In a move to keep/attract readers, the New York Times is serializing The Great Gatsby and other works.
Toby Usnik, a spokesman for the Times, said the paper will also serialize three other novels this summer under the same sponsorship program: Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel; Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote and The Color of Water by James McBride.
This is a throwback to the old days of newspaper serialization and I am glad to see the move. There will be other events to tie in with the serializations...
In conjunction with the serializations, the Times is also sponsoring a series of public readings in New York of the novels by celebrities, including a reading of passages from Gatsby by the actor Sam Waterson and his daughter Elisabeth.
Maybe this will get more people back in the habit of reading. Still, I think that more mainstream modern works would be the way to attract readers (of course, they also have to be as inoffensive as possible to the majority of the readership). Perhaps they can create contest/rewards as incentives for the potential readers.
I would like to see some serialization of works by new talents that could use exposure more than large advances.
One last note. Does anyone, besides me, find humor in The Great Gatsby being sponsored by BMW?
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