Conclusion of Book Business, post for the week of 01/25 - 02/01

The last 40 or 50 pages of Book Business felt very anticlimactic to me, going back now after finishing the book two weeks ago it is hard to even remember how Epstein wrapped it all up. I think that in theory it is interesting to hear from someone who had such an integral part in making the Library of America book series come to life, but Epstein somehow managed to make this story remarkably dull and flat. I think the most enjoyable part is when he relays the brainstorming Edmund Wilson did to come up with the concept. The story about the founding of the New York Review of Books also felt that way to me. I don't think that the topics he brings up are uninteresting, but for some reason for me the way that Epstein relays information is either irritating or flat out boring. His strength lies in the personal epithets he infuses throughout, but occasionally these are even tainted by a pretentiousness that he has about him. I think of the final three chapters I found the last one the most interesting, with the historical information about independent bookstores, and the transition from small shopping mall retailers to megastores like Barnes and Noble. A big part of the problem with this book I think is the fact that the information is taken from lectures that Epstein gave. It does occasionally have a story-like feel, but overall it reads like a lecture put on paper. The story is not a cohesive one, like I thought it would be. Coming into this book I envisioned a chronological history of Epstein's experience in the publishing industry, with some insight on future innovations. While you do get some of that from this book, I feel it could have been structured/written better. I don't know that I would have finished it if I didn't have to. As I've mentioned before, I don't think much of his book atm idea, and it was so annoying that he had to keep going on about it. The redundancy of this idea really got to me and made it difficult for me to stick it out through the afterword.

I guess I would say that I am sort of disappointed; I wanted to like this book, it sounded to me like something I would enjoy, but it didn't live up to my expectations. Epstein should be an interesting person, considering the life he led, and although I feel I would classify myself as a writer, I still am interested in the history of the publishing industry. I wanted this book to work, but I just found it lacking.