Books by the Month

Those interested in how books are marketed and sold, might like to read, well, OK, try to wade through, a scholarly initial look at the early history of the Book-of-the-Month Club by Daniel M.G. Raff, presented to the Columbia Economic History Seminar last May.

I have fond memories of Book-of-the-Month Club selections that populated my family-of-origin's meager library. I think those included Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Dinner at Antoine's, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. The latter encouraged me to become a writer, although not the fictionalist I had dreamed about. Other books I suspect arrived via the BOTMC included Zotz! and Cheaper by the Dozen. I also still have my father's copy of Dale Caniege's How to Make Friends and Influence People and remember an inspirational one by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, as well as something like, How to Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate.

If nothing else, my parents were eclectic readers.

According to Wikipedia, the BOMC is now just one of many book clubs operated under the Bookspan logo, owned by the giant German publishing conglomerate, Bertelsmann AG.