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| Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Archer and Julian Barnes out on the town. |
Bless their hearts, the British really do make me smile. The link above is a power ranking of the top 100 "people exercising the greatest influence over the UK's reading habits - right now" as compiled by two non-tabloid papers, The Guardian and The Observer. Better still, a portion of the British public actually care. Certainly not all of them but it is heartening to see that this list even exists in a mainstream publication, let alone two. Then again, Britain is also a country whose bookmakers post odds on the shortlisted authors for the Man Booker Prize.
Here in the US, we'd be far more likely to compile the top 50 nip slips seen on network television or the biggest blunders on Dancing With Survivors at the Bachelor Pad while Hoarding and Hillbilly Handfishin' with an Ice Road Trucker.
Now I'm not idealizing the Britons, as they certainly have their ways and stays, but can you imagine The New York Times and US Today compiling such a list and the American public giving a shite?
Now THAT would make me smile.
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