The Librarian - The Book List James Patterson

The

James Patterson

Reading List

by

The Debonair Librarian

2016

J ames Patterson is probably the commercially the most successful author in history. His books have sold more than 300 million copies and in 2010, he became the first writer to sell a million ebooks. He rakes in, according to Forbes magazine, a cool $95 million a year. Yes, a year. Read it and weep. Why, the man is so successful hes even appeared as a character on The Simpsons .

Photograph by Blaues Sofa

M any of his works are co-authored, which doesnt always rest well with critics. Writers, after all, are meant to be solitary artists, beavering away by themselves. Patterson disagrees: "My short answer to the question as to why work with other people is Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Woodward and Bernstein, Lennon and McCartney and it goes on. Fair enough.

He holds the record for most number ones on the New York Times bestsellers list by a single author. But not everyone, however, is a fan. Stephen King described Patterson as "a terrible writer, but acknowledged he was very successful". Indeed, the sale figures speak for themselves, and as Patterson himself pointed out, thousands of people hate my stuff... millions of people like it.

Patterson was working as an advertising executive when he wrote his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number , a thriller about a political murder in the US Deep South. It was rejected by 31 publishers until it finally found a home with Boston publisher, Little, Brown, and published in 1976. He was 29 at the time. Kirkus Reviews described it as a neat first number by a promising new author.

The novel was moderately successful but not enough for Patterson to jack-in the career hence his output then was nowhere near as prolific as it is now. In the 16 years from 1976 to 1993, he wrote only six novels and one work of non-fiction, The Day America Told the Truth , published in 1991. But then, in 1993, Little, Brown published Along Came a Spider and everything changed. The book was the first to feature his most successful and enduring character, Alex Cross.

Patterson, with his advertising experience, suggested making a television ad to sell Along Came a Spider . The publishers said no way too expensive. So, not one to be discouraged so easily, Patterson paid for the ad himself. The investment paid-off big time. There are now 24 Alex Cross novels and counting. In 2001, Along Came a Spider was made into a movie, starring Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter. The film received mixed reviews.

Patterson and Mrs Patterson live in a modest beach house on Palm Beach, Florida, next door, apparently, to a house once owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. (Actually, it isnt that modest).

T he following reading list lists all books by James Patterson in chronological order, by character or by genre. You can also access the lists on a hidden webpage where youll find each book linked (where possible) to your preferred online store (Amazon, Kobo, Nook, Apple, etc). More details at the end of the book.