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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > October > 10 > Entry
the KITE RUNNER-Illustrated
What do you do when you have a hot book and you want it to get even HOTTER? You put out a new version, an ILLUSTRATED version.
It happens a lot. Latest case in point; THE KITE RUNNER (Riverhead) by Khaled Hosseini. This book has sold over 5 million copies. It was his debut and when it came out in paperback it began to sell like wildfire.
That success made his second book, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, an instant best seller. His publisher did an initial shipment of almost 2 million copies. That’s big.
I loved THE KITE RUNNER. It was 75% of a great book. The other 25% was so-so. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS did not impress me. I thought it was depressing.
Sophomore efforts are hard.Does anybody remember the 2nd album by Christopher Cross? Double-YUCK!
“Sailing away to where I’m going”…. That was his first album. How quickly we forget. The human brain is a merciful thing!
In regard to the ILLUSTRATED KITE RUNNER: it’s no coincidence that the movie version is coming out soon. This illustrated version adds little to what was done before but it will sell because the film will drive even more sales (at least, they hope so).
Did you see that the kids who starred in the movie are getting a free pass out of Afghanistan? What a country! They are afraid for their lives because they acted out a scene from the novel that they expect to be offensive to some Afghanis. If you read it, you might know which scene I mean.
Have you read THE KITE RUNNER? It has been selected by several dozen communities for community-wide reading projects similar to our own local reading endeavor, THE BIG READ.
Do you plan to see the movie version of THE KITE RUNNER?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: booms and busts
Comments
By gina
October 16, 2007 3:04 PM | Link to this
the new book totally depressing.