  7. Great post. I like how you brought in the Library Bill of Rights. Regardless of one's opinion of his writing style or self promotion, he ought to be made available for reading in the library. Frankly, I am glad people are coming to the library to use his books.

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  8. I am a fan of James Patterson. I used to be an avid reader of the Alex Cross series, and I wish I had more time to continue reading them. It is a very good point that we should not judge our readers--we should help them find whey they want. I love the term "popcorn books"! I love anything that gets people reading: watching the TV show or movie version, celebrity book clubs, celebrity memoir, etc. Perhaps these choices will be a gateway to additional books or genres. Anything to spark interest!

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