Classics?

Apparently, BookMagazine published a 2002 chart of the "best selling classics". OK, I'll buy the best selling bit, but what's their definition of classic?

eliot - Classic Bestsellers

In this annotated list, we also see the date when the book will enter the public domain, which is very interesting and somewhat disturbing. I'm a writer, trained as a playwright, and am very interested in copyright issues. I'm in favor of authors retaining copyright for life and their estate for up to by not exceeding 50 years after their death. Rolling copyright extensions aren't good for anyone.

But back to the whole "classics" thing. A few years back, just when CD-ROMs were coming out, some friends and I talked about putting together a multimedia CD series called "Required Reading". The idea was to put together a genera specific reading list that would allow anyone that was interested in literature to take a guided tour of really terrific books, but often overlooked because they were shuffled off into a ghetto somewhere. We were all fans of science fiction, and all very well educated and widely read and could quickly come up with a list of books in just that genera that were terrific literature, that virtually anyone could enjoy and benefit from reading, but were largely unknown. The CDs would, when possible, contain the public domain works, but also provide "talking heads" to provide expert help and opinions on the works, influences, and what else to read.

Ah, so many good books, so little time.

But "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a classic? "The Clan of the Cave Bear"? "Watership Down"? "Interview with the Vampire"?

Somebody's definition of classic is way, way off.