Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Biggest Bestsellers / James W. Hall 294 p.

Hall picks out 10 of the century's top novels (examples: Gone with the Wind, Valley of the Dolls, Jaws) and pulls out common threads that explain their enormous popularity.  No big surprises here, but it was fun reading.  Some of the characteristics include 'maverick' characters, tensions between sexual licentiousness and puritanism, country vs. city conflicts, and others that I am struggling to remember.  Hall uses catchy chapter titles for each theme, and I would share those here, if only I hadn't already returned the book.  Not a how-to for writers, exactly, but mildly thought-provoking.  I appreciated the attention to GWTW, which I think gets dismissed by serious readers because of its popularity.  Pick up any bodice ripper and look at the bare-chested guy on the cover doing the ripping.  I don't care what name the author's given his character; he's still Rhett Butler.  Now that's influence.