Behind The Bestsellers: The Stories Behind The World's Favourite Books (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a very strange book with short essays explaining how a particular author came to write a particular book. The strangest part to me is which 50 books are chosen as “50 of the World’s Best-Loved Books”. There are some that are obvious, the classics that everyone had to read at school but other titles confuse me. How Winnie the Pooh, Casino Royale, Frankenstein, The Valley of the Dolls and Pride and Prejudice ended up on the same list as The Cat in the Hat and Roots is very confusing. The background stories were interesting but what I really want to know is how they chose the books. Did they start with a list of books and do the research to find the backstories or did they have an idea as to which books had an interesting backstory and then work forward. Okay, so what I take away from this book is, if you want to make some quick money, write a novel. Almost every book featured contains a line somewhere about the poverty of the author at the time and how they decided to write a novel. And then, hey! presto, the money started rolling in and they became rich and famous.I'm an author, my husbands a multi-published novelist. I know that's not true.Okay, the stories behind the stories were quite interesting, but this is one book I'm glad I borrowed from the library, rather than buying it outright.
What do You think about Behind The Bestsellers: The Stories Behind The World's Favourite Books (2007)?
Informative. Interesting facts about the authors and the stories behind their works. =)
—ladybugmeow
A fun fast read telling the stories behind many famous books.
—Reaper
InterestingWould be better if there's more twist in it
—opeoluwaakintayo
