Does anyone else feel like we are living in a retread of the ’70s? Lots and lots of teen pop, lotsa disco diva nonsense, and a lot of bloated, flacid rock. What makes me think of it even more than any of those three is how much Christian rock is around right now! It seemed that there was a lot of Christian type bands around in the ’70s, singing about how you got a friend in Jesus, and now we have bunch of bands like Creed, Days of the New, Jars of Clay, and P.O.D. I reserve all other comment right now, while i try to figure out how many other Christian bands are so close to the mainstream.
But i do NOT reserve comment on what one of the real bestsellers at Barnes and Noble is, even though it is not on our bestseller list. It’s the abominable series Left Behind. We might actually sell more of those day to day than Harry Potter. I still have not read it, and probably won’t, as I have too many books that interest me on my own terms than read a book that I hear enough about from our customers and fellow coworkers to get a clue. When i hear “thought-provoking” used time after time by people who don’t know each other, i get quite suspicious. It’s similiar to reading those music reviews that seem plagiarized from a press release by the band. WHY is Left Behind thought provoking? I’ll tell you what IS thought-provoking though, the reader reviews written on Amazon.com. Anything those people have to say, pro or con, says anything that needs to be said about the quality of these books… that “religious fiction” is one of the saddest examples of niche marketing.