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I'm fine with Harry Potter making the cut. It is the most popular story ever written after all.

I have mixed feelings about highly influential anachronistic bullshit, like Keynes and Marx. I'd lean towards omitting them, since no one in the field they belong to recommends reading them anymore. There are much better uses of one's time. However, they did basically shape the political and intellectual landscape for an entire century (and counting).

Only someone who read Harry Potter would say this.

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Nope, like most of these books, I have not read it.

I say just pick the 500 top grossing books. Money is the moderator.

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I bet that would include a lot of romance novels.

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So what? That's what people who read books value.

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If, ten years from now, people have logged more hours watching short form tiktoks than traditional movies, I think I'll feel bummed.

But, I see your point.

Is there a difference between interesting art and popular art?

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Is there a difference between interesting art and popular art?

Yes, but everyone makes a different distinction and popular art is something like the intersection of lots of Venn Diagrams.

Plus, if a particular short-form TikTok grosses more than Star Wars it'll probably be pretty extraordinary. This is one reason why gross is a better metric than views.

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gangnam style

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Exactly! I knew you'd see my point eventually

Iiiiidiots, all of em

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Ergo, the best books are written for dummies

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Most copies sold is better than grossing.

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Nope again. prices matter

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$2 for a new hardcover book in 1920.
$17 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when it was first published.

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Just convert all the prices to gold then. That'll make it easier to go back to Bible times anyway.

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Eeeeeeeeh, imma object. Share of disposable income better

Oh heeeelll no. The plebs have no quality control

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