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Behind The Bestsellers: The Stories Behind The World's Favourite Books (2007)

by Jenny Bond(Favorite Author)

3.32 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1741668409 (ISBN13: 9781741668407)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Random House

review 1: Thank heavens for rewriting. Yes, in Margaret Mitchell’s beloved Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara was originally named – ahem –Pansy! If you like learning odds and ends like this about well-known books and their authors, perhaps you’d enjoy WHO THE HELL IS PANSY O’HARA? by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy. The authors penned a few pages for each of fifty fiction and non-fiction books (with familiar titles). The books are presented in order of publication date in two sections: fiction and then non-fiction. As one might expect, the stories are not equally absorbing.This book was okay, but I would have enjoyed more headline-grabbing trivia questions for each entry rather than just one in the title, especially given the often ordinary, encyclopedia-like non-fic... moretion writing style. Here are the titles the authors included in their roughly 300 page book. (I don't think they had a compelling rationale for what they chose.) Maybe you can have a little fun and see how many authors you can name. (Sorry. Answers not given.)Fiction1813 Pride and Prejudice1818 Frankenstein1838 Oliver Twist1847 Jane Eyre1847 Vanity Fair1866 Crime and Punishment1869 War and Peace (1867-69)1885 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn1897 The War of the Worlds1902 Hound of the Baskervilles1904 Peter Pan1925 The Great Gatsby1926 Winnie-the-Pooh1929 All Quiet on the Western Front1936 Gone with the Wind1937 The Hobbit1939 The Grapes of Wrath1940 For Whom the Bell Tolls1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four1951 The Catcher in the Rye1951 From Here to Eternity1953 Casino Royale1954 Lord of the Flies1955 Lolita1957 The Cat in the Hat1957 Doctor Zhivago1960 To Kill a Mockingbird1963 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold1966 Valley of the Dolls1969 The Godfather1971 The Day of the Jackal1974 Carrie1974 Jaws1981 Midnight’s Children1982 The Color Purple1983 Hollywood Wives1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone2000 True History of the Kelly Gang2003 The Da Vinci CodeNon-fiction1755 The English Dictionary1768 The Encyclopaedia Britannica1859 The Origin of Species1908 Scouting for Boys1922 Etiquette in Business, in Society, in Politics, and at Home1955 Guinness World Records1966 In Cold Blood1974 All the President’s Men1976 Roots1988 A Brief History of Time
review 2: If you've ever wondered about how some of literature's best loved, most lauded, or, in some cases, most notorious books came to be, this is the book for you!The authors have researched, and provide the back stories of 50 of the titles most avid readers have read, or at least heard of. Who were the authors, and what made them write their book? What did the authors have to go through to get their book published? What was the reaction to the book before, and after it was published? Where is the author now? What kind of impact and/or longevity has the book had, and what has it meant to readers since it was published? These are just some of the questions the authors answer about a vast and diverse list of well-known titles such as:-Pride & Prejudice-Winnie the Pooh-Midnight's Children-Catcher in the Rye-1984- Casino Royale (the first James Bond book)-To Kill a Mockingbird-War and Peace-Harry Potter-Gone with the WindThe authors also give you fascinating little tidbits and details about how many of the books started out differently than we all came to know and love them (the title is one of those tidbits, referring to the original name Margaret Mitchell gave Scarlett O'Hara).Each chapter is short (most under 5 pages) but they are still chock-full of interesting "how the book happened" stories that I just loved!The book is a keeper, as I can see myself referring to it when somebody says: "I wonder how ..." about any of these books and having the answers. Also, it will help you out with any of the Jeopardy categories on "Literature" immensely.Definitely a great read! Highly recommend this if you like behind the scenes stuff. less

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