A contemporary take on the real golden age of fiction: memoirs. (1) Memoirs by 29 year olds. Memoirs by celebrities. Historical fiction is the more marketable f

A contemporary take on the real golden age of fiction: memoirs. (1) Memoirs by 29 year olds. Memoirs by celebrities. Historical fiction is the more marketable form of historical fiction (fiction about oneself), at least for people who actually buy and read books. Reading of books has declined really crazily in the last 5 years. (2) (3) Can there be a golden age of fiction of any kind if people aren't reading? Would you have any idea what memoirs by 29 year olds I'm referring to if you don't read? No, of course not. How is anyone here supposed to have that conversation, if they don't read? One thing's for sure. Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to Handmaid's Tale because of the TV show. Seems like a pretty meaningful omission of fact. It's still fundamentally about marketability. Julie Orringer, Colson Whitehead, George Saunders, Anna Burns, Marlon James, Gina Apostol, Yaa Gyasi, Jonathan Franzen... Great authors, yes, but like many Academy winning filmmakers' movies, hardly anyone has read their books. That sucks, it's not a refutation of their work. (1) https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-books-Amazon/zgbs/books/ref=zg_bs_nav_0 https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-books-Amazon/zgbs/books/... (2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/leisure-reading-in-the-u-s-is-at-an-all-time-low/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/leisu... (3) https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/29/children-reading-less-says-new-research https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/29/children-r...