POPULAR TASTE IN BOOKS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 January 1931, Page 10

POPULAR TASTE IN BOOKS

LITTLE CHANGE

DETECTIVE AND MYSTERY STORIES PREFERRED

What has Christchurch taken away for its holiday reading? And has its taste changed? (says the “Times”).. To the second question most city booksellers answered in the negative, the only noticeable change being the decline in the popularity of war books. “Last year,” said Mr E. J. Bell, the librarian at the Canterbury Public Library, “war books were at the zenith of their popularity, but our copies of “All Quiet on the Western Front” have remained on their shelf for a number of week’s. Sassoon’s ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’ is in good demand just now, however. IN ORDER OF POPULARITY “In popidarity, detective and mystery stories head the list,” said Mr Bell, ‘with Western and cowboy stories next. At some distance follow the better type of novel, with historical books and', romance fourth. Strangely enough, the humorous and light type of novel is not so popular as one would believe, being fifth in order of demand. The books turned out by women writers, such, as Berta Ruck and Ruby M. Ayres,; are sixth on the list.” “Women writers of the type mentioned above have suffered an almost complete, eclipse so far as the sales of their books .in our store are concerned,” ■said the manager of a city bookshop. “Women readers seem to be turning more towards historical romances —Jeffrey Farnol is enjoying an enormous sale just now, and Sabatini, too, has enjoyed’ a revival. There is little sale for war books. now, but aviation and travel stories are enjoying a tremendous vogue. “FASHIONABLE” BOOKS “J. B.' Priestley’s books, ‘The Good Companions’ and ‘Angel Pavements,’ are selling well, not perhaps because of their contents but because it is .considered ‘de rigeur’ to read Priestley at the moment. Once a book becomes ‘fashionable’ it will sell like hot cakes —it may not he particularly clever or well-written, hut one simply cannot confess to an ignorance of its contents. ‘lf Winter Comes’ and ‘The Green Hat’ were just two such books.” Another book-shop reported large sales of Mr Justice Alpers’s book, “Cheerful Yesterdays,” which has recently been published in a cheap edition. The. small pocket editions which the various publishers are putting out are .now growing very popular, but their sale is infinitesimal in New Zealand when compared with sales in Europe and America. “Aldous Huxley’s and the Sitwells’ hooks are not at all sought after in Christchurch,” said Mr Bell. “Their appeal is not to the ordinary reader, and many people regard their works as ‘high-brow.’ ”