"Don't Go To Sleep", by Stephen King "The generation of so called baby boomers is going to sleep" - laments "the king of horror", whose mind probably never sleeps. In 1986 he sold a million copies of his novel "It", and after another 10 years, or so, sales remained at about the same height. But then they declined to the point that e.g. his book "Wolves of the Calla" sold only 600 000 copies, a 40% drop! Tom Clancy's and John Grisham's sales are also down. So, what's going on around here? King considers himself being typical of his generation, the baby boomers. He fell in love with the books as a kid, but his first hardcover he bought at the age of 20! His parents, survivors of the Great Depression, considered buying cheep books, music and movie tickets simply as a necessity. But when, after collage, he landed his first job, he, just like many other boomers, discovered that he no longer had to wait for the paperback. This surge in hardcover sales caused deep discounting what, in turn, made buying hardcovers even easier. However, it looks like in the 90's the whole generation became, in his words, "too pooped to party". Pretty much the same goes for music sales. The boomers still used to buy some records, but what would that be? The Beatles, Rod Stewart, and "those funksters", the Rolling Stones... Movies are still doing all right, but only because the studios aim at the Gen-X and Y. Pictures like "Mystic River", which 30 years ago would have done "Chinatown" box office numbers, do rather poorly in ticket sales.
Why? Because the boomers are too lazy even to go to the movies! They rather stay home and watch "Jeopardy"... And their idea of high tragedy is Jerry Garcia dying of a heart attack while in rehab. Stephen King tries to convince his "fellow boomers" to visit the nearest bookstore once in a while, but his advice as to the kind of music that's worth checking (Kid Rock, Drive-By Truckers or Marty Stuart) seems...Well, I never really liked Rolling Stones (except "Angie") and stopped listening to the Beatles around 1970. And I'm not sure that is because at 47 I might not really qualify as aboomer, I justhope thatthere are some of his friends who heard about... jazz. Maybe even remember progrock, spacerock? I think that King, as a typical "bookwarm", has simply very little idea about music and his advice in this matter... OK, as they say, Einstein was supposed to be a horrible writer! Anyway, "Please don't go to sleep!" - "the King of horror" beggs his peers in their 50s. Maybe a little bedtime reading of his "Insomnia" would do the trick?