On Sept. 11, 2001, our nation was forever altered. The events that occurred that day touched the lives of every American. It is interesting to look at our country one year later and observe all the ways in which U.S. citizens are still reacting to the 9/11 attacks. Discussion of the attacks can still be found daily in the news, in magazines and in casual conversation.
Strangely enough, there seems to be one area in which evidence of 9/11 is not found -- the books that Americans are buying and reading.
When I was asked to research the ways in which 9/11 changed literature in the United States, the first source I went to was the New York Times Bestseller List. I was surprised to find that in the week of July 28 to Aug. 3, there were no books concerning the attacks or their aftermath on any of the various "top 10" lists.
A bit befuddled, I researched Barnes and Noble's sales records. On the top 100 list for online sales of the same week, only two books about 9/11 made the cut, and they were ranked as numbers 19 and 94 -- not exactly the top of the list. But finally, on Barnes and Noble's records combining sales data from stores and online, I found some evidence that Americans are choosing to read about the tragedy. Number seven on the non-fiction sales list is author Jere Longman's book "Among the Heroes: United Flight 93 and the Passengers and Crew Who Fought Back."
I was a bit thrown by the apparent fact that Americans are not purchasing books about 9/11. I personally have not bought or read any literature on the event, but I never assumed that I was the norm in that sense. So my next approach was to ask people if they had read any books on the subject. I interrogated family, friends and coworkers. I didn't find even one person who had read a book about Sept. 11. Furthermore, I couldn't find anyone who had any inkling of desire to purchase or read a book about the tragedy.
For quite some time now, I've been pondering the results of my research. Why is it that the same people who watch the news coverage of 9/11 and converse about it with friends don't want to read books about it? Sept. 11 has been the topic of conversation for almost a year now -- why shouldn't we read what we preach and discuss?
The only conclusion I can reach is that perhaps literature is our means of escape. Maybe when we pick up a book, we don't want to be reminded of the tragedy in our lives.
The fact cannot be ignored that Jere Longman's book -- the one 9/11 book that made the New York Times Bestseller List a year later -- is presented as an inspirational rather than a tragic novel. The book recounts the tale of the one plane that blessedly did not hit its target that day, due to the courage of American passengers. Thus, the main theme of the book is the way in which we as Americans overcame the terrorists -- an uplifting and patriotic idea.
And then it hit me: the other books on these bestseller lists are almost all either light-hearted novels or self-improvement books. Americans aren't looking to books for a factual history of the horrific day we all experienced. We look to books as a way to enrich and improve our lives. Whether that improvement comes through a romance novel or a 12-step program to better mental health is not important. Books are our way of entering an alternate universe, at least for a little while, thereby escaping the reality -- the nonfiction -- of the world around us.
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