Had to check out (mostly as a diversionary tactic from writing) Amazon’s recently unveiled list of its most popular authors. It didn’t take me long to stop paying attention to names – especially once I realized I’d only read two of the Top 10 – and turn to the faces.
A bit of studying (remember, I’m supposed to be writing, so this allowed me a delicious postponement) shows that by and large, the men are serious unto scowly and the women are smiling. Not across the board, of course. Thank you, Laura Lippman, for looking every bit as determined as your accidental PI, Tess Monaghan. And Rick Riordan positively glows with goodwill, while even Bill O’Reilly sports a bit of a smirk.
A bunch of the guys also pose in leather jackets, that universal sign of bad-assedness. Amanda Katz takes note of same in her delightful NPR essay on the whole phenom:
Most Popular Authors? What is this, the high school yearbook? … It’s definitely slightly ridiculous, arraying photos of artfully blown-dry, leather-jacketed, middle-aged authors like so many pinups.
And speaking of pinups, two words:
That is all.
Have you seen Lee Childs?